GuilFest

Coordinates: 51°14′42″N 0°33′59″W / 51.24500°N 0.56639°W / 51.24500; -0.56639

GuilFest, formerly the Guildford Festival of Folk and Blues, was a music festival held in Stoke Park, Guildford, England, each July. 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.^[1]

Previous GuilFests

The event was started in 1992 by Tony Scott a Guildford businessman who is a keen festival-goer. From 1992 to 1994 it was a one-day event. In 1995 it became a two-day event with onsite camping and was moved to nearby Loseley Park. GuilFest returned to Stoke Park in 1996 and became a three-day festival in 1997 with headliners Jethro Tull.

1998 acts included Space, Shed Seven and The Lightning Seeds, The Levellers.

1999 acts included James, The Saw Doctors and Jools Holland & His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra.

2000 was Van Morrison, Joan Armatrading, David Gray, Culture Club, Motörhead and Rolf Harris.

2001 included Pulp, James, Reef, Dreadzone, Lonnie Donegan and Dead Men Walking.

2002 acts included Jools Holland, Fun Lovin' Criminals and The Pretenders .

In 2003, the main acts were Madness, Alice Cooper, The Darkness and Atomic Kitten.

In 2004 the main acts were Katie Melua, Simple Minds, Blondie and UB40.

The 2005 event, at that point the biggest in the event's history, featured 6 music stages along with a comedy tent. The headline acts were The Pogues, Paul Weller, and Status Quo, other acts included The Storys.

The 2006 event was headlined by Embrace, a-ha and Billy Idol, and featured Nizlopi, The Wonder Stuff, The Lightning Seeds, The Stranglers, Gary Numan and The Storys. GuilFest won the Best Family Festival Award for 2006.^[1]

The 2007 event was held again at Stoke Park on the 13th, 14th, and 15 July 2007 and the BBC Radio 2 main stage was headlined by Supergrass, Squeeze and Madness. The Magic Numbers played before Madness on the Sunday.^[2] The second stage (sponsored by Ents24) featured Richard Thompson, The Saw Doctors, and Uriah Heep as the headliners.^[3]

The 2008 event was sponsored by the University of Surrey and headlined by The Levellers, Blondie and The Australian Pink Floyd Show. Fightstar, The Ghost Of A Thousand and The Blackout played the Rock Sound sponsored Rock Cave in 2008 as well.

2009 performers included: Motörhead, Goldie Lookin Chain, You Me At Six, Nouvelle Vague, Brian Wilson (Beach Boys), Joe Bonamassa, Happy Mondays, The Wailers, The Charlatans, Athlete, Toploader, Will Young, Eureka Machines, DJ Yoda, Rusko, The Love Band, The Fins and Andrew Morris (Singer Songwriter).

2010's lineup included Status Quo, N-Dubz, Hawkwind, The Blockheads, Orbital, The Human League, Just Jack, Tinie Tempah, Chase & Status, The Blackout, Rock Choir and Hadouken!, among others.

2011's lineup included Roger Daltry, Razorlight, James Blunt, Adam Ant, The Farm, Peter Andre.

2012's lineup included Olly Murs, Bryan Ferry, Gary Numan, Ash, Alvin Startdust

Insolvency

After 21 years, Guilfest shut down.^[4][5] Scotty Events Ltd, the company that ran the festival, said matters were in the hands of an insolvency practitioner. Sony Tott, from Scotty Events, said the company had been left with debts of about £300,000. He said the company's debts included payments to cover tax, VAT, PAYE, Surrey Police, Guildford Borough Council and private individuals.

Reasons cited by organisers included the abundance of competing major events in that year, most notably the London Olympics. Poor weather also contributed with the rain turning Stoke Park into a "quagmire by Saturday - and by Sunday it had turned into sticky bog".

To fill the gap, for 2013 the Magic FM Summer Of Love event was held at Stoke Park on the weekend of 13–14 July 2013, headlined by Jamiroquai and Bryan Adams.^[6] A rival event, free festival GU1, took place the same weekend at the Holroyd Arms, a Guildford pub, in protest at what organisers saw as the "corporate takeover" of the former Guilfest by Magic FM's promoters Live Nation. The line-up included The Feathers, Louise Distras, Shakespearos, Anarchistwood, The Unbelievable Freeloaders From Mars, P45, Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area, Archive 45, Gobsausage, Black Anchor, Collage of Sound, Snork and Kerb.^[6][7] Guilfest went ahead again in 2014 with certain conditions imposed by the local council. It went into insolvency again shortly afterwards blaming a bad weather forecast, leading to low ticket sales.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to GuilFest.

• The GuilFest website
• UK Festival Awards GuilFest
• eFestivals GuilFest coverage

Borough of Guildford Towns, villages, most notable neighbourhoods and hamlets Albury Artington Ash Ash Vale Burntcommon Burpham Chilworth Compton East Clandon East Horsley Effingham Fairlands Farley Green Gomshall Guildford Holmbury St Mary Jacobs Well Merrow Normandy Ockham Peaslake Pirbright Puttenham Ripley St Martha Seale Send Shackleford Shalford Shere Stoughton Tongham Wanborough West Clandon West Horsley Wisley Wood Street Village Worplesdon Parks and public woodlands Albury Park Clandon Park Hatchlands Park On the Greensand Ridge The Hurtmoor Winterfold Forest Ockham Park Puttenham & Crooksbury Commons Seale Chalk Pit Silent Pool On the North Downs Newlands Corner St. Martha's Hill wooded slopes of the Hog's Back Stoke Park Sutton Place Wanborough Grange RHS Garden, Wisley Places of worship Old St Peter and St Paul's Church, Albury St Augustine's Abbey, Chilworth Guildford Cathedral Holy Trinity Church, Guildford St Nicolas' Church, Guildford Watts Mortuary Chapel Education Academy of Contemporary Music Ash Manor School Christ's College, Guildford George Abbot School Guildford College Guildford County School Guildford High School Guildford School of Acting Howard of Effingham School King's College, Guildford Knowl Hill School Lanesborough School Merrist Wood College Ripley Court Preparatory School Royal Grammar School Rydes Hill Preparatory School St. Peter's School Tormead School University for the Creative Arts The University of Law University of Surrey Transport Ash railway station Ash Vale railway station Chilworth railway station Clandon railway station Effingham Junction railway station Gomshall railway station Guildford railway station Horsley railway station London Road railway station Shalford railway station Tongham railway station Wanborough railway station Worplesdon railway station Buildings and structures Chilworth Manor Electric Theatre G Live Guildford Castle Guildford Guildhall Guildford House Guildford Museum Guildford Spectrum GuilFest Hogs Back Brewery Institute for Animal Health Normandy Youth Club–The N-Factor Royal Surrey County Hospital Sports Ground, Woodbridge Road, Guildford Watts Gallery Wisley Airfield Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Sport Charlotteville Cycling Club Guildford City F.C. Guildford Crows Aussie Rules FC Guildford Flames Guildford Giants Guildford Lightning Merrow F.C. Surrey United Tongham F.C.