Cumbrian music festival gets grant to help it reopen

Cumbria's Solfest music festival has been granted funding to help secure its future.

The Award-Winning Family Music and Arts Festival has been awarded its second Culture Recovery Fund grant of £75,000 to help the organisation recover and reopen.

They have received £175,000 in total.

Organisers say this grant will aid Solfest in providing a better experience for the festival’s attendees by providing a well-rounded music and arts festival, ensuring all of its production deposits are covered in the event of covid uncertanty.

Ticket sales have already surpassed the previous five events of Solfest, with an expanded capacity of 10,000, organisers hope the festival will sell out and will be the biggest in nearly a decade.

"The first bit of funding was absolutely incredible, it was like winning the lottery in a way because it had been such a bleak year for everyone, the whole industry and it was like it had re-awoken and gave the team a real boost then we were getting to the end of it and we were thinking there's no insurance, what are we going to do? So to be able to get this money now has given us a real confidence boost." - Sam Johnston, Festival Director at Solfest.

Solfest is set to go ahead on August Bank Holiday weekend with headline acts Razorlight, Maxïmo Park and a DJ set from Basement Jaxx.

The updated line-up confirms new acts such as Utah Saints, DJ Hype, DJ Champion, and DJ Format — as the Dance Tent headliners, The Amazons, Melt Yourself Down and This Is The Kit, and local artists Hardwicke Circus & MyLittleBrother — as the Mainstage additions, and, for the first time, Thursday entertainment featuring Welsh Comedy Hip-hop band Goldie Lookin’ Chain, Sam & the Womp, Funke & the Two Tone Baby and Jeremiah Ferrari.