What's on: Ramsbottom festival, September 14 - 16 (From Lancashire Telegraph)

What's on: Ramsbottom festival, September 14 - 16

4:48pm Friday 22nd June 2012 in What's on in Lancashire By Anna Mansell, Features writer

AWET weekend in the depths of a Lancashire valley may not sound like the ideal setting for a music festival.

But after last year’s decidedly damp debut, Ramsbottom Festival director David Agnew is optimistic about the outlook for the follow up, taking place once more at the town’s cricket club from September 14 to 16.

“The weather last year was as bad as it could have been and we still had 2,000 people attend all day on Saturday,” he said.

“This year there’s another covered stage, taking the stages up to three, as well as real ale tent for some shelter.

“It’s a cricket club, designed for Lancashire weather so it’s well set up for drainage and the site coped well last year - it can’t be that bad again.

“Our friends at the cricket club tell us the first weekend after the end of their season has the best weather - but we don’t hold them to that.”

Over the three days last year, more than 4,500 descended on the cricket club for acts including local lads Damon Gough’s Badly Drawn Boy and Mark Radcliffe, as well as Guillemots and The Travelling Band.

This year, leading lights of the Madchester scene Inspiral Carpets were the first major act announced as Friday’s headliners, followed by the latest announcement of I Am Kloot and Roddy Frame closing the shows on Saturday and Sunday.

Other major acts on the bill include the Janice Graham Band, Admiral Fallow, The Leisure Society, Seth Lakeman and Thea Gilmore, as well as David said: “We are really excited about I Am Kloot, and the basis for the whole festival programme is that the artists are brilliant live acts and mixing artists with emerging artists.

“The great feedback we had last year was that people hadn’t been to such a festival before, seeing different acts in this way.”

With a third stage in place, comedy, poetry and a silent disco are among the additional features planned, as well as a host of activities and workshops to keep younger festival goers entertained.

Low-cost tickets, priced at £18 for Friday and £20 for Saturday and Sunday or £50 for the weekend, as well as £5 daily or £10 weekend tickets for under 16s, also make the weekend accessible for families as the festival’s appeal builds on last year’s success.

“Last year, 250 tickets were weekend ones and already this year we’ve sold 320 weekend passes,” David said.

“Now there is too much happening to stay for just one day.

“It’s also a pretty easy size to manage as a family - I did it last year with three under sixes. The whole space is appropriate for young people and children and families - you are not going to be more than 100metres away anywhere on the site.

“This festival is on people’s doorsteps; huge numbers of families came for the day last year, took their children home to babysitters at 6pm and came back for the evenings.

“It’s easy to have reasons not to do things, but we wanted to pile on as many reasons to come as possible.”

Call 0844 844 2920 to book.

Comments are closed on this article.