One that old pal of the blog and top soul man™ Dj Leekie asked me to point out for you this weekend: Staffs Fest Soul Weekender, and local two day music festival at Lower Drayton Farm near Penkridge – just up the road.

Staffs Fest takes place Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th May 2019, and is awash with great acts of every stripe – and is also a great, family-orientated festival that’s fun for all.

The organisers have this to say about it:

Staffs Fest is brought together by Stafford based LR Partnership, a popular annual music festival that has already made its mark on the UK music scene attracting local, regional and national musicians and audiences from all over the UK. The festival which celebrates its fifth year in 2019 is held at Lower Drayton Farm, Penkridge near Stafford ST19 5RE

Having used a single large performance stage in the first three years to host all acts, this year the Main stage caters for Rock, Blues, Britpop, Glam Rock, Folk and Soul lovers. In 2018 they introduced a second marquee which this year will house 22 Northern Soul DJs playing only vinyl. Staffs Fest 2019 will underline the growing success of the event with the introduction of a third marquee which will host Reggae Rockz 2019 production by Basil Gabbidon one of the founder members of Steel Pulse which will host a mixture of Reggae, Ska, Jazz, Funk and 2Tone. Headlining in the Reggae Rockz Marquee is KIOKO currently touring with UB40.

The festival is not one dimensional, in addition to the wide ranging live music on offer, there will be displays and workshops from local community groups including Bombay Jam, Balliamo Belly Dancers, Dance Fusion, Dance Nuvo and Stafford Salsa. There will be a range of food and drink vendors and retail stalls, clothing and ethnic outlets, whilst the beer marquee promises to never run out of beers and spirits throughout the weekend; all drinks will be at pub prices.

As befitting a family orientated music festival, provision is made for younger members with free access to Lower Drayton Fun Farm, which includes everything from animal feeding to adventure playground. As with previous years, LR Partnership are allowing all children under 16 free admission throughout the festival weekend and must be booked at same time a responsible adult. Camping is FREE with all tickets types weekend, evening only, day/evening. Not camping, you can come and go freely from the festival. Dogs are welcome but must be kept on a lead at all times.

Tickets are still available for Saturday and Sunday and can be purchased at this link here: You can find out more about the festival at the website here – which at the time of posting seems a little bit… temperamental.