Festivals For All were lucky enough to grab an exclusive interview with Lee Martin, one of the key players behind this year’s inaugural Lakefest Festival.

Lakefest is a new two day festival held in sunny Gloucestershire on Friday-Saturday 18-19 May 2012 and promises to be something very special indeed. You can expect international artists of the calibre of the Levellers, EMF, and Reef, alongside some first class facilities and entertainment. Centred around a waterpark site with permanent facilities, not too many festivals can offer you canoeing as an optional extra!

FFA asked Lee a little about his background and how this eventually led to Lakefest; Since leaving school, Lee had a number of jobs in insurance and sales; “It was absolutely woeful - I hated it” he laughed, and so left the bright lights of London for his beloved Gloucestershire and moved into catering via a number of food store franchise’s. “It was all very corporate and not for me, so I started my own outside catering company (Pig On The Hill) …. and eventually jumped at the opportunity to run the café and bar at Croft Farm.  I wanted to advertise it to the outside world and that’s how 2011’s one day cider festival at Croft Farm with The Wursels all happened. The Wursels are a big West Country thing and I wanted to stage something without all the corporate and mass produced crap that I’d experienced in my earlier career! …So we had great local music and all the traditional locally produced ciders – thirteen thousand pints! We pretty much sold out of cider and the event did really well… the whole day just went amazingly.” Lee said with justifiable pride.

“So, we’ve decided to grow the event but still keep it really nice if you know what I mean…. We’re working with the same people as last year and they’ll be providing solar powered marquee’s and the like, and we’ll have loads of street entertainers, and of course the same huge choice of real ales and ciders.”

“We are going to have two area’s to the festival; an area with everything the big artists and audiences expect, but we’ll also have an area for a lot of local artists and events which we are calling ‘The Root’s’ because that’s the roots of the festival, and as long as I’m involved with the festival we’ll never get away from that.” There’s that local, non-corporate, fire in the belly again!

“We are planning some really cool stuff that’s different and engages people. We aim to give people options and to try different stuff…. For instance we have a European Beer Tour where visitors can sample the delights of 15 different European countries through their beers.” We’ll certainly give it go, FFA added with a smile of anticipation.  

What about Croft Farm and its facilities, FFA enquired: “Remember this is a superb location; we already have an established camp site with a beautiful lake and some great sunsets across The Malvern Hills. Its tailor made for events like this. We have Tipi’s up all year round. There are Pods there as well. It’s all permanent. You can even hire a canoe to sail down the river to the pub! It’s a really cool place! We just hope the weather is great so people can really enjoy it all to the full.”

What of the artists, FFA asked. “We’ve really invested heavily in the bands and we’ve hopefully picked bands that defined an era and generation…. And also attract a certain audience. Just for example – take the Levellers, we know they attract the hippier, really nice people, who, you know, appreciate the littler things in life. He said. And quite rightly too. “The 3 Daft Monkeys are another, they will attract a certain crowd to the festival and we know they will really engage the audience and get them up dancing.”

EMF are a bit special aren’t they, plus they are back together to perform Schubert Dip in its entirety to celebrate its 21st Anniversary, FFA added:  “There is obviously huge local significance with EMF…. They are one of THE Gloucestershire bands and they have legendary status were we live. It was a real coup for us getting those guys and they have generated massive interest locally.”

Any favourites or tips for the top, FFA asked: “There is a musician that is probably one of the least known out of all of them….Avert Francis. He is actually fantastic. I really think he will do great things.” At this juncture Lee had his campaigning head on! (Find out more about Avert HERE.) “There is also the Smoke Feathers – really up and coming and a great band. The Roving Crows are a great band too and really know how to get an audience on their feet” He added. With other top festival bands like Toploader and Dodgy on the bill, plus the army of local artists which Lee is confident will blow our minds, this really does look a quality line up from top to bottom.

There is real passion behind this festival, and a determined attempt to maintain a local, non-corporate / non-commercial vibe. The Lakefest team and their chums have years of experience in providing outdoor events, the location is superb, the bands and beers look fantastic…. And this is a festival determined to ‘keep it really nice’. Gloucestershire will be buzzing in May and Festivals For All will be there to capture it all for you. Come and join us!.... only nice people required, obviously!

Full details of Lakefest HERE

Win a pair of Lakefest weekend tickets with camping HERE

Article by Barrie Dimond