One weekend, 20 bands… it’s the Hammerdown Festival, back in a new venue in Brighton for its seventh year, after playing Worthing last year.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely to
00:06speak again to Harry White of the Hammerdown Festival. Now, goodness, this is a festival
00:11which is going places, and in this year it's gone from Worthing last year to Brighton this
00:16year, all in the search of just getting a little bit bigger with each year. And that's
00:21all after a fairly disastrous start. You went from a handful of tickets to hundreds of tickets.
00:27It's going well. Now, we should say it's at Brighton's Concord on July the 27th and 28th,
00:3520 bands in one week. It's a hell of a lot of organisation, isn't it?
00:40Yeah, it takes a lot of effort, a lot of planning. It is a 365-day-a-year job. Well, I always
00:46say it's 363 days, and then I've got a team of people that run it for me on the weekend
00:50so I can actually enjoy it. But yeah, it's not seasonal. It is all day, every day. There's
00:57so much to do in the background. So yeah, it takes a lot.
01:00But that trajectory, the journey that you've had, making it bigger and better with each
01:04year, that must be satisfying.
01:07It is really cool. One of my favourite things to do each year is just sit down for a bit
01:12and just look at all the posters over the years. And obviously, we add one to that every
01:16year. And it's amazing to think that the first event we did back in 2015, we had 12 people
01:22in a village hall. And there were far more band members there than customers, far more.
01:29And now, if all goes well this year, we could have 600 people there next month. And that's
01:34crazy. That's awesome.
01:35Fantastic. And the key thing for you is to be supporting the up-and-coming bands, isn't
01:40it? Tell me about that mantra you were mentioning just now.
01:44Yeah. So the idea is to give the kind of rock star treatment to up-and-coming bands so that
01:50they have a bit of a springboard. And the way you do that is by putting them on with
01:55International Touring Acts. So the top chunk of your lineup is massive bands who've toured
02:00the planet, played major festivals, all that kind of stuff. And then the younger, new up-and-coming
02:04bands, they get to play on a massive stage several times the size of the pub stages they're
02:09used to. They get professional photographers and videographers. They get some great clips
02:13and some great pictures of them that they can use on their websites and their social
02:16medias that helps to elevate the professionalism of the band. They get a professional interview
02:22done with myself backstage that goes on Hammerdown's YouTube channel. They get treated with all
02:27the riders, all the food and drink. We really look after bands backstage. It's something
02:30that we always get comments about. We want to elevate bands' careers. And the best way
02:35to do that is by putting them on to support major touring acts in venues far bigger than
02:40they're used to.
02:41Yeah, it sounds like you've got a great lineup too for this year.
02:44Yeah, yeah. It's a bit of a...
02:47Mention a couple of bands that you are particularly looking forward to.
02:51So we've got a very, very unique performance. So Saturday's main supporter, a band called
02:55Esoterica, they've toured Europe with people like Marilyn Manson, so they've done quite
02:59a lot. They've played Download Festival, biggest rock festival in the world. But what's really
03:04crucial about this performance is it's a complete one-off exclusive featuring the Parallax Orchestra,
03:09who are the people responsible for many rock and metal bands' performances at the Royal
03:14Albert Hall. I mean, they're immense. So we've got a four-piece version of the Parallax Orchestra.
03:20Scores have been written specifically for that hour-long set. So that's going to be
03:24a very special performance. And yeah, I mean, I'm excited for all of the bands, but in me
03:28in particular on the Sunday night as well, they've toured the planet. They've been around
03:33for 25 years. They're very, very experienced in what they do. They've got the history.
03:38The person I hand a flyer to goes, oh my goodness, I remember in me. So I'm honoured
03:42to have them on board as well.
03:44That's it. Well, it sounds brilliant. And well done you for masterminding it, putting
03:47it all together. So you've got 20 bands over one week. It's the Hammerdown Festival. It's
03:53at Brighton's Concord 2, July the 27th and 28th. Harry, good to speak to you and good
03:58luck with everything. Hope you get that capacity.
04:00You'd be best to put me on. Thank you. Thanks very much.