Hop Farm Festival
| Hop Farm Music Festival | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Genre | Mixed, folk, indie |
| Dates | First weekend of July |
| Location(s) | Paddock Wood, Kent |
| Years active | 2008-2012, 2014-present |
| Founded by | John Vincent Power / UK Events & Production / The Hop Farm |
| Website | |
| /http://www.thehopfarmmusicfestival.com/ | |
Hop Farm Music Festival is an annual music festival at The Hop Farm Country Park in Paddock Wood, Kent, England, first created by John Vincent Power of Festival Republic. After its first year it was nominated at the UK Festival Awards with "Best New Festival".
It came about after a survey was conducted among festival fans with the general feeling revealed to be that they always felt the lowest in priority and importance. The survey resulted in the first Hop Farm Festival in 2008, as a 30,000 crowd capacity festival centered on folk and independent music, with a specific aim of a return to "back to basics" organisation with a no sponsorship, no branding, no VIP attitude. Under 12's, since the festivals creation, have had free entry. In May 2013 it was announced the sixth festival had been cancelled. On 4–6 July 2014 the Hop Farm hosted an all-new Hop Farm Music Festival 2014 which featured headline artists including Brian Wilson, Ray Davies, James Blunt and Grace Jones. The 2015 Hop Farm Music Festival and future events run by The Hop Farm are no longer related to John Vincent Power. The 2015 line-up has been earmarked and the preparations are in place to build on the success of the 2014 festival.
The first ever Hop Farm Music Festival was just a one-day event on 6 July with only one stage. The day was headlined by Neil Young with Primal Scream, Guillemots, Supergrass, Laura Marling, Rufus Wainwright, My Morning Jacket and Everest also playing.
The 2009 festival was scheduled for 3–5 July, a now 2 day festival with a capacity increased to 53,000 and an extra 2 stages introduced. The main acts over the event period are shown below.
2009 marked the first year of a celebrity football tournament at the festival participated by, among many others, some former Big Brother contestants.
The 2010 festival was held on the weekend of 2–3 July over 3 stages and proved to a controversial year. Before the festival had even started people complained of misleading ticket sales. Originally marketed as once again, a one-day festival, tickets went on sale for a second date much later, one month to the event, to the surprise and annoyance of many who had already bought a ticket. The organisation of the festival has been subject to much criticism, this included the long queues, poor sound system and a water pressure malfunction. It was during the late afternoon of Saturday, that the only water pump supplying the camp of 20,000 with water suffered a pressure malfunction and subsequently left the camp bereft of a water supply.
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Wikipedia