Festinho

STOP PRESS!!
LAST WEEK OF THE COMPETITION TO WIN A PAIR OF TIX.
Two Ransom Note readers could be winging their way there for free. To be in with a chance of scooping two complimentary tickets to this year’s festival, email your name tocomps@theransomnote.co.ukwith “Festinho, Festinho. Do good and have fun, all at the same time”. Winners will be notified by 5 AUGUST, which should give you enough time to get your mates to come too.

Have fun, do good
www.festinho.com
Imagine a festival where you rock up, pitch your tent and relax. Where everything’s easy. Where you’re free to explore and discover new things. Imagine it’s set in the beautiful grounds of a stately home in the middle of the English countryside. Where the owner lets you roam freely and even enjoy a drink or two in his house. Where manicured lawns, Victorian gardens and idyllic lakes vie for your attention.

Now imagine it’s small, friendly and perfectly formed. Where you don’t have to worry about things going missing from your tent or even your tent going missing. Where the acts are booked on the strength of quality and variety rather than how many units they happen to have shifted in the last couple of months.

Stay with me on this; I’ve not finished. Imagine it only sets you back 90 for four nights’ camping and three full days of music, cabaret, comedy and entertainment. Where the food and drink are chosen carefully to appeal to the audience rather than bought in from anyone prepared to pay through the nose for the privilege of ripping off the punters. Sounds pretty ideal, doesn’t it? And imagine if all that really appeals, but you haven’t quite got the cash at the moment to shell out for a ticket, so the organisers let you put down a deposit now and stump up the remainder later. Or you fancy going, but you’ve only a couple of days’ holiday left this year, so they lay on the August Bank Holiday to give you a day to recover. And if that wasn’t enough, imagine all the staff are volunteers working for free to ensure you have a good time and all the profit raised goes towards helping the street children of Brazil get a better chance in life.

Welcome to Festinho. Three days of having fun and doing good. Now in its seventh year, Festinho has grown from a few bands in a small field to a fully fledged festival. A fully-fledged festival without the hassle you’d normally associate with them. It’s affordable, easily accessible and a doddle to enjoy. You can even hire a SoulPad and arrive on site with your tent set up for you.

Festival director Simon Strick’s been involved from the start. ” It started as a private birthday party for a trustee of the charity, he said. It’s grown steadily since then, but we’ve managed to retain the feeling of a small, family-friendly, intimate festival despite having tripled our capacity over the last three years.

“The idea is to raise as much as possible for The ABC Trust, a charity set up by Jimmy and Jimena Page to help street children in Brazil. So everything’s geared towards that. We have a dedicated team working for free on all aspects of the festival, from A&R and marketing to stage management and stewarding, and we ask acts to donate as much of their fee as they can to the charity or at least play for less than they’re used to. Some just do it for the travel expenses.”

This year, they’ve taken the step of having a deadline to buy full weekend tickets. Anyone wanting to come along needs to pay a 50% deposit by midnight on 15 July, with the rest payable by 1st August.

“It’s a new direction for us, but we need to know how many people are going to be camping all weekend so we can put the necessary facilities in place. But you don’t have to pay the lot, just register your intention with a deposit and pay the rest after the next payday. We want as many people to come as possible, which is why we’re letting people spread the cost.

Every year has been better than the last and the feedback we get from people who come is amazing. And we love it too, despite how much work it is to put on.”

And if you don’t believe him, take a quick look at the comments section of the website (www.festinho.com/lovely-things-you-said) to see what people think.

Not only that, two Ransom Note readers could be winging their way there for free. To be in with a chance of scooping two complimentary tickets to this year’s festival, email your name tocomps@theransomnote.co.uk with “Festinho, Festinho. Do good and have fun, all at the same time”. Winners will be notified by 5 AUGUST, which should give you enough time to get your mates to come too.

www.festinho.com

All photos byMiko Coffey