Bearded Theory

Bearded Theory returns in 2009 for an extended 3 days following the great success of the first ever Bearded Theory Festival in May 2008. The festival was runner up in this year’s UK Festival Awards for Best New Festival.

The festival in 2008 was put on for a minor £6,000, we spent wisely, worked very long hours but donated £2,500 to Oxfam (Tickets were charged at £12).

In 2009 we will charge more because we want to offer the people that come more. We are one of the cheapest events on the market with adult tickets at £45 and children’s tickets start from £5. Most UK festivals charge in the excess of £100 a ticket and in 2009 we are aiming to provide very similar facilities with a line up that can challenge some of these festivals. We can do this because we do not set out to make shed loads of money and any we do make is given away!!!

The event will continue to donate profit to charities with 2009 being dedicated to raise money for Shelter and Padley Day Centre in Derby (Homeless Centre).

The festival tries to move mountains by involving and giving access to people that maybe would not have the option of attending festivals. In 2009 we are inviting people from the homeless community to help steward the event and in turn will be fed, given accommodation and spending money. Once they have completed their shifts we will write them a reference in the hope this will help them find work and get them back on their feet.

What better way is there to raise money for charity??
The festivals tag line is a festival for the people by the people and the reason for this is that all our meetings are open door, so if you have an idea come along and share them with us and if you want to get involved we will let you. There is no organising hierarchy we all just muck in and get the job done.

The event is not just about music; in 2009 we have access to over 30 acres of land. While the capacity has increased slightly we will invest in all areas to improve on the festival of 2008.

We have 5 stages of music and comedy for 2009 including an outdoor stage with heated perimeters, big top dance stage, late night campfire stage, Dub/Reggae tent and finally the legendary open mic stage.
We have an amazing line up which consists of season pros to buskers and we have a large comedy slots on the campfire stage to try and bring a different element to the festival. The full line up will be released on December 19th 2008.

90% of all the bands booked for 2009 have come from requests of the people that attended. The line up is as diverse as the people that attend the festival in the hope we have something for everyone.
The children’s area will be expanded into a 1 acre space where we have everything from children’s carnivals, story tellers, children’s arcade, parachute, junk modelling, skiffle workshops, environmental talks, forest schools, children’s open mic tent, children’s disco tent, solar cinema, scavenger hunts, nature trails and so much more. The area will be huge and every children’s activity will be FREE.

We are hand picking food traders from across the country to offer brilliant food at reasonable prices. We do not charge traders as much as other festivals to enforce a sensible pricing policy so people are not ripped off.
The beer tent will offer everything from Real Ales, Ciders and will have Bearded Theory’s own ale available. Again the beer prices will be at pub prices and we have fixed the prices at £2.20 a pint for 2009!!!!

The event will be as green as possible with a huge recycling project and where possible use solar power when physically possible.
Please come along and support the event, support the charities we give to and let’s have a dance for charity.

Tickets are available to buy on line via etickets http://www.etickets.to/buy/?e=1764 and we can now take payments over the phone using your credit as well as taking payments via postal order, cheque and BACS. For more details either visit our website www.beardedtheory.co.uk (ticket page) or phone us on 01527 592756. (We have sold over 500 tickets so far).
For all the latest news visit our website or forum www.beardedtheory.co.uk