Why Is Soul Town The Best?
Soul Town Festival is the most authentic soul, disco, Motown and reggae celebration in the UK.
Across two days and multiple stages in a beautiful lush green space in Beckenham it offers dancers, rides, attractions, face painting, glitter stalls, hair braiding, fashion and craft stalls and of course world class music.
This year it comes from the likes of Mica Paris, Eban Brown from the Stylistics, UB40, Sister Sledge ft Kathy Sledge, Tunde Baiyewu (Lighthouse Family), Desmond Decker & The Aces and many more.
Expect high class production, a warm and friendly crowd and great vibes and you will not be left wanting.
Here we speak to Joe Courtney about the event, how it came together and much more.
https://soultownfestival.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/soultownfestival
How are you, what’s good and bad right now in your world?
We are good, we have been exploring overseas opportunities whilst driving the UK festival this year.
How was it getting this years event together? is it fun or torture?
It’s been a bumpy ride post COVID but we are incredibly lucky to have an established brand with a good reputation .
Tell us about magic soul being involved and what it means to the event
We established this partnership back in 2019, we work very closely with Magic Soul to ensure our chosen line up is in line with their brand.
How do you make sure you know what’s hot when it comes to music booking?
Together, we have a great knowledge of soul music. We also use the customers’ responses to gather information on line up demands. Social media posts are fantastic for this, we often ask who they would like to see and often ensure we meet their demands.
How important is it to platform local talent?
Oh it’s incredibly important to us, in 2019 we had a ‘Live Lounge’ stage which was for local artists however unfortunately the council has restricted us to two stages in future years. Our Garden Party stage is all local DJ’S and musicians.
What about diversity of line ups with gender, race, sexuality and so on – do you consider that?
Absolutely we always make sure the line up is varied and suited to our crowd.
What are you most looking forward to about this year’s event?
It’s been amazing to watch the business grow year on year, 2022 was our strongest most successful year. This year we have our model and it’s now about maintaining our reputation and continuing to build the brand in the UK and overseas.
What do you do once the festival is over?
We don’t ever stop, after the September festival, we put plans in place for the following year and also start promoting and organising our Ibiza weekender in October. After this, we start planning our 02 event in December so it’s non stop.
