Bearded Theory

Last updated

Bearded Theory
Bearded Theory's Spring Gathering logo.svg
Bearded Theory's Spring Gathering logo
Genre Independent music
Dateslate May
Location(s) Catton Hall, Walton-on-Trent, Derbyshire, England, UK
Years active2008–present
Website www.beardedtheory.co.uk

Bearded Theory's Spring Gathering, also known as Bearded Theory, is an independent music festival which has no sponsorship or branding that takes place every May on the South Derbyshire, West Midland and Staffordshire border in the National Forest in Britain. The festival is organised by Bearded Theory and was first held in 2008. The festival has nine stages which are the large supernova type Main Stage (similar to the Park or Other Stage at Glastonbury), The Pallet, [1] The Woodland, Magical Sounds, Showcase Stage (introducing stage) The Maui Waui Stage, The Ship, Convoy Cabaret, Something Else Stage, Rogues Hideout and the festival also hosts a Cinema, Craft Village, Healing Area, smaller DJ venues, several public real ale bars, several cocktail or gin bars, Festival School, [2] Children's Village and a Victorian Funfair. The festival has several campsites and campervan fields, multiple arena areas and are all spread over 250 acres at Catton Park.

Contents

On 20 March 2020, it was announced that due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the 2020 Spring Festival would be postponed to 10–13 September. [3]

History

Bearded Theory began life at the Knockerdown Public House, near Carsington Water in 2008. Held over two nights and it overloaded the capacity of the venue. Opening with two acoustic acts (one of whom was also the festival compere known as 'Freedom') the first full band to play the festival were Nottingham rock band Felicity Kicks. Other bands to play included 3 Daft Monkeys, Dreadzone, Tarantism & Hobo Jones & the Junkyard Dogs.

In 2009, the festival was held at 30-acre Bradley Nook Farm in Hulland Ward. The new look festival hosted 4 stages; the Main Stage, Campfire Stage (the stage structure was used in 2015 as the Woodland Stage), the introduction of the Magical Sounds, a large dance big top and remains a key part of the festival and a reggae sound system. During the festival a tornado tore through the festival site, uprooting stalls, tents, and the Main stage and also did damage to the second stage. The situation put the festival in the news headlines.[ citation needed ] The organisers continued the festival and an alternative stage was erected in the bar and the festival continued, with music from Goldblade, The Saw Doctors and Hawkwind, and others.

The 2010 festival was substantially larger, selling out and filling the 30 acres available, and by 2011, a new site had to be found. The organisers arranged with the National Trust for the festival to be held at Kedleston Park within Kedleston Hall in Derby, an 80-acre parkland. In 2011 Bearded Theory won UK's Best Independent Festival at the AIM Music Awards. [4]

By 2012 the crowd of festival goers had grown, by now over 600 acts had played at the festival, including King Blues, The Wonder Stuff, New Model Army, The Waterboys, Athlete, The Orb, Wheatus, Adam Ant and the Damned. [5] [6] During 2012 the organizers spent time delivering stage safety seminars to European events industry at Primavera Sound in Barcelona and various industry conferences in London following the successful implementation of a comprehensive stage safety policy at the festival.

The 2013 line-up included, with The Levellers, Reverend & Makers, Asian Dub Foundation, [7] New Model Army, A Guy Called Gerald, The Farm, Maroon Town, The Destroyers, The Jive Aces [8] and Gallon Drunk [9] across six stages. [10] [11] There was also an "Unsigned Bands Contest". [12] Bearded Theory won Best Small Festival at the UK Festival Awards.[ citation needed ]

In 2014, the festival had to move once again after citing issues with landowner the National Trust following draconian measures[ editorialising ] being implemented and lack of contractual security. The festival decided to locate to the independently owned 250-acre estate Catton Park in South Derbyshire, a venue the organizers had looked at before deciding to locate to Kedleston Hall. Bearded Theory attracted a capacity crowd. [13] Performing bands included Carter USM, UB40, Stranglers, Peter Hook, Wonderstuff, Pop Will Eat Itself, Reverend & the Makers. [14] The festival's organizers won the Promoter of the Year award at the UK Festival Awards for their industry work with stage safety. [15] In 2015 the festival agreed to a 5-year contract to remain at Catton Hall and implemented substantial land improvements including access roads, installing a permanent water supply and drainage. [16]

