Safe to say we rocked the city!

Now, that was some music festival! Packed to the rafters venues (some to absolute capacity), writhing, screaming, mesmerised music fans everywhere, from the crowds outside The Guildhall to the throngs in the Marr’s Bar to the swathe of smiling faces in the beer garden at The Chestnut (thank you for putting on all that free curry in aid of our charity, by the way). Everywhere we went, people stopped us to say what an amazing event it was, many first-timers who were stunned by the sheer quality of what they saw.

From our Middle Aged Shout-Out from Shaun Keaveny on BBC Radio 6 Music on the morning of the first day of the fest to the last, sweaty gig of the epic music marathon, Fury at the Pig & Drum late on Sunday night, we couldn’t have asked for a better festival and slowly, but surely, we believe we are making a real mark on the UK festival map, an event where people can go and listen to an astounding amount of new and emerging talent for absolutely nothing, quite a rarity in an age where everything seems to cost something.

What really shocked many people was the fact that the festival is completely run by volunteers, with every single person involved, from the promoters, sound engineers, charity team and stewards to the bands and artists themselves, giving up their time for free, every penny in donations collected going to our charity of the year, this year Worcestershire Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre. And, what an outpouring of generosity we saw.

If you have any highlights or memories you’d like to share, pop on over to our Facebook page – reviews would also be hugely appreciated and will help us spread the word next year! Thank you for all your support.

Hope we did you proud, JT

If you didn’t know, this year’s festival was dedicated to our beloved committee member John Taylor (or JT as he was more commonly known), who sadly passed away just days before the festival. John not only played a pivotal role in organising the festival since its formation in 2008, in particular, his cherished folk events, but he was a good friend and we missed him enormously over the weekend. It was wonderful, however, to see so many people raising a toast to him and paying tribute through our remembrance book, demonstrating how much he was loved and admired by people right across the music scene. We hope we did you proud, JT!

Vote for us

We’re in the running for Best Metropolitan Festival in the UK Festival Awards!!! To make the shortlist, however, we REALLY need your support, if you could please spare a few seconds to vote for us!

Your help to put our wonderful festival on the map would be hugely appreciated, and if we win, we are in a better position to make the free celebration of live, original music even better next year! Voting closes on Sunday 25th October.

Thank you!

Last but not least, a BIG thank you to all the bands, artists, venues, workshop leaders, promoters, festival weekend volunteers and charity team for giving up their time for free.