Tony Cummings quizzed James Stevens about an event offering 40 live acts and soloists for an amazing £60, KINGSSTOCK



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Tony: What about tickets? How much for a whole weekend?

James: "If you came for the whole weekend, Thursday through to Sunday, and camp, the ticket is just £60."

Tony: That's incredibly cheap!

KingsStock 2019: The extraordinary story of an extraordinary
festival

James: "It is. That gets you access to over 40 bands and soloists, and a camping pitch in the grounds of a stately home. You also get some decent showers, once you're on site, the food is affordable, so you're not paying the best part of £20 for a few pancakes. You can actually afford to eat and drink at KingsStock."

Tony: What happens if it pours down with rain? Is it going to be a disaster for you?

James: "Last year it did! So after that incredible summer we had, with it being well over 30 degrees virtually up to the moment the first chord was played at the festival, and then it was a little bit damp on and off. We survived the rain. The rain could actually destroy some festivals with the quantity of money involved, and again, this is where being small really helps us. We do have access to covered venues if we really need it, but we're reluctant to put up marquees and shut out the big outdoors, so it's quite a tricky trade-off. A huge advantage is the actual location of the venue itself, so it's near a little town called Sandy, and the soil in Sandy is sandy! So however much water falls out of the sky, it drains away fantastically quickly, so we don't find ourselves walking around in mud if we do have a shower or two. The festival's at the optimum time of year, it's right at harvest time, so we stack the odds in our favour for the weather. It is what it is, but mostly we've had excellent weather there. Certainly at this venue, even when it's rained, the temperature's been over 25 degrees every year we've used Moggerhanger Park. We're incredibly optimistic, but we'll work around it if it rains. It's not insurmountable."

Tony: One final thing. I've been looking at the list of the acts playing this year. Who on earth are Those Scottish Campers?

James: "Several years ago we had a band apply to perform at the festival. I think they were called Free Gift Music, or something like that. We simply weren't able to fit them into the line-up. But we invited them down because we like to be generous. They're based in Scotland, as their name suggests. Between them travelling down and arriving at the festival, we had an artist pull out because of laryngitis, so when they arrived at half past ten at night, the first thing we said to them was, 'Would you like to perform?'. They of course said yes, they were quite pleased about it. They also had no instruments because they weren't expecting it. Thankfully, at a music festival, lots of people have lots of instruments, so they were able to pull something together with the help of all the musicians. They did a performance, and it was absolutely fantastic. It was a ceilidh, but an impromptu ceilidh with electric guitars. They really got the crowd going, everyone was dancing, so we knew we had to have them back. But they were at a curious point as a band and weren't able to perform again with their old name. So in communication with them, and I was giving them some feedback that we'd received from people attending the festival. Everyone kept referring to them as 'those Scottish campers', both because they were Scottish campers on the campsite and because the people didn't know what their actual performance name was. And so they've adopted the name, which is quite clever of them really, because we're almost obliged to invite them back every year now, which is no hardship for us because they're absolutely fantastic. I suppose they've become a very obscure house band for us. They'll be back this year, and I imagine the crowd will be up on their feet dancing as they are really excellent." CR

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