At last it’s time for the event we’ve all been waiting for. Bring it on…
The city’s biggest family friendly music event is upon us and we can’t wait to chill in the sun and enjoy an amazing array of live bands!
The Willow Festival satrts on Friday July 12 at 4pm and runs until 11pm. Over the weekend of Saturday July 13 and Sunday July 14 it runs from 11am-11pm so no matter what you’re doing you should be able to catch some cracking tunes at some point – and best of all it’s completely FREE!
You’ll find six stages and around 160 bands playing just about everything you can imagine really. There’ll be the extreme ride fairground, art and craft display, exotic market and of course the food village.
Organiser Mark Ringer and his team are gearing up for a cracking weekend – “We’ve had a bumper year when it comes to interest in The Willow Festival,” Mark told ESP. “Over 4000 bands applied to appear at the festival and public support for the event has never been so strong.
“In the past few weeks we’ve signed up sponsors New College Stamford, Rocket Park Studios and University Centre Peterborough. This has enabled the festival to showcase more acts than in previous years, the total now being 160, and with generous help from GL Events Snowdens, the infrastructure is more impressive than ever too. The Sun have sponsored an entire area of the festival as has GP Print and Peterborough City Council have been a pleasure to work with all year.
“All that remains is for the public to come enjoy the event!”
ESP’s Andy Slater recommends Empress of Fur fronted by the exquisite Venus Raygun (pictured below) on Friday playing mad, off the wall, surf swamp rock n roll, Lets Meet Jesus with powerhouse, dark riff-driven songs on Saturday’s bill and on Sunday track down Destroy DC featuring local heroes Spike T Smith and Gav King and Si ‘The Resonator’ Turner they bring you a unique fusion of ‘progressive punk’ and ‘roots & dub’ and are regarded as one of the most forward thinking and exciting bands on the current punk circuit.
Others he recommends you watch out for on the Saturday on a gentler note are Freds House – beautiful vocals and harmonies delivered with passion and skill, and Rattleshack – Hillbilly farmcore country based loosely around the work of Hank Williams 3.
With such a huge line-up over the three days there just has to be something to please everyone and we’re sure each of you will have your own faves!
Bands from the local scene are well represented but there are plenty of acts you won’t have heard of but who will be well worth a listen so you can hear some fresh tunes too.
For the full line-up at this year’s event visit www.thewillowfestival.org.uk and we’ll see you down there! The ESP team will be out an about all weekend at TWF reporting back and capturing the action.
Photos: Chris Brudenell and Mike Harris for ESP Magazine. Empress of Fur image courtesy Dan Donovan
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