Solfest - Press Information

Press Releases

10th March 2011

FIRST BANDS ANNOUNCED
--
TICKETS ON SALE

www.solfest.org.uk

“One day all festivals should be this way; one day, very long gone, they all were”
-eFestivals-

“This one is up there with the best of them”
-Virtual Festivals-

THE STRANGLERS
THE DAMNED / THE SAW DOCTORS / CAST
KATE RUSBY / WILKO JOHNSON / CAMILLE O' SULLIVAN
LAU / UK SUBS / BOMBSKARE / KANDA BONGO MAN / PO’ GIRL
THE TRAVELLING BAND / BAD SOCIETY / MOSTLY AUTUMN / 3 DAFT MONKEYS
WASHINGTON IRVING / THE RAY SUMMERS / BIKINI BEACH BAND / PIKEY BEATZ
ROOM FULL OF OWLS / FALLING RED / COLT 45 / WITH LIGHTS OUT
I AM SPARTACUS / MINUS 27 / RED PERSONA

+ MORE ACTS STILL TO ANNOUNCE, INCLUDING DANCE LINE-UP

The first acts have been announced for Solfest 2011. Punk icons The Stranglers will be joined by fellow genre legends The Damned, cult Irish band The Saw Doctors and classic 90’s Britpop outfit Cast.

The Damned have specially chosen Solfest to celebrate 35 years since the release of their debut single ‘New Rose’, which landed in 1976.

Folk songstress Kate Rusby, Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson, and a host of other folk, pop and rock bands will appear across the weekend, due to take place over August Bank Holiday Weekend in an idyllic setting near the Lake District.

Solfest is also very happy to welcome singer, actress, and all-round alternative entertainer Camille O’ Sullivan, who brings an element of burlesque to the festival for the first time.

Weekend Camping Tickets are now on sale for £89 via www.solfest.org.uk, following all 1,000 Early Bird tickets for this year’s festival selling out in record time.

Solfest is the definitive festival for music hungry families. Welcoming, inclusive, inventive and jam-packed with carefully selected chart-topping acts from across the decades; it’s one of North England’s best kept and beautiful festival secrets with a stunning family area, workshops and five stages packed with music.

Its unique setting allows you to park right next to your tent for the most effortless camping experience, while wood for campfires is provided free of charge for those wanting a classic outdoors adventure. Solfest also invites traders from around the world to sell goods, food and drinks around the site, so you’ll never be wanting for anything while on site.

The particularly family-friendly event, held between 26th – 29th August and located on the edge of the Lake District, is one of the more wonderful British music festivals, tucked between the Solway coast and the Cumbrian fells. It offers a very open-minded and all-welcoming atmosphere for fans of music and the great outdoors, with a quality music programme incorporating classic guitar noise, pleasing new beats and eclectically satisfying melodies that Solfest hope will be accessible to their entire audience.

This beautiful setting has been the host for the last seven years to a mix of both well-established and emerging artists from all over the world, as well as an interesting array of walkabout acts and local talent.

Previous acts to play the festival include punk, Britpop, dance and indie legends The Charlatans, James, The Wonderstuff, Supergrass, The Proclaimers, The Orb, Sham 69, The Bees, Buzzcocks, The Levellers, Utah Saints and The Magic Numbers. With more acts still to announce, 2011 looks to have the most diverse and exciting bill yet for Solfest.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Line-Up

THE STRANGLERS / THE DAMNED / THE SAW DOCTORS / CAST / UK SUBS / KATE RUSBY / WILKO JOHNSON / CAMILLE O' SULLIVAN / LAU / KANDA BONGO MAN / MOSTLY AUTUMN / PO GIRL / THE TRAVELLING BAND / BIKINI BEACH BAND / PIKEY BEATZ / ROOM FULL OF OWLS

Tickets:

Tickets are priced at £89

A young persons ticket (12-16) is £62

A Childs ticket (6-11) is £25

5 and under tickets are priced at £1 (admin fee)

No booking fee, P+P for internet sales apply

All tickets are subject to availability

Campsite opens Thursday 25th August

Thursday Camping £10

Location:

Tarnside Farm, Tarns, Silloth, West Cumbria CA74NQ

Dates:

26th to 29th August 2011

Further Information:

www.solfest.org.uk

1st February 2011

Solfest 2011 will take place from the 26th to 29th August 2011

EARLY BIRD TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE from our new website: www.solfest.org.uk

“One day all festivals should be this way; one day, very long gone, they all were” – eFestivals

“This one is up there with the best of them” – Virtual Festivals

Solfest are pleased to announce that Early Bird tickets for this year’s festival are now on sale for a limited time only via www.solfest.org.uk Tickets will be on sale for £80 for a full weekend adult camping ticket. Other ticket options are available as below.

This particularly family-friendly event, held over the August Bank Holiday Weekend and located on the edge of the Lake District, is one of the more wonderful music and arts festivals nestled in the north of the country, tucked between the Solway coast and the Cumbrian fells. It offers a very open-minded and all-welcoming atmosphere for fans of music and the great outdoors, with a quality music programme incorporating classic guitar noise, pleasing new beats and eclectically flailing melodies that Solfest hope will be accessible for their entire audience.

