The History of Leefest
In case you haven't heard, LeeFest was created by accident when, as a 17-year-old boy, Lee's parents laid a little too much trust in him. They left him alone in the house with their strict words resounding in his mind 'Don't you dare have another house party.' Being as ingeniously stupid as he was, he decided instead to stage a 'festival' instead! Here is a little history to show how it has now snowballed into a major event on the music industry calendar. For more pictures and videos of each year please visit the Galleries page.
2009:
Saturday 15th August
Venue:
Hawksbrook Lane.
Capacity: 1500.
Charity: KidsCo.
Portaloos: 14
LeeFest dreams came true in 2009: ITV, Radio 1, BBC 6music, London Metro and many more provided features on the event, we had more than 1000 people on site, built an artificial beach, face-painted everyone, the Porter Loo total hit 14 and we introduced a third stage to the site to increase our line up to over 30 artists! LeeFest 2009 was a fresh start with a jump up in the professionalism but still capturing the DIY essence, and has begun a new era for the festival. For the first time we had professional artists on the lineup, but we also stuck by our aim of billing them alongside as much local talent as possible. The Holloways really proved themselves as headliners and graced us with the accolade of being 'the best small festival they have played at!' Starsmith turned out to be many people's favourite act of the day and The Xcerts provided an astoundingly energetic show. We also began a new link with charity Kids Company and they are so good we have decided to support them again! LeeFest 2009 was the best yet by far, the only problem is how can we beat that!
2008:
Saturday 30th August
Venue:
Hawksbrook Lane.
Capacity: 600.
Charity: KidsCo.
Portaloos: 6
The third festival was surreal. Organised in under a month, for the first time it took place in an actual field, away from the garden. Over 600 attended and enjoyed around 20 artists over 8 hours. The site itself was perhaps a little too big but this was a change that had to be made to extend the life of the festival. The major jump to a field meant we also needed a licence, serious amounts of fencing, lighting, sound gear and manpower. We also had to ditch the illegal bar. All in under a month it proved a tough year but the day was so successful it made everything worth it. This year was still very, very DIY!
2007:
Friday 31st August
Venue:
Lee's Garden.
Capacity: 300.
Charity: Save the Children.
Portaloos: 1
Still in the garden, but this time with 2 stages, over 15 acts a BBQ and a bar (again, illegally) - the second LeeFest was ridiculous. This was also the debut appearance of a porter Loo at a LeeFest, we only ordered one and placed it in Lee's drive! Local rap heroes The BLT played their final live set in the Dance Tent, the amount of artists given the chance to play was doubled, we had a generator, and fit 300 people in a tiny garden! From here on in we decided our success should be measured in the number of portaloos on site. Unconventional, but it works.
2006:
Thursday 3rd August
Venue:
Lee's Garden.
Capacity: 150.
Charity: Teenage Cancer Trust.
Portaloos: 0 (but there was a toilet in Lee's house.)
The debut event was held in Lee's garden! It was organised in a week and saw 150 people come together for an amazing day of live bands, comedy, rap and DJ's. There was also a bar (very illegally!) At the time it was all a big joke and an excuse to have fun, just a silly little idea of holding a 'festival' in Lee's back garden and naming it after him. Ridiculous really.
