Stendhal Festival organisers reflect on their most challenging event to date and announce plans for 2020.
Ten thousand people sang and danced in the mud at Ballymully Cottage Farm during the ninth instalment of Stendhal Festival on August 15-17 and while weather conditions were not kind to revellers, performers or volunteers alike, organisers of the event say they are pleased with how everything turned out this year.
The three-day event headlined by Basement Jaxx, Hothouse Flowers and Soak welcomed record numbers over the weekend despite the heavy rainfall experienced throughout the duration of the festival and the management team of Stendhal paid tribute and thanked everyone who continues to support the event.
“What a great crowd we had this year,” said Event director Ross Parkhill, “the elements were against us for the first time ever and everyone just got on with it and had a great time. The feedback we are getting is really positive and to an extent eases the fears we have had about what the response would be to the eventuality of a really wet year.
“Basement Jaxx put on one of the best gigs we have ever had at the farm, while Hothouse Flowers, Roe, Phill Jupitus, Soak, David Keenan and a whole host of others were also absolutely top class.”
He continued: “Our first foray into the world of booking a magic spectacle with Rodd Hogg went down really well and our family programme was one of the best we have ever put together.
“We welcomed the largest turnout in the event’s history and while the weather did play a role in the weekend in some ways it added to the experience, watching people embrace the conditions and seeing kids sliding down the hill at Karma Valley on their backsides and just enjoying themselves was a huge positive for us.
“So a massive thank you to everyone who came and enjoyed the weekend and for the patience, people showed when we had to put some auxiliary plans into place to deal with the conditions.
“Thank you for continuing to support Stendhal and for helping us continue to do something we believe is truly special, unique and important in Northern Ireland.”
For the first time in the events’ history, the team had to implement a number of weather-dependent contingency plans, which on top of the general running of the event, added a great deal of pressure to an already difficult job.
“It was tough going behind the scenes,” said Ross, “the conditions meant that we had to be absolutely on our game at all times and be prepared for a lot of situations that we had never dealt with before. Once again our team were an absolute credit to us and themselves, they dug deep and did an absolutely fantastic job.
“We had to close our on-site car parks on the Friday night and implement a shuttle bus service to get people to the farm and while we have had this as a plan B for entire history of the festival, as with anything the first time you actually have to do it adds that little bit of stress and anxiety to proceedings.
“I must say though, our team dealt with it admirably and as we always say, every year we learn loads and loads about running this festival and this time out school was certainly in session but it makes us stronger going forward.”
Ross added further thanks saying: “We wouldn’t be where we are today without some absolutely phenomenal support from funders, partners and sponsors, so a massive thank you to all of them, particularly The Causeway Coast and Glens Borough, Council, Tourism NI and our Charity Partner Help Musicians NI.
“Please go on our website to see everyone who supports us and please support them in kind.”
With Stendhal 2019 all wrapped up, the teams’ attention is already set on next year and the dates for the 10th edition of the festival have been set for August 6th-8th 2020 with early bird tickets going on sale in September.
With a milestone year ahead, Ross says that the team are going to be pulling out all the stops to really make Stendhal 10 something very special.
“We can’t quite believe that next year will be our tenth birthday,” Ross said, “We’ve been through a hell of a lot to get here and we have a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be but ten years is a great achievement for all involved and we want to mark that in style.
“We have already started with plans for our big birthday bash as we want it to make a real statement so stay tuned to our social media channels and our website over the coming months for all the info.”
