22 Indoor Venues – 60+ Great Gigs – 100+ performers – all free to customers

ACCOMMODATION VACANCIES

Major festival sponsor the Grand Hotel has a few vacancies for the festival – only £65 per person per night for Bed, Breakfast and Evening Meal. Stay for both Friday and Saturday nights, and you can stay Sunday night on the same deal for only £50. That’s only £180 for Bed, Breakfast and Evening Meal for three nights – Bargain!

Beachway Hotel has a few vacancies and is willing to take ‘one nighters’.

Accommodation contact details and other accommodation providers

RESTAURANT RESERVATIONS

To avoid disappointment, please reserve a table in advance.

ARTISTS NEWS

Festival organiser and pianist Steve Darrington is phasing out live performances with bands and concentrating on solo and duo work. There will be no 'Final Tour', he'll just stop doing it. So don't miss Steve with Pete Harris Blues Band on all three days of the Swanage Blues & Roots Festival on 7, 8, 9 October 2011.

“People who couldn’t stick around for the Festival Finale on the Sunday night asked if we could do something during the rest of the festival,” said Steve. So on Friday night at 8pm there is a special performance at Swanage Bay View Holiday Park. There is a dining area with stage view of course, and reservations are recommended (01929 422130). There is also concert seating, cabaret seating and a dance floor off to the side for dancers, and REAL ALE. 

SCHEDULE OF ACTS

A full Schedule of Who’s on Where can be seen here.

RADIO INTERVIEW

Stan from Riverside Blues Band recently interviewed festival organiser Steve Darrington for his radio show. Listen in by following this link http://www.thepark.fm/ on Tuesday 4th October from 8pm to 10pm, or if you are in the New Forest area, tune in to The Park on 96.9 FM. The programme contains a wide selection of blues tracks as well as local blues news and gig information.

TEE SHIRTS

Stan & Helen are organising special tee-shirts and will be selling them wherever you see them (open mics and jams etc) as well as their festival gigs as Riverside Blues Band and Steamer. 

PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

Swanage Blues is pleased to announce a Photography Competition in conjunction with the Photographers Lounge www.photographerslounge.co.uk and the glossy colour magazine Purbeck! – which will be featuring the winners in a multi-page spread. Details will be available on the website soon.

DISCOUNT WRISTBANDS

There will be Discount Wrist Bands for sale at only £3 each – these will enable you to get discounts off various goods, drinks and food etc over the festival weekend, and hopefully raise a little money towards our expenses. The Discount Wrist Band Scheme is not a replacement for the bucket collections. These will continue to raise money to pay towards the festival costs. Admission is free to customers at all venues, so please continue to be generous with your donations. 

BRITISH BLUES AWARDS

Thanks to everybody who voted for Swanage Blues Festival in the British Blues Awards. It was indeed an honour to be one of the six nominees for Best British Blues Festival, which was won by the Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival held in Colne, Lancashire - a massive event put on by Pendle Borough Council and costing £125 per weekend ticket for access to the International Stage, the British Stage, the Acoustic Stage and five roadhouses. Now remind me again, how much is admission for Swanage Blues Festivals?