I am delighted to announce that we are again putting on the Doune the Rabbit Hole Festival in 2018, from July 13th to 15th at our beautiful site on the Cardross Estate in Stirlingshire. This year will be much bigger, with The Levellers, Big Country, Akala, The Beat, This Is The Kit and Peatbog Faeries, plus scores of other excellent acts. As usual the festival will be friendly to families, with a big kids’ area and plenty of activities and workshops. And as always, I and this blog will be very heavily involved, and I shall be running the bars.
The festival is determinedly non-commercial and very much a lifestyle experience rather than purely a musical experience. I always use the description of “pop-up community” and feel it gives me a brief glimpse of a better world. It is not linked to this blog or its political stance, but I find people who are comfortable with this blog enjoy it very much.
Now comes the brutal honesty. Last year several things went wrong at the festival, largely due to quite appalling weather and the resources sucked up by coping with it. This led to serious conversations about whether we give up, and we go the way of the Wicker Man and other Scottish “alternative” festivals that have recently folded. We decided that if we go on, we need to be bigger to have the resources required for the infrastructure. Therefore we are going for bigger and better than ever before, with the attendant financial risks.
We are also moving the festival forward a month in the hope of better weather, and the certainty of lighter evenings.
At the same time, we are making tickets substantially cheaper than last year and reinstating free entry for under 12s. Adult full weekend camping tickets are currently available at £70 (increasing to £80 on Saturday). Adult day tickets start at £35. This is where you buy tickets.
You don’t have to buy a ticket. If you want to join me and the other volunteers who work on the festival, then you can complete the form here. It really is quite hard work, though there are all kinds of different jobs available and something that everybody can do. This is the volunteer sign-up form.
Did MI6 force you to put this up to distract from your 4 horseman post ?
I do have a life outside of politics, Pyotr.
Yes but today, when your followers are all trembing at the prospect of nuclear annihilation and your blog is the only place where we can share our fears…
A bit of light relief therefore needed.
Sanity in today’s world is indeed a strongly fought for thing. I commend Craig for the strategy he is deploying.
I have a life outside politics as well, but right now I’m not betting any money that I’ll still have one this time next week…
You don’t sound like that great Scotsman Bill Shankly [Liverpool FC Manager] who said, “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.” …
It’s a fiendish plot, Pyotr. They’ve been running this event for many years, preparing the cover for just this occasion.
Looks like a decent Shin Dig. Might Hop across the North Sea from Sweden
Ah The Levellers. Bless their anarchist socks.
Good shout and a reminder that we need balance in life, outwith torturous political dynamics…
I’ll be at a similar festival during these dates, down near Taunton.
Alas, I can’t make that weekend – & This is the Kit are something special (check out Easy on the Thieves- from the last album[but not on YT]).
I wish you all the best for the festy & sincere thanks for your blog posts which (along with b at Moon of Alabama) present a welcome sane commentary & analysis on current events, especially the recent Syrian CW ‘incident’, wh
Pls invite the Donald..oh and the MayBot of course.
Music being the N°1 reconciler, I do hope you have good weather over there in Stirlingshire (beautiful name) for your get together.
On another note, I am surprised every time I see old geezers (and ambassadors) are not anymore what they used to be. Where you had sanctimonious portly gentlemen in drab suits who would have died a slow and painful death rather than listen to anything more recent than Beethoven, today you are lucky if they are not heavily into the Sex Pistols.
And I am one of those (female old geezer, punk rock lover).
Cheers to Craig for having set his headquarters in the key strategic location (the bar).
From France with love.
Doune is 40 miles from Faslane and Coulport which is coincidentally the same distance as my home (in a slightly different direction).
In the event of nuclear war I and the population of Doune will have the privilege of dying in the first hour which could be a good selling point for those who would rather avoid a drawn out death.
Never mind the fallout. Everyone should go to Faslane and Helensburgh on September 22nd (for full details see http://www.banthebomb.org/ ) if we haven’t had a nuclear war by then. If we do have a nuclear war the fallout will get us anyway.
Craig how can you be thinking of such frivolous pursuits when the world could be on the brink of nuclear war, and you are probably being followed by teams of MI5 officers looking for the best way to do you in. The way you are holding that glass of beer indicates you do not have a care in the world, or is it that the way Politicians and MSM are behaving at the moment makes it more beneficial to you to laugh at them and drink merrily, rather than take them seriously and die of frustration?
I hope it’s military grade alcohol in that beer…_
Of a type developed by the Czech Republic(?).
Tennents Super on draught, Scotland’s finest ale.
if that is the finest Scotland can offer – then it is a pretty overpowering argument for remaining in the UK
big country ?
last time I heard the name was like 1986 ^^
Now that you mention it, yes. And Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Two Tribes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2QAMqTgPKI
We’ve seen Big Country at least twice over the last few years including here.
“Big Country play Fields of Fire at Weyfest 2016”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTQ-sJ9cmNo
“big country i never felt so low weyfest 31st aug 2014”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2fC1EuRJi0
Tony
I’ve just had a closer look at the poster and I would like to salute whoever booked Atari Teenage Riot.
Be sure to chat with Alec Empire, Craig.
Good Line up. Reasonable prices, but you are only 35 miles by road from Faslane (much closer by air), and you are North East of Faslane, and the prevailing winds normally come from the South West. If its very windy, there might be some dispersal, but I suspect the Radioactive Fallout will still hit you in less 30 minutes, though you should survive the blast.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/FK8+3JY,+Brucehill+Cottages,+Port+of+Menteith,+Stirling/HMNB+Clyde,+Faslane,+Helensburgh+G84+0EH/@56.0759265,-4.6670679,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x4888f5e77e7990e7:0xeb010e60bfa30e7!2m2!1d-4.257832!2d56.1524758!1m5!1m1!1s0x4889a8f59cd33273:0x4b00670d6286689a!2m2!1d-4.8202313!2d56.0677062?dcr=0
Good luck,
Tony
Fortunately we have an excellent bar so it will be a good thirty minutes!
Clearly Craig thinks we will all be around in July despite all the apocalyptic rubbish elsewhere on this forum.
Dear Craig, I want to say a massive WELL DONE for all your efforts to let the truth be known in the face of all the pressure not to. I’m glad to see that you have a life outside of politics – hope this goes well. Hope we’re all still around to enjoy it.
Disposable plastic glasses? Tsk, tsk.
Necessary for health and safety no doubt.
O/T but I thought this might bring a wry smile to Craig’s face in the light of his piece on Hunt who resigned as a Labour MP to head the V&A..
From the Heil last month.
‘Last year I disclosed that new Victoria and Albert Museum boss Tristram Hunt had horrified some staff with his plans to allow the Beano comic to ‘take over’ the London landmark — with exhibits including a statue that breaks wind.
Now, the ex-Labour MP has come up with another innovation: an evening discussion on ‘the future of dating’. The V&A says, alluringly: ‘With dating apps ever increasing, finding love is now as much about an algorithm as physical attraction.’ Who says romance is dead?’
The pits. He is said to be raking in in excess of £250k pa, that’s from us, the taxpayers.
Craig’s piece – https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/01/good-riddance-tristram-hunt/comment-page-1/#
Daft Punks Spectular Headline at 2027 Doune The Rabbit Hole –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_1x559dzMQ
” I shall be running the bars.”
The most important job 🙂
Good luck with the festival.
The Orb are excellent!
We would so love to come but unfortunately you have scheduled it according to the Scottish school holidays and the English public school holidays. My very conscientious son won’t finish his English state school term early to come!