Line Up |
Levellers, Reef, EMF, Toploader, Dodgy, Chesney Hawkes, 3 Daft Monkeys, Miles & Erica of The Wonderstuff, The Roving Crows |
Details |
Lakesfest was born unofficially on April 9th 2011 when Croft Farm Waterpark hosted its inaugural music and cider festival.
Three guys; Martin Newell, Steve Daff and Lee Martin decided in late September 2010 that the Lakeside Café and Bar needed to be put on the map locally. Over a full breakfast and three cups of tea it was joked that the legendary Wurzel’s would bring the crowds down to Croft Farm. “That’ll put us on the map, the biggest thing to happen in Bredon since Swindon Town visited in 1987!” was the cry. Within 15 minutes, the Wurzel’s were booked…
As interest grew amongst local cider drinkers and music fans more and more local bands were added to the line-up. These included The Stages of Dan and the awesome Roving Crows. The soon to be massive Crows have become a pivotal part of Lakefest with their cool attitude, ability to make people dance and unrivalled music knowledge.
There were serious moments of worry with the original effort costing nearly £20,000 with no experience in delivering a “festival experience”. But everyone, including friends and family and the local farming community pulled together and the gig was on.
On April 9th 2011 the sun shone, the revellers came and 8500 pints of traditional cider were shared by just over 1500 people. There were over 32 ciders available on the day from Bredon, Cropthorne, Ledbury and further afield.
Classic West Country games like Welly Wanging and skittles were available to play with a years gym membership up for grabs!
To further enhance the West Country theme we had a combine harvester on display, a gypsy dray and all the bar staff were kitted out with flat caps, neckerchiefs and white t-shirts.
The weather was so good, groups of people without tickets congregated on the grass outside the marquee to share in the absolutely mindblowing day. The Roving Crows got the crowd bouncing and at 11.30pm The Wurzels started “I got a brand new combine Harvester” and the whole marquee was jumping. This continued into the early hours….
The feedback was so positive and so much fun was had by so many that planning went immediately into “Lakefest”. The three founders agreed that the cider and West Country theme was such a huge success that it could never be replicated but we enjoyed the organising and event and wanted to do it again. The legacy had been set, hence, Lakefest.
We have vowed to stick to the friendly, slightly hippie West Country roots with a mix of beers, ciders and lagers from around the county.
It’s been decided that we should make it a two day event and have some world class bands to accompany the world class scenery and beers…..
The plan is never to be a Reading or Glastonbury but be something special for special people that want to come, drink, laugh, dance and party.
Sometimes less is more… |
