Item No: 066
Posted: 10/06/09
Item: Review-North Lancs Soul Festival 2009
Mick Dennison's review of the Festival Weekend
Morecambe well and truly 'got soul' over the boiling hot final weekend in May, thanks to the third annual North Lancs Soul Festival. MICK DENNISON, licensee of festival venue the York Hotel, brings you his special report.
THE third North Lancs Soul weekender that took place over the last weekend in May was deemed a great success by all those who arranged, attended and worked on it.
It was also a great weekend to advertise the virtues of the town and made all the local organisers 'Proud of Morecambe'.
Once again the town's Seaside Soul Club pulled out all the stops to promote the annual event with posters, press photo calls and Sean O'Connor's intimate knowledge of the soul radio scene, to get the message across the whole country.
This had the effect of drawing in soul fanatics from as far apart as Brighton and Scotland, plus a few more towns in between.
Indeed, the Wakefield City Soul Club made their annual pilgrimage to the town and camped out in both the York Hotel and Smokey O'Connors, both giving up rooms to host the event.
It all kicked off on Friday, May 29 with a meet and greet session in the York Hotel and the first ever use of the wooden floored dining room as a chill out area, the newly decorated sports room provided the other dance area – time to get moving!
The music lasted until 2pm on Saturday morning leaving just about the regulation eight hours sleep before a session of Breakfast Soul led up to the FA Cup Final.
The action then moved on to Smokey's where they utilised the dance floor upstairs and an area downstairs in the main bar to create a second, two room venue – great music choices for all.
Headlining was local celebrity Wayne Hemingway who got the upstairs dance floor moving and shaking.
The majority of the DJs were stopping at the York Hotel and they made their bleary-eyed way up to bed to get just a few hours' sleep before the marathon Sunday session until two the following morning.
Once again there was a guest DJ in the diminutive form of ex-Coventry City footballer and FA Cup-winner Mickey Gynn (I bet the editor, a Spurs fan, is wincing at the memory of the 1987 Cup Final!)
The weekend allowed ourselves at the York Hotel to fully make use of our new outdoor patio by arranging a barbecue evening meal for the revellers; managing to feed over 50 people.
The original idea was for a Sunday lunch, however the great weather took over and a barbecue went down a storm instead.
Other festival-goers were very complimentary not only of the two venues but of the town itself.
Ian Dewhirst, a soul DJ based in London and who can command a four figure fee for a night's work, raved over the great setting for the weekend. "You walk down that promenade, take in the beautiful view and couldn't wish for a better setting for sweet soul music," he enthused.
Other visitors from Wakefield even managed to drop into Potts Pies on Pedder Street and thought they were the best they had tasted. Not bad from Yorkshire folk!
So, all in all, a very successful weekend that saw visitors come into the town, make use of hotels, pubs, cafes and shops, and the best thing of all - it was done as a free festival without any council support.
Let's hope next year we can make it bigger and better and promote the whole area, once again making everyone Proud of Morecambe!Links for Festival Pictures/Video
Andy & Julia Lett's Festival Photo's
Tina's Quality Festival Photo's
Steve Shaw's Picture Slideshow
We've now got a number of DJ playlists from the Festival also on the site.
