WrdeUp Music Festival in the historic market town of Highworth wrapped up their festival event on Sunday with a FREE entry to everyone supported by the Arts Council England which gave the stage over to grassroots local musicians who would normally wouldn’t get a chance to perform in front of festival size crowds.
The event now in its 10th year was taken over by local Highworth company Fandangos Productions Ltd with the mission to make it the biggest and best ever and they didn’t disappoint, turning the one day festival into a three day event offering big named tribute acts such as Kaylie Malone as Taylor Swift and the Black Eyed Peaz, original acts such as indie pop rock band Alpha Circle performing their own music to the grassroots day where the stage was handed over to local bands, singers and dancers who would normally never get the chance to perform on such a big stage.
Speaking to Tom Falding, the organiser of WrdeUp Music Festival about how he felt the festival went, he said “With the weather turning against us on the Friday evening, we were pleasantly surprised with the turnout of festival goers in the very wet weather, it was an amazing feeling to see so many people dancing in the rain!” Tom went on to say “Saturday was a real highlight for me personally, seeing the site and our har work come to puritan, it was amazing to see how many people we had on the site where we hit 1350 on the festival ground during one of our counts.”
“It was great to see so many families and particular on the Sunday to take up our grassroots day, the grass roots funding allowed us to run the Sunday which led to engaging with lots of fresh faces that we had not seen in the past. Overall it was a roaring success, and although really tired, the team and I are already looking forward to next year. Once we’ve had a chance to sit down and review the event and look at tweaking and and look at lessons learnt from this year to make next year and following years to mke it better and better”.
The grassroots day kicked off with the children of Eastrop and Southfields Schools, followed by Kate X, the Highworth Jazz Showcase, Swindon Welcomes Ukraine, Plucking Different, Billy & Louie, topped off with the Sunday headliners Dub Catalyst.
Speaking to Billy & Louie about their WrdeUp experience they said “Our performance at WRDE UP was just so fun, the vibe was so relaxed and enjoyable! These are the type of performances we love the most.”
The Swindon duo went on to say “Stepping onto the main stage at WRDE UP was amazing and seeing people respond so positively to our original music was insane! We had the best time, watching the crowd singing along to our song ‘no good for each other’ was the best part of our performance! It feels amazing to not only to entertain but to do it with our original music!”.
The Sunday stage was opened up to local grassroots musicians and dancers with the support by the Arts Council England. The grassroots day was the icing on the cake of a great weekend for festival goers from Highworth and the surrounding area.
We caught up with Sunday headliners Dub Catalyst after their set to see how their WrdeUp experience was and here is what they had to say “We had a fantastic time at WrdeUp! A huge big up to the guys at WrdeUp and Arts Council England for putting together the ‘Grassroots Day’ giving up and coming bands the opportunity to get on festival stages like WrdeUp”
Dub Catalyst performed off the back of their album ‘Dub Catalyst Saves the World’, the band who are currently receiving rave reviews and support from people hearing their music and likes of Andy V at the Random Reggae Show had great things to say about their WrdeUp experience saying “It was lovely to play a full set and to headline was just a great way to end the weekend!”
If you cant get enough of Dub Catalyst, then you can see them perform again at the Coleford Music Festival next Sunday (Click HERE for more details). The band are also back in the studio at the moment recording their next album due out sometime next year. Entertainment Swindon will be reporting more on this, so if you’ve not already, like our Entertainment Swindon Official Facebook page for more Dub Catalyst news.
As well as a weekend of amazing live music, WrdeUp had something for everyone, from a kids entertainment area teaching circus activities, stilt walkers towering above everyone and of course the England vs Switzerland match that saw the Fan Zone tent turned into a dramatic zone of edge of seats tension as England went 1 – 0 down until an equaliser by Saka who scored in the 80th minute leaving the game to go into 30mins of extra time which stayed goalless and the dreaded penalty shootout.
With the Fan Zone tent spilling out with the WrdeUp festival goers watching through every opening around the tent possible, the tent erupted with cheers, kids at the front jumping on the stage where the large screens were, dads ripping off their England shirts swinging them above their heads in excitement that England had made it through to the Semi-Finals.
For those who weren’t able to attend WrdeUp Music Festival, wanting a festival experience before the summer is over still have Cotswold Festival, another multi-day music festival for all the family set in the Cotswolds between Highworth & Cirencester, check out our link HERE for details and to book your tickets.
Entertainment Swindon 
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