This beautiful setting has been the host for the last seven years to an eclectic mix of both well-established and emerging artists from all over the world, as well as an interesting array of walkabout acts and local talent.

This year’s line-up will be announced in the spring, though previous acts to appear include punk, Britpop, dance and indie legends The Charlatans, James, The Wonderstuff, Supergrass, The Proclaimers, The Orb, Sham 69, The Bees, Buzzcocks, The Levellers, Utah Saints, The Magic Numbers and The Damned.

Solfest is ran almost entirely by a group of volunteers whose aim has always been to create a festival where all generations of family can relax together, where young and old can find entertainment around every corner. “We love it when grandparents bring their grandchildren along to the festival, there is always plenty of excitement for everyone” say the event’s organisers, “we devote a third of the festival site to the children’s area where workshops and entertainment are aimed at entertaining and occupying our young festival goers”. It’s a festival that a family can uncover together, or split off and have individual journeys in dance, discovery and playful drama.

This year, there will be a whole program of activities away from the music to keep people’s minds a million miles away from the normality of their day to days, and whether that be dropping into one of the many session tents around the site or visiting one of Solfest’s healers for a massage – there really is a way for everyone to escape.

“The relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere at Solfest is what the festival goers bring to the event”, say organisers. This summer Solfest would like to repay its audience by introducing some new elements to the four day gathering. “You’ll find an interesting and exciting mix of music and acts as well as some changes to the arena field, aiming to make your journey through the site like never before”.

General tickets for the festival will be on sale in the spring. Solfest have managed to keep ticket prices fixed at 2010 prices. At a time when everything seems to be increasing in price it was important to Solfest to keep their tickets at an affordable level, and now with the added incentive of the Early Bird tickets going on sale on the 1st of February, it really is affordable for all.

There is a variety of ways you can purchase tickets. Walk up ticket sales are available from all branches of the Cumberland Building Society and The Carnegie Theatre in Workington where tickets can be bought over the phone via 01900 602122. Tickets are also available via the all new website at www.solfest.org.uk

Further information will be released in the coming weeks regarding line-up and acts appearing at this year’s festival.

Tickets:
Early Bird tickets are priced at £80
A young persons Early Bird ticket (12-16) is £55
A Childs ticket (6-11) is £25
5 and under tickets are free (£1 online)
No booking fee, P+P for internet sales apply
All tickets are subject to availability
Campsite opens Thursday 25th August
Thursday Camping £10

Location:
Tarnside Farm, Tarns, Silloth, West Cumbria CA7 4NQ

Dates:
26th to 29th August 2011

Further Information:
www.solfest.org.uk

Solfest Ltd, PO Box 87, Maryport, CA15 8NF

Reviews

Solfest has received many great reviews; here are just a couple of them:

Once upon a time, all festivals were like this....

One of the beauties of Solfest, being able to camp right next to your car – no carrying heavy tents and more across vast distances here, meaning that you can arrive with everything you need in comfort. Once, all festivals worked this way, but there's now only a handful left. This aspect of the festival took me right back, to the days when festivals were less formal, less regulated, and more free.

The main stage was very well sited, allowing anyone a perfect view of the stage via the slope leading up to the bar stage, where bands alternated with those on the main stage. Over the ridge was the second and smaller outdoor Drystone stage and a poetry tent, and back nearer the entrance were the dance tent, along with the Dogs In Space chillout tent, and the popular cheesy disco. There was also a large and popular kids area here too.

Around the site were the normal collection of festival stalls, cafés, and food stalls. These perhaps caused me the biggest shock of the weekend, because where can you now get chips for just a quid?? I haven't seen that price in a chippie for years, and at most festivals you can expect to pay £3-£4!

The great prices continued with the Solfest beer @ £2.50 (and I believe the 6% cider was the same price). With the realistic opportunity of being able to cook all your own food and have all of your own beer (which you can take into the arena), if you want a festival that you can REALLY do on the cheap then you very possibly can't beat Solfest!

Music-wise, many of the acts were local or lesser-known bands, with some well-known names at the top end of the bill. On Friday night Alabama 3 put in a very well-received set, perhaps in part because they happened to play at a time to match everyone's maximum party mood.

Saturday was fancy dress day, with a big proportion of people having made the effort to dress up. Top marks have to go to the guys wandering around who dressed as Supergrass .... or was that Supergrass? They put in a solid show, though are perhaps now sounding a little dated.

Solfest is a great festival – cheap, easy, and with great entertainment. One day all festivals should be this way; one day very long gone they all were.

Excerpts from a review by Neil Greenway originally published on efestivals

Solfest is set on a farm on the northwest coast of Cumbria , the lakes are to one side, Scotland on another and the sea on another. The main stage is at the bottom of a small hill, with a bar selling the very delicious specially brewed Solfest Ale at the top. It’s a natural stage with a choice of jumping around with the exuberant crowds or watching from the top with an excellent viewpoint and a beer in hand, tapping your foot to the beat. This layout means that the sound doesn’t even carry across the relative short distance beyond the hill and behind the bar to the acoustic stage, a generally more chilled out area. Here you can enjoy beautiful vocal accompaniment to capoiera dance shows in the afternoon, laid back heartfelt singers such as Jefferson Moore in the evenings, or be warmed by the tales of a storyteller by night.