Bands that appeared included The Mission, James, Afro Celt Sound System, Lab 4, Cara Dillon, Neville Staple, Alabama 3, Gun, Hugh Cornwell, British Sea Power, Buzzcocks, Misty in Roots and The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican. The festival sold out and was cited as the organizers best festival to date.[ by whom? ] The festival made history when they announced the plans to operate an onsite school on the Friday of the festival. The school met key learning criteria at each age level and classes included Science, Home Economics, Math's, English, History and lots more. The P.E classes were operated by Derby County FC. The school assisted parents taking children out of school without being fined and was a festival first.

In 2016 the festival sold out and produced a universally well received[ peacock prose ] festival. The festival went onto win Best Family Festival at the UK Festival Awards and gig of the year for the performance by Wilko Johnson in Stand Out Magazine.[ citation needed ] Bands who performed included Killing Joke, Squeeze, Jack Savoretti, Levellers, The Jam, Black Uhuru and Stiff Little Fingers.

2017 featured over 150 bands and DJ's with Madness, Skunk Anansie, The Fall, Seasick Steve, Vintage Trouble, CJ Bolland, Foy Vance, Sugarhill Gang. The festival sold out a month in advance and received various good reviews from Festivals for All, BBC 6 Music, Radio 2, Efestivals, Gourmet Gigs, Louder than War Magazine, The Guardian, The Independent and Festival Kidz.[ citation needed ]

Bearded Theory has won 8 awards, most recently the Best Line-Up award for 2024. [17] The event has also won 2016 UK's Best Family Festival, 2014 Promoter of the Year at the UK Festival Awards and Silver Award Festival Kidz Awards, 2013 UK's Best Small Festival at the UK Festival Awards and Gold Award at the Festival Kidz Awards.[ citation needed ] In 2011 UK's Best Independent Festival at the AIM Awards.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fatboy Slim</span> English musician (born 1963)

Norman Quentin Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist for the Hull-based indie rock band the Housemartins, who achieved a UK number-one single with their a cappella cover of "Caravan of Love". After the Housemartins split up, Cook formed the electronic band Beats International in Brighton, who produced the number-one single "Dub Be Good to Me". He then played in Freak Power, Pizzaman and the Mighty Dub Katz, with moderate success.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muse (band)</span> English rock band

Muse are an English rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme, and Dominic Howard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athlete (band)</span> English indie rock band

Athlete were an English indie rock band formed in Deptford, London, comprising Joel Pott, Carey Willetts, Stephen Roberts, Tim Wanstall (keyboards).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coachella</span> American annual music and arts festival held in Indio, California

Coachella is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. It was co-founded by Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen in 1999, and is organized by Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of AEG Presents. The event features musical artists from many genres of music, including rock, pop, indie, hip hop and electronic dance music, as well as art installations and sculptures. Across the grounds, several stages continuously host live music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asian Dub Foundation</span> English electronica band

Asian Dub Foundation (ADF) is an English electronic music band that combines musical styles including rap rock, dub, dancehall, ragga, and South Asian music. The group also includes traditional rock instruments such as electric bass and guitar, which acknowledges a punk rock influence. Their music is known for its dub-inspired basslines, guitar parts inspired by the traditional Indian instrument the sitar, and fast rapping.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GuilFest</span>

GuilFest, formerly the Guildford Festival of Folk and Blues, is an annual music festival held in Stoke Park, Guildford, England. The festival, like the larger Glastonbury Festival, features a range of genres including rock, folk, blues, and in recent years pop. In 2006 GuilFest was awarded the title of "Best Family Festival" in the UK Festival awards. Following a 10-year hiatus from 2014, GuilFest returned to Stoke Park in summer 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sziget Festival</span> Music and cultural festival in Hungary

The Sziget Festival is one of the largest music and cultural festivals in Europe. It is held every August in northern Budapest, Hungary, on Óbudai-sziget, a leafy 108-hectare (266-acre) island on the Danube. More than 1,000 performances take place each year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skindred</span> Welsh metal band

Skindred is a Welsh rock band that fuses heavy metal with other genres, most notably reggae. Formed in Newport in 1998, they are well known for their energetic and involving live performances and have won several awards including "Best Live Band" at the 2011 UK Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards and the "Devotion Award" at the 2011 Kerrang! Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Gazzo</span> Australian television presenter, DJ, television personality, voice artist and journalist

Jane Gazzo is an Australian radio and television presenter, performance and club DJ, television personality, voice artist, author, and music journalist.

