Five days, twenty bands, three djs and hundreds of amazing people… thank you so much to everyone who has attended, played and donated to our fifth birthday fundraiser at Champions. Due to everyone’s fantastic efforts and generosity, the amount raised for Julia’s House and the Dorset Cancer Centre is £1632!

There is no chance of us critiquing any of the bands… mainly as we’re far too emotionally and mentally screwed to make too much sense. But, those who attended over the five days will no doubt have their own highlights. Ours? Without doubt the two sets which will remain in our memory the longest will be the reunions of Betika (pictured at top) on Friday and Dutch Husband (pictured below) on Sunday. Both of these sets were not just musically majestic, but generated an atmosphere inside Champions which will simply be remembered by many, many people as one of those ‘best ever gigs’. Brilliant music and beautiful people. Fun times!

As well as the bands who all played for free, thank you to everyone who donated prizes for the raffle. 700 tickets were sold which generated an additional £300 (approx) to the total raised. Thanks too to Si from My Broken 101 and Sola Infrared for making, mixing and printing (for free) the compilation cds which were sold at the door.

I’ll stop gushing out thanks now, and will continue to wait as the rest of the videos from the weekend upload to our You Tube page. You can see them all here.

Here’s a ‘word’ from Sara, co-organiser, Bsc, RGN, BFF, Cool Person, LIKE. (her words already, obviously)

My first thanks go to Betika and Dutch Husband. The members of these two bands re-formed for one night only, and by far put the most effort into their musical sets for the weekend. It was magical to see both bands play once more and within such a special weekend.

I danced my hardest on Friday night, the atmosphere felt like it was everyone’s twenty-first birthday, it was hot – not metaphorically but literally – and that only added to the fun and hijinks. Kelly Hills and bh one’s birthday also went with a bang that night, I’m jealous it wasn’t my birthday because by the power of grey-skull it would have been a night to remember!

The only thing I will criticise is that some bands didn’t tell us the titles of their songs, which ruined EVERYTHING… JOKES! My final thought of this night: I love all the bands that played as did 99% of the crowd! Long-live Grott Party, HOACT, Animal Talent Show and rest in peace Betika!

Saturday night I was struggling, the same as most who drank their weight equivilent in Gin on the Friday night. It was another special night though and luckily the heating had been left on all morning and therefore it was the hottest night! Another reason it was the hottest night was obviously because Grant Sharkey was on stage being hilarious!

“You’re my brother but your daddy’s doing stuff to my mother”

It was another great night of music, MB101, Sola Infrared and DOMI. Good dancing fun. Another night of smiley, happy faces.

SUNDAY! OH SUNDAY! The 4th night caused myself to have temporary insanity. Oh yeah! I heard you all! It WAS temporary. TITS!

I was sick during the day and when I walked into Champions I wished I was at home. HOWEVER, faces turned up which made me smile and then music started playing which made me dance, and then people donated loads of cash and that made me have fun. YEAH FUN!
I missed most of Yaaard because the door was so busy! Loads of people coming in early, which was ace and well worth missing Yaaaard.

Zaardvark were crap. BUT ACTUALLY THEY WEREN’T! They were bloody fantastic! I love them not only as what they do musically but as individual musicians too. I Bum them. Someone said to me ‘Best new band in town’.

Matt Marr I missed because I was sorting out things unfortunately and I wanted to get it all sorted before the mighty Dutch Husband started. I cannot believe these guys were so nervous! They really had no need to be. They were awesome. Nick (boyfriend) shook his head so much at them he thought he was going to throw up! It was good.

Monday – I was dead by the fifth day, I remember nothing. Thanks for coming. Saturday Sun were good actually. I remember that!

All in All – Amazing weekend with very, very special people in attendance. It was sad on Sunday night when I was saying goodbye to people and not knowing when I would see them next. The support and enthusiasm has been more than I could hope for.

Thank you mostly to Tony Foster who made everything possible with his sources and organisational skills. He made sure there were bands and booze! Without him this weekend would have happened in my back garden acoustically with dirty water to drink. Thank you Tony you beautiful being. A round of applause please! Also, thank you to Bradley who allowed me to dance instead of sitting on the door forever.

In addition can I gush over my boyfriend who has been so supportive and helpful with the entire weekend. Thanks Nick. I have to go pick up Milly from school now. Thank you and see you all on the flip side. Whatever that means. Check out the awards. Tits.

Okay… that’s Sara’s lot. (she milked it, huh?). When she says “check out the awards”, she means the awards that she prepared on Monday night. These ones…

Most dedicated band member: Imogen Charleston – played with DOMI, Betika, HOACT and Dutch!

Most dedicated member of the crowd: Malcolm Stoate – came to all five days!

Person(s) who bought the most raffle tickets: Alfie & Pri – bought a bookful and won a guitar & Keith Richards print!

Person who helped at the last minute when it got stupidly busy: Kat Steele

Most enthusiastic crowd member: Jordan Cheer due to his energetic dancing and cheering. (Tony Day too for donating loads and encouraging others to do the same).

As for the raffle… here’s who won what:

1. Endorse it in Dorset Festival weekend ticket + 2 games of bowling at Bowlplex – Ticket 424 – Sue

2. 2 x Larmer Tree Festival Sunday tickets + a bottle of whiskey – Ticket 374 – Dave

3. Purbeck Folk Festival weekend ticket + 4 music books – Ticket 33 – Siobhan Ferguson

4. An electric guitar from Langdons + a Keith Richards print – Ticket 483 – Alfie Lee

5. A days recording at TL Sound Studio + a Prince William T.Shirt – Ticket 510 – Will Neylon

6. 8 hours rehearsal time at Champion Sound + a Black satin duvet set – Ticket 279 – Ed

7. A ukulele + Jack Daniels harmonica & keyring – Ticket 569 – Mark Lamb

8. An E-reader + a Prince William T.Shirt – Ticket 1 – Jason Ayriss

9. 2 x UK Subs + support tickets + Jack Daniels harmonica & keyring – Ticket 209 – Damo

10. 2 x Mark Morriss + support tickets + Jack Daniels harmonica & keyring – Ticket 160 – Kat Steele

We’ll be in touch with the prize winners over the next day or two. Anyone who for whatever reason doesn’t pick up our voicemails or messages, please call us on 07903674029 to arrange to collect your prize.

For more pictures, check out our facebook page over the next day or two, or to see photos taken by someone with a proper camera, befriend Sam Tucker on facebook and check out his photos

Lastly, a personal huge thanks to Sara for all of her help in organising the event and ‘making’ people donate extra cash, and to her and Brad who sat on the door for 99% of the time whilst I swanned around socialising, taking pictures and videos. I had the best of it over the weekend, so um… THANK YOU!! That’s it. It’s done, I’m done, let’s do it again in another five years, huh?

We’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts about any of the gigs too…