The Southdowns Music Festival returns to Bognor Regis for its tenth anniversary year from September 22-24, once again proving that it can survive pretty much anything that life can throw at it.
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00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. It's always
00:06 a pleasure to speak to Roger Nash, who is the Chairman of the South Downs Music Festival,
00:11 which is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It would have been more had it not been for
00:15 the pandemic, but this is the 10th anniversary year in Bognor, but in different circumstances
00:20 you don't have your main venue and you're doing things, obviously, by necessity, rather
00:26 differently this year. What's the format of the festival this year, Roger?
00:30 Well, the format, we've got very popular things like our Ukulele Festival, which brings a
00:37 lot of people in, our Shanty Showdown, which has been expanded this year and is again very
00:42 popular and something that people really like, a dance programme, which again is very enjoyable,
00:50 and new for this year we've got two evening concerts under marquee on the Blas Samoar
00:56 on Friday and Saturday evening with Freedark Monkeys and the Gigantics. Also new for this
01:02 year we've got the South Downs Beer and Cider Festival on the Blas Samoar, which is being
01:08 run by Jamie Bourne from the Dog and Duck. Plus we've also got a new thing, which is
01:15 the up and coming stage on the Blas Samoar that will be operating the Friday and Saturday
01:20 afternoon for people that don't normally perform.
01:22 But the big difference, obviously, is that this year you don't have your key venue, you
01:26 don't have the Regis Centre.
01:27 Absolutely, we don't have the Regis Centre, that's now closed to the public, so we don't
01:33 have the theatre, so obviously we can't have the number of headliners that we used to have.
01:40 So it's much more of a community feel.
01:42 So has it been good fun to have to think slightly differently or has it just been a headache
01:47 to think differently?
01:48 Yeah, I think we've had to think out of the box, we've had to do things differently, we've
01:54 had to be inventive about what we do, and that makes you a bit more nimble on your feet,
02:00 let's put it that way.
02:01 Yeah, and 10 years, that is, goodness, that's a considerable achievement, isn't it? Anything
02:06 to last 10 years.
02:07 Yeah, I mean, when we started out we thought we might be going for two or three years,
02:12 something like that, but I don't think in our wildest dreams we would have thought we
02:16 would still be here 10 years later.
02:17 Exactly. So, Roger, what is it you've achieved in those 10 years and why has it survived
02:22 and done so well?
02:23 Well, I think because it's popular, people like it, and that's the important thing. So
02:32 it's a question of actually getting people to come along, people taking part, and all
02:40 those sorts of things, and it's raised the profile of the town.
02:45 And I remember when we spoke right at the very start, when you were launching this 10
02:49 years ago, it was a question of making people think slightly differently about Balkan, wasn't
02:54 it?
02:55 Yeah, that's right.
02:56 And have you done that, do you think?
02:58 I think definitely, yeah. More people have come to the town that wouldn't have come,
03:02 I think that's certainly the important thing. The image of the town, I think, has been improved.
03:08 People come, shops are busy, hotels are busy, guest houses, etc. And that's all brisk to
03:16 the mill. So we hope we can continue like that.
03:20 And it says a lot for the festival that you can survive 10 years, you can survive a pandemic,
03:24 and you can survive the loss of your main venues. That's pretty good, isn't it?
03:28 Yeah, that's right. I mean, we've had everything thrown at us. They're not the only ones. But
03:36 there's been lots of festivals that have gone under.
03:40 And the dates for the festival this year are?
03:42 The dates are Friday the 22nd to Sunday the 24th of September.
03:48 Fantastic. And those two big headline acts again are Three Dwarf Monkeys and The Gigantics.
03:55 Brilliant. Lovely to speak to you again, Roger. Thank you.
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