Sunshine And Soul Music Turns Up The Heat At Stoke Park’s Magic Summer Live Festival

Published on: 13 Jul, 2013
Updated on: 14 Jul, 2013

Sun worshippers and soul music lovers alike were in their element on the first day of Magic Summer Live in Guildford’s Stoke Park on Saturday, July 13.

Jay Kay from Jamiroquai who headlined Saturday night at Magic Summer Live in Stoke Park, Guildford. Picture by Mike Ellis of Ginger Cat Photography.

The glorious weather certainly brought the crowds to the inaugural festival organised by Live Nation and hosted by London-based radio station Magic 105.4.

Fun in the sun.

The line up featured some of the greats of British soul and dance music.

Soul II Soul. Picture by Mike Ellis.

With two stages, plus a bandstand stage for local acts, the main stage was the draw for the majority of the festival-goers, as groups of friends and families pitched themselves on the grass to soak up the sun and atmosphere.

Not only was the weather glorious, but the funky music worked its magic too.

Beverley Knight. Picture by Mike Ellis.

Artists including Soul II Soul, Beverley Knight, Chic with Nile Rogers and Ocean Colour Scene, laid down the grooves during the afternoon.

Nile Rogers of Chic. Picture by Mike Ellis.

As the sun set over Stoke Park the audience was treated to the extraordinary vocal talents of Joss Stone. The stage was then set for headliners Jamiroquai.

Joss Stone. Picture by Mike Ellis.

There were numerous fans of the band’s front man and singer Jay Kay walking around wearing feathered head-dresses in honour of his trademark stage gear.

Jamouriquoi fans. Picture by Mike Ellis.

Jamaroqui fans. Picture by Mike Ellis.

However, he came on stage dressed in green and white, wearing a wide-brimmed hat. He quipped: “The time I come dressed as a cowboy, you come as Indians!.”

He treated the crowd to some high energy songs from the band’s 20-year career that the audience lapped up.

Jay Kay and Jamiroquai thrill the crowd at Magic Summer Live in Stoke Park. Picture by Mike Ellis of Ginger Cat Photography.

On the band’s official website, ahead of the Stoke Park gig, Jay Kay said: “Looking forward to Guildford! Seems like a long time since we played in the UK. Probably because it HAS been such a long time! A home gig is always special coz so many friends are in the audience it gives us a real buzz to be playing on stage. ”

Ocean Colour Scene. Picture by Mike Ellis.

The music continued on Sunday with a more rock orientated line up that included Squeeze, Kim Wilde, James Morrison and with Canada’s finest Bryan Adams, headlining.

Professional press pictures by Guildford-based Mike Ellis taken at Magic Summer Live can be ordered from him direct on 07958 602255. Or email to gingercat.mike@gmail.com

Time to relax. Picture by Mike Ellis.

Having a bite to eat! Picture by Mike Ellis.

James Carabine, 14, won a competition to be the opening act on the Saturday. Picture by Mike Ellis.

All smiles on a glorious day. Picture Mike Ellis.

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Responses to Sunshine And Soul Music Turns Up The Heat At Stoke Park’s Magic Summer Live Festival

Sarah Salter Reply

July 15, 2013 at 10:48 am

What a shame that the event was discriminatory against parents. Advertised as a family event the no re-admission policy meant that parents who had responsibly planned to take children home after the afternoon session and return child free for the evening were forced to either keep their kids up late or leave and miss out on the evening altogether.

The policy was hidden in Ts&Cs until Sunday when signage went up following many complaints and its wording was ambiguous. We had also been mis-informed by security staff on arrival at 12.30pm that one adult per family could leave to take children home and be allowed to re-enter.

The Live Nation staff were extremely unhelpful, belligerent even and the day was spoilt for many.
Pauline Surrey Reply

July 15, 2013 at 12:00 pm

Don’t know when it finished, but pretty sure the attendees will have been just as angry as those of us attending a lovely garden party nearby, to have to put up with the dreadful noise pollution caused by the Sussex Police helicopter which circled and hovered overhead for at least 45 minutes late in the afternoon yesterday. Why?? a stolen car or something???
Phil Mitchell Reply

July 15, 2013 at 8:03 pm

Blessed with perfect weather, the event was a “success”, in that a multinationl entertainments company made a bit of cash.

