News

Martha and The Vandellas to Play Lounge On The Farm

• 29th Mar 2010

‘Lounge On The Farm’ is predicting a ‘Heatwave’ to celebrate its landmark fifth birthday celebrations on the weekend of 9-11th July 2010 and it’s with great delight that they can announce headliners Martha Reeves & The Vandellas who will be ‘Ridin’ High’ on Saturday night in the Cow Shed and Toots & The Maytals who will be dropping ‘Sensational Ska’ to close the festival on Sunday evening.

With increased capacity, this year’s Lounge On The Farm looks set to be the finest yet, with a medley of musical pleasures – from local heroes and the next big things to the truly legendary – spread across seven stages, plus incredible comedy, theatre, burlesque and vaudeville treats, the kids’ Little Lounge area and some of the most refined, locally sourced, rustic refreshments to be found at any festival anywhere.

Set in the idyllic surrounds of Merton Farm in Canterbury, Lounge on The Farm, winner of the UK Festival Awards’ Best Line Up Award 2009, has once again pulled out all the stops to assemble a fantastically eclectic bill, that doesn’t follow the herd. Joining Motown giants Martha Reeves & The Vandellas – whose hits include ‘Dancing In The Street’, ‘Jimmy Mack’, ‘Nowhere To Run’ and ‘(Love is Like A) Heatwave’ – and stupendous Reggae greats Toots & The Maytals, who proved such an inspiration to both the Clash with ‘Pressure Drop’ and The Specials with ‘Monkey Man’ – will be incomparable deck-master DJ Yoda, the British Jazz scene’s leading light Courtney Pine, Irish troubadour Fionn Regan, folktronic tour de force Tunng and 60s psychedelic legend The Crazy World of Arthur Brown who will no doubt deliver a scorcher.

There will also be top drawer floor-filling entertainment from Southern Fried’s Thomas Gandey (Cagedbaby), lo-fi Subpop noiseniks Male Bonding, all-girl alt. choir Gaggle, pop-techno trio Man Like Me, psychedelic visionary King Charles, prog-trad. folksters Circulus, Tom Waits protégé Jesca Hoop, country soul quintet Treetop Flyers, west coast stylee synth-poppers Your Twenties and the incomparable Don Letts, the man who introduced the Punk generation to Reggae. The Glimmers will be headlining the Hoedown Tent on Sat night with some late night hands in the air action, plus there will be appearances from J*Star, Raf Daddy (Two Bears), Vadoinmessico, Xylaroo, 6 Day Riot, Cats And Cats And Cats, Cocos Lovers, Elephants, Gaolers Daughter, Cha Cha, Polka Party, Two Wounded Birds, Hobo Jones & The Junkyard Dogs, Intensified, Krissy & The Jackdaws, Slap Alice and Natasha Davies

Highlights across the weekend will include renowned Camden live venue, The Flowerpot, decamping to Kent to host the Farm Folk tent on Saturday which will be headlined by Kentish Town heroes and LOTF faves Kitty, Daisy & Lewis. There are plenty of surprises in store for the day, all of which will be announced very soon. The You Say They Play competition returns bigger and better in 2010. Expanding to give 36 local bands the chance to play at the festival, You Say They Play is a talent search that spans the whole of Kent – with Kent's two premier live music venues The Farmhouse, Canterbury and Tunbridge Wells Forum taking care of East and West Kent respectively via an online competition and showcase gigs. More info at link There will also be the School Of Rock – an under 18s bands stage that is the focal point of the Young Farmers area, catering for kids from 8-9 upwards. As well as kids’ bands there'll be an under 18's discotheque with some big name DJs stopping by, and a weekend of music and arts workshops.

One thing that sets Lounge On The Farm apart from other events is that it isn’t just about the amazing music line up. The festival prides itself on the quality and quantity of the local food and drink on offer. Since being named “Best Festival for Foodies” by The Guardian in 2008 LOTF hasn't looked back, developing great links with the finest food producers from the Garden of England. Local brewery and Queen's Award winning Shepherd Neame are supporting the event for the fifth year running, supplying Oranjeboom and Spitfire draught, as well as a bespoke LOTF Festival Ale made from the finest Kentish ingredients to tantalise the taste buds. Add in the fact that Rick Stein food heroes Pawley Farm will be back with their very own LOTF Cider and we've got all bases covered for your bespoke alcoholic action. Festival faves such as Al's Hogroast, Haji Baji's curry-stop and The Farmhouse Pie & Mash Kitchen are all back, and again Merton Farm, the very place on whose land we're partying, will be serving up mouth watering lamb kebabs and beef burgers from animals raised on the farm itself.

The Playhouse is Lounge On The Farm’s theatre & performance stage, which by day will be hosted by local artists Lucy & Lizzie, who last year outshone themselves by curating a wonderful weekend of Kentish performance talents. Based on a theme of Found and Framed, a variety of artists, both performance and visual, will explore the regeneration of ideas and forms, objects and materials; to re-love, re-work, re-make and re-define; giving them a new voice and encouraging a re-generation of beauty. A bumper batch of wandering performance artists courtesy of PANEK are already lined-up for this year plus a Panto-themed dress-up & workshops organised by Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. By night The Playhouse will become Lounge On The Farm’s comedy stage, with local talent taking over the Friday, and internationally-renowned side-splitters programmed by celebrated comedy promoters Underbelly for the Saturday & Sunday nights.

The 24 hour field will be a hive of activity centred on The Groovy Movie Picture House. The Solar Cinema will be showing a mix of movies, music and audio-visual vérité. They will be joined by a few of Lounge On The Farm’s favourite late night haunts, and for the first time, the charity Strummerville will be on site, holding one of their infamous campfires in celebration of the late great Joe Strummer.

This year will see the Little Lounge moving to the festival’s Meadows area. Offering an additional pull of peace and tranquillity, the Little Lounge is where kids from zero to hero can find their festival fun. There will also be a number of local tourism partners coming in to join the fun at the farm in 2010. Aspinall’s Zoo, who own both Howletts and Port Lympne Zoo are part of the all new kids’ area, and will be providing a weekend of animal attraction. Other attractions in The Meadows include The Herbalists Garden offering salon and spa treatments, Soapbox Corner featuring local charities and good causes, and a make-do and mend workshop area, including environmental awareness workshops from local eco-conference centre Pines Calyx.

With more amazing acts and attractions to be announced in the coming weeks Lounge On The Farm really is the cream of the Kentish crop.