Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust, organisers of the annual Occombe Festival, is getting Occombe Farm ready for its biggest event of the year. The barns have been cleared, the bars have been scrubbed and the beer is ordered! Occombe Festival 2019 is now only days away!
This popular local festival has grown massively in popularity over the years and earned the reputation for being more than just a two day beer festival on a farm in South Devon. What started out as a celebration of local ales has evolved to applaud local food and music too. But although the festival has changed beer is still a massive part and there will be over 30 varieties of beers, ales and ciders to try.
As important as the ales is the festival’s music line-up. This year the Trust has invested even more resources than ever before into bringing performers from outside of the county, aiming to provide a chance to see bands not normally accessible on the local music circuit. Like, Bristol based, serial knee jerkers Mr Tea and the Minions, who are playing Festival Friday and bringing their own unique take on full power Balkan flavoured Ska, Dub, Swing and Folk, inspiring uncontrollable silly dancing and wild bouts of jumping around!
On Festival Saturday five piece Black Water County, from Bournemouth, will be bringing us their fusion of folk instruments, punk energy and catchy pop melodies, with sing-along choruses to rouse our Occombe audience! Jake Morrell, also joining us on Saturday, could have come straight out of Nashville, or even from the Californian sunshine. He is bringing us a taste of his own American country style music with smooth choruses to inspire even more singing along, hopefully in the Occombe sunshine!
The Trees, Rum Puppets, Daisy Clark and the Kaizens are making their debut appearances on the Occombe Stage, whilst festival friends Firekind, the Blues Brothers Collective and Mafia 4 are returning to get our fists pumping and feet stomping! Local bands Dr Oz and Mammoth will be overseeing massive rip-roaring closes to Friday and Saturday evenings respectively, both with a humungous array of our favourite covers.
And new for 2019 Occombe Festival has offered a platform to three local young performers to play to a festival audience; an opportunity for us all to champion local young talent. We can’t wait to welcome Charlotte, Izzy and Owen to the farm stage!
As always some of our most loved regional street food vendors will be on hand, providing a mouth-watering menu of dishes such as gourmet burgers, dirty fries, handmade pizzas, noodles and much more.
Occombe Festival is an essential fundraising event for organiser’s Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust, which cares for a massive 1,750 acres of Torbay’s most beautiful natural places. These special places include Occombe Farm, Cockington Country Park and Berry Head National Nature Reserve and a host of wildlife friendly woodlands, meadows, stunning cliffs and coastlines. All the profits from the festival go directly to the Trust to help care for and maintain these sites in Torbay; providing places for public enjoyment, recreation and habitats for wildlife. Just collecting litter from our sites costs over £25,000 per year! So, the Occombe Festival really is all about ‘Good times that do good’!
Damian Offer, Chief Executive of Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust said,
“We are excited about the way Occombe Festival has evolved to become a celebration of music, local food and local ales and ciders. Whilst it is primarily about raising funds for the Trust it’s an opportunity to provide our community with a fantastic fun-filled weekend of entertainment in a great atmosphere!”
“It’s a great alternative to the bars and clubs in the town, offers ‘barn to barn’ fun, in a happy, safe environment, in a stunning countryside setting. This is why we welcome back so many regular festival goers every year!”
There are free buses from stops throughout Torquay and Paignton to and from Occombe Farm, which means that stumbling home afterwards is all sorted for you!
More information about the festival can be found on the festival website, social media pages or by emailing info@countryside-trust.org.uk Tickets are on sale now online at: www.occombefestival.co.uk or call 01803 520 022.
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