The “festival” tag is a misnomer as apart from a desultory nod to the local arts in the form of a small bandstand (brilliantly curated by the team at The Boileroom) Guildfordians were unable to participate in any way. This was a gig. G-Live in the park, so to speak

Guilfest, for all it’s faults, was a real town festival, inclusive, friendly with a heritage and with a soul. In recent years weighed down by increasing liabilaties in terms of insurance, policing costs H&S requirements last years weather dealt a final blow both by reducing attendance and incurring fees to repair the park

When on sunday one of the headline acts rather sneeringly said that Guilford was ” a town you normally drive through”, that kind of summed the whole thing up.I cannot see any positive impact, or any reason it should return.

Guildford. You have been had
Andrew Curtis Reply

July 15, 2013 at 9:57 pm

Oh dear.
I had a feeling this would happen. I did not go this year.
GuilFest was a festival that grew organically over the years responding to the demands of the local punters.
The beating heart of the festival was the emphasis on unknown, up and coming and local bands sponsored by local businesses and sponsors.
Well done the Boileroom for trying to keep the flame alive in what seems to be an afterthought.
Bring back GuilFest…bring back Tony Scott
Ben Turk Reply

July 16, 2013 at 2:24 pm

I must disagree very strongly with comments calling for the return of GuilFest with regards to its approach to up-and-coming artists. It was well-known for its ‘pay-to-play’ approach, where if you wanted to perform on one of the unsigned stages you had to buy hundreds if not thousands of pounds’ worth of tickets in advance. A band I was in played there in 2006, and we had to buy £1750 of tickets in advance, specifying what proportion of weekend camping/weekend without camping/friday/saturday/sunday tickets we wanted in advance. We made a profit of £15, and that was achieved by essentially touting outside the festival at increasingly ridiculous discounts.

If other unsigned artists paid the same as we did, the festival would have taken approximately £119,000 in advance ticket sales to bands, also removing much of the financial incentive the festival would have had to make the experience worthwhile for the eventual buyers of the tickets. In addition this created a situation where quality bands who were unable to pay would be passed over in favour of less desirable artists who happened to have more disposable income, diminishing (or demolishing) both GuilFest’s credibility as an outlet for upcoming talent and the quality of the experience for festivalgoers.

Given that the council also subsidised GuilFest to the tune of £100,000 each year, surely only incredible mismanagement can have been responsible for its demise. While it sounds like this year’s event had some rather extraordinary management problems of its own, GuilFest’s treatment of local artists was unacceptable and deeply dishonest, and for this reason I do not mourn its passing. Hopefully someone will eventually step up to the plate to provide a better service.
Ron Charles Reply

July 16, 2013 at 3:27 pm

I don’t quite understand the previous comments. As a guildford resident of 35 years and occasional attendee of GuilFest I have to say last weekend’s festival was far superior in every way. Personally, I thought it extremely well organised, far better than GuilFest and a far better representation of the area in the way of food, drink and bands: No tribute bands, but proper international artists.

I think the naysayers should be careful for what they ask for as the organisers may well not come back and then what will the town have? I hardly think Tony Scott will show his face until he has paid his creditors. I imagine the people writing on this site would be less disparaging about the weekend if they were a GuilFest supplier that never got paid!

Also, I watched lots of great local bands on the stage put together by the Boileroom, non of which I believe had to buy tickets to play as they did with GuilFest.

I remember going to see my nephew’s band and there was nobody watching apart from friends and family who felt obliged to buy tickets. How disappointing must that be to play to only a handful of people! At least on the weekend the local bands had a good, appreciative audience.

In true British tradition we like to moan, stand on the sidelines and snipe! I wouldn’t blame the organisers if they stuck two fingers up to Guildford and we never saw them again, which would be a great shame for the town, its residents and businesses.