Beautiful Days is a music festival that takes place in August at Escot Park, near Ottery St Mary, Devon. The festival was founded by, and is managed by the band The Levellers and was first held in 2003. The festival has no corporate sponsorship or branding, leading to Virtual Festivals proclaiming it "the festival that sells out ... by not selling out". In 2011 Beautiful Days was pronounced "Best Family Festival" by the UK Festival Awards, later winning the "Grass Roots Festival Award" in 2015, as well as the "Best Medium Festival" award from FestivalKidz the same year. Every festival from 2003 to the current one (2024) has sold out in advance; although the 2020 festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The current capacity is 17,500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">3 Daft Monkeys</span> British band

3 Daft Monkeys are a world music-influenced acoustic band from Cornwall, UK, consisting of Tim Ashton, Athene Roberts, Rich Mulryne, and Jamie Graham. The instrumentation consists of vocals, fiddle, twelve-string guitar, bass guitar and percussion. The band's musical influences include Celtic, Balkan, Romani, Latino, electronic dance, reggae, dub, punk rock, and traditional folk music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloodstock Open Air</span> Annual British heavy metal festival

Bloodstock Open Air is a British heavy metal festival held annually at Catton Hall in Walton-on-Trent, Derbyshire, since 2005.

Holy Roar Records was an independent record label run by Alex Fitzpatrick. The label began in January 2006 and put out its first release, the Phoenix Bodies album, Raise the Bullshit Flag in June 2006. Fitzpatrick originally joked that the name was derived from a vision he had while using the hallucinogen LSD. According to Fitzpatrick, the name “Holy Roar” was derived from a Torche song with the same title.

The UK Festival Awards are awarded annually, with various categories for all aspects of festivals that have taken place in the UK, and one category for European festivals. The Awards were first established in 2004 by Steve Jenner and his team at Virtual Festivals.com. They are voted for by the public via the UK Festival Awards website. To ensure fairness, the votes are weighted to take into account the event capacity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tame Impala</span> Australian psychedelic music project

Tame Impala is the psychedelic music project of Australian singer and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker. In the recording studio, Parker writes, records, performs, and produces all of the project's music. As a touring act, Tame Impala consists of Parker, Dominic Simper, Jay Watson, Cam Avery, and Julien Barbagallo. The group has a close affiliation with fellow Australian psychedelic rock band Pond, sharing members and collaborators, including Nick Allbrook, formerly a live member of Tame Impala. Originally signed to Modular Recordings, Tame Impala is now signed to Interscope Records in the United States and Fiction Records in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hurts (duo)</span> English synthpop duo

Hurts are an English musical duo formed in Manchester in 2009, consisting of singer Theo Hutchcraft and multi-instrumentalist Adam Anderson. They have released five studio albums: Happiness (2010), Exile (2013), Surrender (2015), Desire (2017) and Faith (2020). Their first two albums both reached the top 10 in several countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Broco</span> British rock band

Don Broco are a British rock band formed in Bedford, England, in 2008. The band consists of Rob Damiani, Simon Delaney (guitar), Tom Doyle and Matt Donnelly. The band have released four studio albums, including Priorities (2012), Automatic (2015) and Technology (2018). Their most recent album Amazing Things (2021) was their first to reach No.1 in the UK Album Charts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleepmakeswaves</span> Australian post-rock band

