History
Plymouth Volksfest is proud to say it is now in its 8th year and still going from
strength to strength. Way back in 2007 five friends thought it would be a good idea to try and do a Vee Dub show with a difference and go back to what we used to buy our beloved dubs for - camping, partying and festivals.
Vince Davis, Volksfest
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Way back in 1985 I purchased my first Vee Dub bay after going to a festival with a tent and getting soaked - yep it rained as much back then!
I was camped next to a guy with a bay and in true dubber style he saw I was soaking wet and freezing cold and invited me in for a brew, showed me round his bus, and the rest is history - I went straight home and bought a bay and have never been with out a bus since.
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So with lots of talking and searching we finally came across Newnham park in Plympton just on the out skirts of Plymouth (PL7 5BN for the old sat nav)
We met with the owner of the estate, Mr Cobald, and told him our plans and to our delight he was also a lover of VW’s - he used to own a Karman Ghia and understood what it was we wanted to achieve. With lots of help and guidance from him the first year was going to happen on the last bank holiday of May. We needed to get all the boring stuff fences, toilets, generators and the like and one of our club members from SEC Dubs and Customs was the manager at Brandon Tool Hire so he jumped on board and helped us to create our dream. |
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Now for the good stuff - the music.
We wanted to have a party so needed a good band or two so we searched high and low and asked people what they wanted hear and top of the list was and Irish folk punk band Mad Dog Mcrea and while trying to contact them we bumped into a jolly character of a man by the name of Ray Rose we told him about our dream he was excited about what we were doing as we where he said “give me a day or two and I’ll see what I can do”.
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True to his word the following day he called us back I’ve got you 25 bands lined up with Mad Dog Mcrea headlining the Saturday night! Now we had a VW festival to shout about and Ray has been involved with the festival ever since, and has even brought his wife onboard, who now has her work cut out as his right hand lady. Without the pair of them this festival wouldn’t be what it has grown into today.
2007 was just the most amazing weekend with all the fun of your traditional VW show and the entertainment of a small music festival. |
The years have been kind to us and the festival just keeps getting bigger and better each year.
We have had some fantastic artists in the past eight years and in no particular order we have seen Razorlight, Top loader, The feeling, The Real Thing, Ali Campbell’s UB40, Heaven 17, Gentleman’s Dub Club, Dreadzone, Zion Train, Goldie Lookin’ Chain, Hazel O’Connor, stereo Mc’s, Neville Staple, Toyah, Dub pistols, The Levellers, Marky Ramone, Wireless, Rufus hound, Hal Gutterage, Kitty Kane, The Beat, The Boomtown Rats, The Undertones, Seth Lakeman, Brandon Block, Judge Jules, we could go on and on with who we have had the pleasure of working with - and there have been some fantastic artists from all over the world, incredibly totalling over 1500 acts.
As we have grown over the years we have had the opportunity to work with some really
quite amazing people.
Angelina came on board back in 2010 and created what can only be described as one of the best cabaret stages we have ever seen. Ang always seems to amaze us with the acts that she gets to grace her stage, from the very talented to the most alternative or outrageous acts you are likely to see, and for good measure she always manages to puts one of the best burlesque shows on that you will ever see in the southwest if not the country.
Chris Davis one of the most enthusiastic young men we have had the pleasure of working with. He programmes, manages and comperes the Junk Yard Live and Local stage which plays host to all that is the very best of live and local talent in the Southwest.
He somehow even manages to build his own sets and if you think that is an awful lot of work for one person he even manages to find time to get on stage and do a set or two of his own. What more can you say? He is a legend of Volksfest.
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Tim Francis is a larger than life character who joined us back in 2012 and brought us the cinema. This is no ordinary cinema, hosted by no ordinary man. Tim has a great vision of what entertains and he has shown some great films over the years from a diverse range of film makers. He also thinks of the kids and manages to squeeze in the morning picture show like it was back in the old days, but we would say the highlight of what he does is getting musicians to play to silent films live on the cinemas own live music stage. |
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Disco Dave joined us in 2013. Dave can’t be missed he is one of the most energetic people your ever likely to meet and if you are looking out for him he may be the only person who wears a test card style suit and dons a head of curls like no other (yes and they are real).
Dave brought the Dance arena to us back in 2013 and 2014 but this year we have decided to bring you something bigger and better than ever the all new Aztec Zone Dave and his team are already building props and stages to blow you away!
We are going to ditch the hard house music in favour of some great live music and DJs playing soulful funky sounds and reggae with an open band stand - and the possibility of a theatre thrown in for good measure |
Nick Coles joined us back in 2013 and brought us a great team of guys Glen Fisk, Disco Dave, Rob Vega to name but a few Nick is a world renowned promoter who specialises in top name DJ’s and artists and has brought his own flair and style to the festival and we can’t wait to see what he has in store for us this year.
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