aaamusic | On 06, Dec 2010

Friends Of Mine Festival
21/22 May 2011 @ Capesthorne Hall, Siddington, Cheshire, SK11 9JS

NEW DATE ON THE BRITISH FESTIVAL CALENDAR FOR 2011
MANCHESTER FINALLY GETS ITS OWN FESTIVAL

Endings can sometimes be beginnings too. When the organisers of
celebrated Manchester bands showcase Friends Of Mine hosted a stage at
the city’s final ever D:Percussion festival in 2007, it planted the germ
of an idea to do their own festival on a bigger scale – a proper,
bands-in-a-field, camping-over, fun-packed, three-day extravaganza.

Four years later, it’s set to be a reality. May 2011 sees the launch of
Friends Of Mine Festival – FOMfest – in the picturesque grounds of
Capesthorne Hall in Siddington, Cheshire, just 15 miles south of
Manchester and easily accessed by motorway and public transport from
around the UK.

“Manchester is the nation’s music capital but it doesn’t have a festival
to call its own,” says founder Sam Gardner. “We’re setting out to put
that right.”

Already confirmed to thrill the 10,000 strong crowd are local legends
The Charlatans, A Certain Ratio, and Cherry Ghost, plus The Phantom
band, Black Lips, and Jim Noir, and believe us when we say there’s a
host of huge names to be confirmed across four stages in the coming weeks.

With the original Friends Of Mine club night, the ethos was to always be
inclusive and friendly. It’s a principle that’s been carried over to the
festival too: FOMfest will be a family-friendly festival, priced at a
super-reasonable £89.50 including camping, and with something on the
bill to suit all tastes.

Aside from the musical entertainment on the main stage, the Big Top
stage and the acoustic stage, there’ll be a dedicated tent for stand-up
comedy, spoken word and poetry, and a marquee run by events company
House Party, who specialise in turning spaces into riotous themed
shindigs. There’s also a cinema tent showing Manchester-centric movies
Control and 24 Hour Party People plus a host of cult classics and a
special screening of Mr Nice introduced by Howard Marks himself. Food
and drink on the site will be locally sourced and high quality – none of
your gristle-burgers here.

Friends Of Mine rose to prominence in the boom of DIY club nights in the
early 2000s, inspired by the likes of Akoustik Anarkhy and Blowout.
“Putting a night of your own on suddenly became something you could do
if you had enough like-minded mates and enough enthusiasm,” says Gardner.

The first Friends Of Mine took place in October 2004 in a bar in
Fallowfield, South Manchester. “Little did we know then that by 2008
we’d have a monthly Liverpool and a fortnightly London FOM running
alongside, and that we would not to go more than four weeks without a
Manchester show until April 2010 when festival planning took over,” says
Gardner. “The ethos for the Festival has come from the same idea as the
original club night: maybe we can do one of our own…”

http://www.fomfest.com
http://www.capesthorne.com