Blast

The rain cleared and storm clouds rolled back over Burtonfest to reveal a large village marquee full of exuberant and expectant music fans.

Over three days at the end of June 2007, the second annual Burton-on-Stather music festival provided a huge range of musical styles to the small village fields in North Lincolnshire.

Professional bands played shoulder to shoulder with new emerging youth talent. Over twenty teenagers took to the centre stage over the weekend with their instruments - many of which they have only just recently learned to play. Youngster’s fine tuned their skills and perfected their stage craft in the months leading up to the main event alongside professionals at BLAST rock workshops throughout the year.

One of the acts in action

Burtonfest organiser Deb Pollard said: “The young people performing have been training all year and they're going to be absolute stars."

Formed just three weeks before the gig, ‘Silent Confessions’ were the fist to take to the stage on the BBC Blast supported Saturday evening.

Drummer Daniel was rocked when his band split up with just a few weeks to go before the festival. Luckily, fellow BBC Blast work-shoppers Daniel and Katie stepped in to form a new guitar based band “No Exit” and played a strong trio of songs.

The band was so keen on the exposure and experience that they took to the stage for a short set on each of the three festival days.

Attention soon switched to the south stage, where ‘Thor’ limbered up. The five piece played at last year’s festival and peer mentored their experience to many of the younger bands playing. These ‘veterans’ had an average age of 17 but played with a confidence and maturity beyond their years.

Lead singer Louis reassured the audience between tracks that “he wasn’t all that scared” despite his ‘screamo’ vocals with melodic interludes. Louis also appeared between bands to compare the event; a man of many talents.

Louis said, “It’s really good to get up on stage and play in front of a big audience; It’s a great experience”

The weekend continued with sets from a whole range of local bands and visitors from all over the country wowing the crowds with high energy, high volume performances. Many of the professional bands commented on how good it was that many young bands were playing.

Stooey from White Lines said; “We enjoyed every minute of it and were extremely impressed with the young up and coming musicians who have taken part in today’s show. From what I saw, there is a lot of talent with a great deal of potential.”

The mighty Thor

These young bands included, No Exit, Flame in Hell, Break with Refreshments, Crashed Angels and Zero Hour.

Jamie (12), of Zero Hour, said: "I'm really enjoyed the experience and it was by far the biggest gig we've ever performed."

Despite the constant threat of rain over the weekend there was a substantial audience each day trying to get the best view of their favourite bands. Tickets for the event had come from as far a field as Milton Keynes, Co Durham, Warrington, Walsall, Norwich and York. The audience and the bands all commented on how good the atmosphere was throughout the three days and vowed to return next year.

Vicky (18), from Burton on Stather, said: "I’ve been counting down to the festival for months. It's amazing to have something like this around here."