Sleepmakeswaves are an Australian post-rock band who formed in Sydney in December 2006. The group is currently composed of guitarist Otto Wicks-Green, drummer Tim Adderley, and bassist/keyboardist Alex Wilson. To date, they have released four full-length studio albums. The band have achieved notable success internationally for their energetic live performances and modern approach to the post-rock genre. They are currently released through Australian independent record label Bird's Robe Records, which is distributed through MGM in Australia and independently worldwide. In 2013, UK label Monotreme Records licensed their debut album for an international release across the UK, Europe, and North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Blood (band)</span> English rock duo

Royal Blood are an English rock duo formed in Littlehampton in 2011. The current lineup consists of Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher (drums). Their signature sound is built around Kerr's bass playing style, which sees him using various effects pedals and amps to make his bass guitar sound like an electric guitar and bass guitar at the same time. The duo were signed by Warner Chappell Music in 2013 and have since released four studio albums: Royal Blood (2014), How Did We Get So Dark? (2017), Typhoons (2021), and Back to the Water Below (2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican</span> English comedy folk and parody band

The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican are a British comedy folk and parody band from Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Formed in 2006, they claim to be the hardest working comedy band in the UK, having played over 1300 shows throughout the UK. They are best known on the UK's festival scene, having played at major festivals including Glastonbury Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, Beautiful Days, Bearded Theory, Rebellion Festival, Wychwood Festival, Kate Rusby's Underneath The Stars Festival, Towersey Festival, Wickham Festival, Shrewsbury Folk Festival and to an audience of 20,000 at Fairport's Cropredy Convention in August 2018, for their 900th show and again in 2022. Playing mainly acoustic folk instruments, they take popular songs and replace the lyrics with their own comedy reworkings, often on themes completely unrelated to the original song. They have independently released eleven studio albums, and a large number of live albums. Presenting themselves as the long-lost children of Irish entertainer Val Doonican, and claiming to be "on a mission to keep their late, great spiritual father's legacy alive", the various members of the band have adopted the singer's surname for their shows, and wear brightly coloured hand-knitted tank-tops in tribute to Doonican's traditional knitwear.

References

  1. ↑ "Bearded Theory delivers what people want in a festival". E-Festivals. 25 May 2012. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  2. ↑ "The Bearded Theory Festival School – Education Without Walls". Festival Awards. 3 May 2017. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  3. ↑ "Bearded Theory 2020 Update". beardedtheory.co.uk. 20 March 2020.
  4. ↑ "AIM Independent Music Awards". Association of Independent Music . 2011. Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  5. ↑ Whyatt, Paul (20 May 2013). "Hair-raising fun during a great Bearded Theory festival". Derby Telegraph . Archived from the original on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  6. ↑ Rose, Coral. "Bearded Theory Festival 2012 - The one with the BEARDS". coralroseradio. Archived from the original on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  7. ↑ Virtue, Graeme (4 August 2014). "Asian Dub Foundation review – forceful but also funny". The Guardian . Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  8. ↑ "Bearded Theory 2013 Festival Review". SonicAbuse. 26 May 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  9. ↑ Newall, Phil (24 May 2013). "Bearded Theory Festival 2013 - review". Louder Than War . Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  10. ↑ "Bearded Theory Festival 2013 Introduce Line Up For 17th-19th May". Contactmusic.com. 1 February 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  11. ↑ "Bearded Theory festival 2013". Freq.org.uk. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  12. ↑ "Bearded Theory Festival launches unsigned bands competition". Folking.com. 4 November 2013. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  13. ↑ Guttridge, Rich (4 December 2014). "Music Festival: Bearded Theory's success continues after Catton Hall move". Burton Mail . Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  14. ↑ "Music: Merry Hell hitting the Dog". Uttoxeter Advertiser. 26 November 2014. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  15. ↑ Cooper, Leonie (1 December 2014). "The Libertines, Glastonbury and Wolf Alice amongst winners at UK Festival Awards". NME . Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  16. ↑ "Bearded Theory: Crowds of 10,000 are expected at fun family festival". Derby Telegraph. 15 May 2015. Archived from the original on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  17. ↑ Warrenger, Sam, ed. (10 December 2024). "Bearded Theory wins Best Line-Up at the UK Festival Awards" . Retrieved 11 December 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.