Let Me Introduce You To.. LeeFest

The dream for any music fan is to have their own festival. They choose the line up, they choose the location, the date and get one of those sparkling AAA passes, which get them everywhere. For Lee Denny, creator of LeeFest, he decided to do just that – even if originally that wasn’t what he planned to create.

One summer, Lee’s parents went on a break away – enrolling him, at 17, as head honcho of the house while they were away. Their only rule was to not throw a house party, something to this date Lee still believes he did not ignore. Always the mischievous, he decided to throw a ‘festival’ in his garden instead. Intended just for close friends as an alternative place to get merry, on private land with live music – opposed to a bus stop with a mobile, as soon as word spread the ‘festival’ soon did as well.

As the festival grew, and the line up grew stronger, the team behind LeeFest decided a change of location was needed. Having outgrown the garden, where the light box was inside a greenhouse and all electricity was drawn from extension leads for the past 3 previous years, they headed to some local fields to stage the event. It was then in 2009 that the festival really hit the publics eye.

Now with coverage from ITV, Radio 1, BBC 6music and the London Metro – described as ‘fantastic’ by George Lamb – the festival capacity reached too 1000 people, with The Holloways and Xcerts headling the event. It was also in 2009 Lee decided to make the now profitable festival, completely non-profit. Pledging to donate half off all profits to charity, Kids Company, and the other half going straight back into the festival to help make the next years event even bigger and better.

Now in 2010, with the ‘Grassroots festival of the year” award in their cabinet from the previous years UK festival Awards, they have double in capacity again, now standing at 2000, and also bought in the option of camping as well. The site has also moved to a local farm which they believe will be their home for the next couple years at least (unless the festival starts to grow even quicker) The line up is strong and the following is even stronger. With The Futureheads, Does It Offend You Yeah?, The King Blues and Fench Soler headling this year (not to mention King Charles who are amazing)

Tickets are still available,  at only £30 including camping, but it was announced today that only 29 were left – so save no time deciding if you fancy going and buy tickets from here before it’s too late.

The festival runs from saturday the 14th to Sunday the 15th of August at Highams Hill Farm, Surrey, CR6 9PQ.
The nearest station is Bromley South where you can get a free shuttle bus to and from the festival.

If you still need convincing – here’s a preview documentary on this years festival.

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