Stainsby Festival goes ahead online
This weekend’s music fest will be switched from its traditional greenfield site and aired online.The lockdown edition is a first in 52 years of the festival which has been going longer than Glastonbury and survived the box office blows of foot and mouth disease and a mudbath. Chairman Tony Trafford said: “We’ve faced a few other challenges in the past so we like to rise to them.“Lots of our artists are recording contributions, some of them specially written for the occasion. It’s a real team effort. But then Stainsby always is, depending as it does on a huge set of committed volunteers.”The festival will start on Friday, July 17, at 6.30pm with a traditional ceremony. Links on the festival website and on its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds will signpost viewers to performances as they are put up to match the programme which is running through the weekend.Confirmed acts so far include Broomdasher, Gilmore & Roberts, Hattie Hatstar, Katie Spencer, Loscoe State Opera Revisited, Paul Dear’s Rhythmbridge, Pete Davies, Praying For The Rain, Rattlebox Theatre, The Watchsnatchers and kids activities from OTT.Virtual festival goers will be invited to make donations to cover those unavoidable costs incurred by the cancellation of the live event.The festival team is also bidding to raise enough money to buy the event's site, near Heath, and secure its future. Tony said: “We’re currently over forty percent of the way to our target figure. We probably need to raise another £35,000. Buying the field means that the festival is much more secure and we can plan to invest in the future of the event with confidence.”
For more details, go to www.stainsbyfestival.org.uk