After a music festival near holiday homes in North Wales this July? Then be sure you check out what Wakestock can offer you.
The Wakestock Festival is the largest annual festival in Europe that combines music and wakeboarding. It’s held on the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales and has a view of the Snowdonia Mountains and Cardigan Bay. The festival is split over three sites: the main festival site at Penrhos, Pwllheli Marina hosts the main wakeboard competition while Abersoch Bay hosts the Big Air Classic competition.
The festival was founded by Mark Durston in 2000 in Abersoch, North Wales. Originally it was a wakeboard contest with a party for less than 1000 people and from then it also played host to bands and DJ’s. In 2010, the festival became part of the World Wakeboard Series. Now it has its own wakeboard ‘Pool Gap’ which consist of two pools containing about 200.000 gallons of water. The pools are connected by handrails that the wakeboarders slide along being towed by an overhead cable system.
A lot of important bands will play during the festival this year, including Frank Turner, Frightened Rabbit, Tom Odell, Levellers, Fatherson and Racing Glaciers. There will also be a lot of daytime activities for the goers, such as junk percussion lessons (led by Colin Daimond), dance lessons (thanks to the students from Pwllheli School of Dance and Performing Arts), rides and climbing walls of the Funfair. Participants will also be given the opportunity to work with Mr Kobo to create a mural for the festival site. As for the trade stalls, there will be the Artisan Market and an area for independent artists, designer-makers, vintage sellers and food producers.
It’s not difficult to get to the Llyn. Big Green Coach run direct coach services from loads of locations in the UK; otherwise there’s the train to Bangor station from where you can easily catch a bus to the festival site – the journey takes an hour. There are also shuttle bus services during the weekend between the festival site, Caernarfon, Bangor, Porthmadog, Criccieth and Hafan y Mor. If you’re planning to travel by car, there is a parking available on site for the weekend.
On the 11th, 12th and 13th of July, there’s only one place to be in Wales for your fix of music, sports and one or two tall drinks. Tickets are going quickly and with less than two weeks to go, snap one up before you regret it.