Sunrise Celebration is an ethical living and music festival that takes place in Bruton Somerset, England on an organic farm.[1] It first started in 2006 over the summer solstice as an alternative celebration to the Glastonbury Festival that was cancelled that year. It was originally called the Sunrise Summer Solstice Celebration, but dropped 'summer solstice' from the title and the event's date moved to late May to avoid clashing with Glastonbury.
The original concept was created by Daniel Hurring and Sun Bird in 2005 and the Company Family Gathering was formed. Despite two successful events in 2006 and 2007 (boasting 5,000 - 6,000 attendees each year), the Company lost £250,000 in these formative two years and sadly folded as a result.
The festival includes six stages and acoustic and performance venues, including The Main Arena and EartHeart Stage; Small World; Tribal Earth World Music Stage; ID Spiral Solar Chill; Spirit Dance. It includes a mix of alternative culture, and is committed to sustainability with an eclectic blend of dub, world, ska, electronica, dub-step, psy trance, breaks, reggae, folk and Balkan beats. The festival has a site-wide organic policy including alcohol and is the United Kingdom's leading sustainable festival.[2]
The Festival site in 2006-2008 was Bearley Farm, Bearley, approx. 8 miles north of Yeovil.
In 2008 the festival was cancelled due to extensive flash-flooding after a freak localised storm,[3] although managed to run a smaller version of the festival later in the year as a sub-section of The Big Chill.[4]
As a result of the flooding and financial losses, Sunrise was re-born in 2009 on the current site near Bruton, on organic farmland, considerably higher above sea level than the previous site...
It saw its first financially stable year in 2009, and is set to continue in the future under the management of Natural Communities Community Interest Company.