Morecambe Music Festival will be ‘a nice tonic for people to drink and take in’

Morecambe Music Festival 2021 runs from August 13-15 and promises over 150 acts at 28 venues to entertain the crowds in their thousands.

From Saturday, August 7, at all the participating venues, you can pick up a brochure to see all the acts and venues and start planning out your route.

Festival founder Stuart Michaels said: “We are really excited about it, other than Morecambe Pride we are the first big festival back after a long period and such a negative time.

“It’s been the hardest ever year to organise the festival, we’ve had a lot of red tape thrown in our faces and we didn’t know if we could go ahead but everyone has worked really hard for the festival.

“We have 28 venues and over 150 acts and hopefully we will bring people a well overdue respite.

“I don’t think there is anything better than live music to lift people’s spirits.

“It will be a nice tonic for people to drink and take in over the three days.

“At the minute looking at the weather it may be like this for the next 10 days.

“We’ve had three years of blistering sunshine and hot weather and at some point we are going to encounter bad weather, but 90% of the acts perform inside so please don’t be put off by the weather, the venues all have roofs!

“The festival continues to be free, that would only change if we were to introduce an outdoor stage with big acts.

“Because we are self funded that would only be down the line that the festival may be ticketed.

“This year we talked about whether or not we wanted to do it, but in my job as a singer the vibe I got was we needed something to raise the spirits and if that is what this does then fantastic.

“This is my little baby, I’ve spent three years building it up and I’m passionate about it.

“I want to keep building it up to where people travel from all round the country to the festival.

“We would always be careful so as not to lose the identity of the festival.

“We usually attract between 15-20,000 people, including locals and visitors, over the course of the three days.

“In 2019 we started seeing or bumping into people from outside the area.

“A family from Newcastle come up every year now for the festival.

“We have had emails from Whitehaven, Sunderland, Derby and Stoke from groups travelling up for the festival next week.

“I want to grow it into a national festival but because we are self funded and don’t get grants we need to take it one step at a time.

“If we lay good foundations we can build on them.

“In the first year of the festival we had 14 venues and in the second year we had 35 venues but what we found was it was too widely spaced and the venues on the outskirts didn’t do as well as we hoped.

“In the third festival we kept things central to Morecambe, from The Park hotel and The Exchange to the Morecambe Hotel, and now it’s become walkable.

“In the 2019 festival we had 24 venues and now we are at 28 venues.

“Hopefully you bring yourselves and we bring the music.

“As the owner of the festival all I would ask is people appreciate the time and effort that has gone into it, supporting it is pivotal to its success.

“Jay Blackburn, who has worked hard on the committee, has this year finished his own album that he has written, called ‘In This Old World’ and he will be launching it at the Friday night of the festival on August 13 at The Exchange, Morecambe from 7.30pm.

“He brings original music to the table and we couldn’t be prouder that he is launching the album off the back of the festival.”

This year’s festival ale has been named after late musician Keith Ashcroft who Stuart said was: “A fantastic local musician who was loved by everyone and who is missed terribly.” ‘Keith Alecroft’ will be served at the festival.

The official launch night for Morecambe Music Festival 2021 is on Thursday August 12 with TwentyFourSeven playing live at The Exchange from 7pm-11pm.

For more information visit www.morecambemusicfestival.uk or Morecambe Music Festival 2021 on Facebook for updates.