Ooh Ah, Shuffling to My Dad’s Bigger Than Your Dad…

If you fancy having a whole heap of fun while helping raise some funds for Prospect Hospice, who have provided end of life care to the people of Swindon and north east Wiltshire for over 40 years, you have two exciting festival options.…..

Firstly lands in your lap on Saturday 22nd July, when Swindon’s Old Town Gardens plays host to My Dad’s Bigger Than Your Dad Festival. Bit long-winded name for a festival, but it’s certainly original and stands out, provided the idea of primary playground sayings for festivals doesn’t trend on the back of it and we have The My Dad’s a Blackbelt in Karate Festival, or even worse, The Ooh Ah Lost my Bra in my Boyfriend’s Car Festival!

In its third year the festival is a tribute to Dave Young, the former landlord of The Victoria and 12 Bar who died in early June 2021 at Prospect Hospice after a hard-fought battle against cancer. The festival has raised over £24,000 for Prospect Hospice in its first two years.

Headline sponsor this year will be Future Planning, an independent financial planners and mortgage advisers based in Swindon. Acts include countywide favourite rockers, The Ukey Dukes, Kova Me Badd, The Vooz, and Splat the Rat, ska and reggae cover giants Train to Skaville, sonic indie darlings Atari Pilot, upcoming indie post punk favourites Viduals, The Pop-Punk Revolution Tour, crazy rappers Imperial Leisure, and in a comedy rock subgenre of their very own, we can never forget the Real Cheesemakers. Plus there’s acoustic goodness from Hip Route’s Jim Blair, Drew Byrant, Joel Rose, Meg, Jules Hill, Shedric.

If this isn’t enough for you, Swindon Paint Fest will be hosting an area of creativity with six fantastic local artists demonstrating their talents by live painting in the Sunken Garden. There will also be a guided spray paint and acrylic pen workshop led by Emma from Old Town’s Mams gallery where participants will be able to have a go with using the spray paint and acrylic pens onto a canvas board creating an artwork which they are able to take home.

Caryn Koh from Swindon Paint Fest said, “We at Swindon Paint Fest are excited to collaborate with My Dad’s Bigger Than Your Dad event which is a great initiative raising money for Swindon’s Prospect Hospice.”

Food and drink vendors, including Gurt Wings, have been brought in to keep revellers fed and watered, as well as an independent business market and a funfair area for children.

Adult tickets are a purple one, £20 from their website mydadsbiggerthanyourdad.co.uk . Paper tickets are also available from Holmes Music, The Tuppenny and The Castle Inn.

Second option is in September when, from Thursday 14th to Sunday 17th, Swindon’s Old Town comes alive with locally-sourced live music in a pub stroller type fashion with Swindon Shuffle. The lineups at five music venue boozers, The Victoria, The Hop Inn, The Beehive, The Tuppenny, and the Castle basically reads like a who’s who of local music, and it’s all free, provided you spare a little cash for Prospect Hospice buckets scattered around the venues. Fringe events are also to be found at Baristocats and the Prospect Hospice Books & Media shop.

“This year’s event is shaping up to be the biggest ever and includes something for pretty much everyone out there,” The shufflers say, and they’re not telling fibs. Swindon Link, Sheer Music, Swindon Folk Club, and many others all muck in to help create the enormous homage to David Young and raise funds for Prospect. I made it down last year for just Saturday. I’m thinking I might need to find a B&B this year and a sudden attack of skivalitis from work this time around!

From alt-rock of All Ears Avow and Modern Evils, to the sludge doom of Phantom Droid. The likes of Stay Lunar, Moon UK, Viduals and Chasing Dolls keep the indie-kids dancing and there are first shuffle experiences for up and coming bands Trippy Kicks, I See Orange, and Mirrored Faces UK.

If something rootsier is more your thing, you are also well-catered for with the widescreen americana of Matt Owens Music & The Delusional Vanity Project and Concrete Prairie headlining stages, along with folkier offerings from the likes of Fly Yeti Fly, Canute’s Plastic Army and Splat The Rat.

Subject A bring a touch of Ska and Reggae to proceedings and there is creative and impossible to pigeonhole music from Will Lawton and the Alchemists, Richard Wileman / Karda Estra & Amy Fry Music and new band The Wheel 2!, who feature many of the faces behind the amazing and much missed Diagonal People. Thud and Bone Chapel bring some blues to proceedings and Swindon Folk Club again curates a stage.

With over sixty acts on the main bill you need to put this in your diary, but for now, whether your Dad is bigger than my Dad, or not, all eyes are focussed on 22nd July, when the wonderful park venue of the Old Town Bowl comes alive….and to think, there’s some wonky folk who groan Swindon is a cultural void, same ones still probably trying to get their bra back from their boyfriend’s car, ooh ah!