For our first evening though we chose to sit in the very chilled and cosy music tent where one half of the tent is for lounging Moroccan style on cushions, sipping chai and eating what was described by several people as the best cake in the world. The other side is for bringing an instrument, your voice, and a song or poem, and finding an appropriate moment to start to play. Plenty of people will join in with their banjos, guitars, trumpets, keyboards and flutes to create a spontaneous, sometimes lively, sometimes relaxing musical experience which continues throughout the whole weekend, a treat to listen to and a lovely place to be.

If you are still looking for somewhere to dance around after the main stage band has finished for the night, you will be far from disappointed. Not far from the chai/music tent is the Disco Du Fromage playing the type of music that you cant help jumping around to. Time after time it throws up memory filled tracks from your past. You can buy vintage unique clothing from their stall by day, second hand pieces made wearable once again by hard working ladies in the woods who attach lace and trinkets to skirts, dresses and suits. You can kit yourself out with a pink wig, a fake moustache and a piece of cake as you dance with a drunken smile on your face by night.

Alternatively there is the dance tent, situated on the other side of the field. This carries on until the early hours of the morning, pumping out sounds from the likes of Banco de Gaia , Michael Dog (Megadog) and Fusetrax . This year they lead a DJ workshop on the Saturday afternoon, clearly demonstrating what makes a good DJ tick. They invite people up with them to play on their decks and create satisfied smiles as people master some of the techniques. It is easy to see why they play on Saturday night, they are superb. The only reason I leave the dance tent on Saturday is to find the loo, but I would really rather stay. I just cant stop myself from dancing, and I am clearly not alone judging by the huge crowd.

But if none of this is your thing how about karaoke cinema? There is a wind and solar powered cinema set up entirely inside an enormous geo-dome. Throughout the weekend they show films such as The Jungle book, or show psychedelic images to relax to in the evenings. It is almost always full with children waiting for a show to begin or adults waiting for karaoke to start. Who would have thought that a bunch of 50 or so adults would enjoy so much singing along and swaying in unison to 80s classics shown on the big screen. Perhaps it is the potion bar that entices people into the dome, or the tiny caravan outside which sells homemade pie and hot chocolate, but what is clear is that everyone has a great deal of fun.

Other than the cinema there is a huge amount to entertain any children you want to bring. There is a whole dedicated area for kids including a baby bus, where babies can have a sleep, a feed or a rest away from everything. There is also a solid climbing frame, stilts and other juggling paraphernalia, woodcraft workshops and tents to make wind powered creatures out of plastic bottles, or to create big puppets for the Sunday afternoon parade.
Children are heartily encouraged and well catered for, which seems appropriate as four of the committee of 12 co-organisers gave birth in the week prior to the festival, leaving the rest of them working even harder and pulling in some fantastic support from their friends and relatives.

This is only the second year that Solfest has run and as Sunday's rock band of the day Skunk announce to the crowd, ‘It’s going to get massive and you’re helping it get there’ . The band plays to an ever increasing crowd in the afternoon as though they are playing in a stadium. They even attract a happy nutcase who wins a Skunk t-shirt for dancing so enigmatically throughout their whole set, and hand out a few CD prizes to more people as they join in the dancing. Apparently they were nervous at the start of this gig, but you wouldn’t guess it by how well they perform and how tight their music is.

All the initial tickets sold out before the festival began, which left the organisers able to book more headline bands. ‘We’re not interested in making any money, nobody makes money out of this. If we have money to spare we see what else we can buy for that to make the festival better’. That extra money bought The Undertones for Saturday night which complemented the rest of the festival’s music brilliantly, Baka Beyond , Glen Tilbrook (Squeeze), Oojami , Astrid Williamson , The Sawdoctors and Tragic Roundabout are some of the others who keep the main stage rocking all weekend.

For those able to get tickets, the vibe is good, the music is superb and around the fields there are numerous art installations created and commissioned by one of the co organisers Mary the Fairy. There is a giant inflatable octopus which appears to be alive when the wind blows its tentacles and it sways in the breeze. There is a labyrinth of wooden poles and florescent ribbons which leads to a yurt, there are small fire pits which warm people at night, a stone circle and huge flags watching over the stages. There is even a healing field with a gong bath, crystal healing and other peace inducing treatments, and there are also plenty of places to shop.

So my advice to you is to get your ticket early, I have no doubt that they will sell out again and next time it will be even quicker than this as you’ll be battling with all the people who narrowly missed out, as well as those lucky ones who enjoyed it so much this year. I have been to quite a few festivals this year, big and small, but this one is up there with the best of them.

Originally published by Virtual Festivals

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Solfest Ltd.
PO Box 87
Maryport
Cumbria
CA15 8NF