Hip Hip Hooray! It's Hanwell Hootie Time!
Co-founder and music director Andy McRobbie tells us about this Saturday's event
Co-founder and music director Andy McRobbie
welcomes everyone to a previous Hanwell Hootie
The Hootie is back (Saturday 18th September) .. but not as we know it, can you explain why the changes and the reasoning and are there still tickets/t-shirts left?
Indeed, Hanwell Hootie is back! We are over the moon that live music has returned. The big difference is that we are not a multi venue event this year and we have no indoor stages, just 3 big outdoor stages to dramatically reduce numbers and enable more social distancing. In order to allow as many people to experience the hootie (safely) we have 2 sessions you can attend, an afternoon and an evening. You can attend both if you want, you just need 2 tickets.
So this year we had two options 1) Have no festival or 2) Have a festival but find another way of raising the money needed to put it on and be able to support all the artist that would play. We decided on option 2. We did not just want to be a bog-standard ticketed event so we thought we could offer a solid piece of festival memorabilia (for people that bought tickets in good advance) and with that you get the festival for free.
What better way than a T-shirt. You go to a festival, you buy a t-shirt you, you go see a band, you buy a t-shirt, so why not make that the ticket?
We don't think anyone else has done it, and in that way, we still feel that we’re offering something for free.
YES! Tickets are still available.
Unfortunately, we have now sold out of t-shirts BUT you can still attend the festival buy buying a ticket, the only difference is that you will be issued with a wrist band.
We had to order the t-shirts well in advance as the worst-case scenario was to have too many and they would go to waste which would have lots of negative knock-on effects. We pushed out the message on all socials for people to grab them while they could so we had a good idea of numbers to order.
* Two sessions - how will it work?
The folks who have a t-shirt confirmation email/ticket can able to pick up their t-shirts from the viaduct meadow from Friday 2-6 pm or from the same location on the day. This is all detailed in an email that was sent out to all ticket holders (please check your spam).
Doors open at 12 for the afternoon session. We anticipate there will still be availability of wristbands on the door as well but we can’t guarantee until Friday. If you have tickets for both sessions you can collect both t-shirts/wristbands. At 5 pm our lovely volunteers will ask those with only an afternoon ticket to make their way out so the evening bands can do a proper sound check and we can prepare for the evening session. Those with an evening ticket can remain (it would be good to make your t-shirt visible at this time).
Doors open at 6 pm for the evening session till 11 pm.
* Music Highlights, tell us a bit about how you choose the musicians/ where they from/style etc
Basically from going to loads of gigs both local, around London and all over the UK, talking to people, listening to the radio and scouring the internet. Just keeping my ear to the ground. I also get 100’s of emails from bands and I try to listen to every single one. There is some real talent out there!
So the Hootie is essentially a guitar driven festival. We celebrate the birth of Marshall amps so we are intwined with rock music in all its wonderful forms.
This year we have such a great line up. We want to showcase the bands from the local area but also to make Hanwell a destination for bands from all over the country. Its so great to see on tour posters ‘Liverpool, Brighton, HANWELL (not London! Haha). We have really talented local artists like Sterling Press and Gemma Rogers and the Hootie Blues all Stars but also bands from Leeds (Avalanche party) and Gen and the Degenerates (Liverpool). The bands have been curated so the audience can experience the whole array of delights only music can bring. Prepare to dance, sing-along, get goosebumps, head bang and mosh! The best way to see what I mean is to head over to our official Spotify playlist.* It's been a long time coming and a very difficult time for lots of musicians/performers... what are you hoping for from this Hootie?
We are hoping that musicians and artists feel supported and know that people adore what they do. We know how great the people who attend the Hootie are and we know they will show the bands a lot of love! There was a worry for a while that festivals and gigs were a thing of the past!
* What are the Future plans? Will the Hootie resume as it was?
We have ambitions to return to the way we once were. All our focus is on this Hootie and making it the best it can be. We only had 6 weeks to prepare everything from scratch, so we have been working our socks off with little time to think about anything else. Next year is going to be our 10th anniversary! Can't believe it! So all we know we can say is expect an extra special festival next year!!
Anything else you like to add - need any more volunteers etc?
Yes we are always in need for volunteers. They are the beating heart of the festival and it would grind to a halt without them! Come join the band! It’s a great way to meet new people gain some hands on festival management experience! You can sign up and see what roles are available here
Hanwell Hootie Covid Protocols
We take guidance from the Association of Independent Festivals as we are members.
We are also working closely with Ealing Council and Ealing Safety Advisory Group (SAG). We have increased sanitation procedures and cleaning staff and there will be extra sanitation stations around the festival meadow.
All volunteers have been offered lateral flow tests and our ticket confirmation as well as our contract to our artists details that:
‘You must not attend the festival if you have tested positive for Covid, live with someone who has tested positive or have symptoms of Covid. Let’s keep everyone safe! Keep up to date with the latest government guidelines.
Annemarie Flanagan
15th September 2021