Always The Sun Festival In Stoke Park Picks Up After A Wet Start

Published on: 11 Sep, 2016
Updated on: 11 Sep, 2016

Story and pictures by Will Parsons

Always the Sun Festival, a music and arts festival in Stoke Park, has drawn crowds on its second day, September 11, after its first day was hampered by poor weather.

Princess Slayer persevering despite the rain on the Park Stage at the Always the Sun festival in Stoke park on Saturday, September 10.

The festival began at 11am on Saturday, September 10, with light rain forecast for most of the day. By early afternoon the festival was quiet, with many of the festival-goers sheltering from the rain in the covered areas, away from the Park Stage where the main acts were performing.

The lead singer for Atiptoe, an alternative rock band performing at the Andertons Stage, commented on the poor weather, saying: “Always the rain. I feel like that’s a joke that’s gonna be made a lot today.”

One festival-goer, who preferred to remain unnamed, said she thought the weather should not have put people off.

“It’s a bit of a shame about the weather,” she said, “because the festival itself was great. There was lots of really interesting and different stalls and most of them were sheltered so the rain didn’t affect our day too much.”

Inside the one of the music tents.

The festival was organised by the Boileroom, an independent music venue in Stoke Fields, Guildford. The event was intended to celebrate Guildford’s community and showcase both breakthrough and established musicians, as well as provide various activities to create a family-friendly festival.

The Park Stage on Saturday featured indie and alternative groups mainly from the South East, including the Mystery Jets, a renowned indie rock band originally from Twickenham, and Nottingham-based Kagoule.

In addition to the Park Stage, musicians performed at the covered Andertons Stage and the Buskers’ Stage, which was housed in a brightly-coloured tent.

Despite the weather, Louis Hepworth, festival-goer and Mystery Jets fan, said he enjoyed the evening performances.

He said: “It wasn’t a big crowd, but it was really lively. The Mystery Jets were amazing, there was a lot of banter from the band members and they seemed to be enjoying every minute of it.

“Their set spanned from prog-rock to glittery pop, and the crowd were really into it.”

The better weather on Sunday brought more festival-goers to Always the Sun.

While Saturday was blighted by poor weather, warmer, sunny weather brought more visitors on Sunday.

By late afternoon, a crowd had formed around the Park Stage, with performers including Blaenavon, a band from Liphook, and Hugh Cornwell, former front-man for the Stranglers, the renowned rock band which originated in Guildford.

Clothes on sale on one of the stalls.

In addition to the music acts, the festival included stalls selling clothes and jewellery, a yoga tent, and a ‘wellness area’ containing stalls offering head and hand massages, reflexology sessions and guided meditation. There were also various craft tents were people could practice craft skills – at the Crafty Peacock tent, cosmetics company Lush gave demonstrations on making bath bombs.

An ‘outdoor kitchen’ featured local chefs demonstrating skills like marinating and smoking a rack of baby ribs, or cooking a bulgar wheat salad with lamb chops.

Joe, of Smokey Joe, showing how to prep and rub baby back pork ribs.

Festival-goers could sate their appetites at the various food stalls, which included: Smokey Joe, offering American smokehouse food such as burgers with smoked ox cheek and streaky bacon; a vegan sushi stall; Vinn Goute, selling Seychelles-inspired street food; and the My.Pie caravan, which described its pies as “the best in the UK”.

The better weather on the second day meant that the stages and the food stalls were busier. A spokesperson for the Boileroom said they were “absolutely thankful for the better weather on Sunday”.