Guilfest was started as the Guildford Folk Festival in ’92 by Tony Scott in Stoke Park, Guildford. Originally a one-day event, it grew and grew over the proceeding 20+ years to a full three-day ‘medium’ sized festival with multiple stages and a range of genres including rock, folk, blues, and in later years pop; until financial troubles ended its run.
Performances by Peter Sarstedt, John Otway, Macavity’s Cat were witnessed by 500 people in 1992, across two stages. They all shared festival toilets that had piped music and flowers! In ’93, the Guildford Folk Festival added blues; becoming the Guildford Folk & Blues Festival and doubled in audience size and had The Blues Band and Wilko Johnson Band topping the bill. 1,500 people turned up to watch the acts, that included Tom Robinson Band, Ralph McTell, John Otway Big Band, and local bands such as Womb, across three stages in ’94. Then in ’95 Chris Evans auditioned to play at the festival on his Radio 1 show. The audience doubled again to 3,000 and the event moved to Loseley Park and became a two-day event with onsite camping and Richard Thompson, Peter Sarstedt, Chumbawamba, The Hamsters and Oysterband.
It was back to Stoke Park for the 5th Guildford Folk & Blues Festival in ’96. The ~6,000 attendees watched as a man in black took to the stage and launch into Otis Rush’s “It Takes Time”. Nigel Watson led the first few songs, but Peter Green started to come alive during Jimi Hendrix’s “Can You See Me”. The encore (Freddie King’s “Goin’ Down”) was described by Martin Clemens in The Independent as “one of the happiest musical spectacles of the year.” In addition to Green, the was Eddi Reader, The Hamsters, Shane MacGowan & The Popes. The event was to remain at Stoke Park, expanding to three-days in ’97 under the Guildford ’97 Festival moniker and headlined by Jethro Tull. It was also officially supported by Guildford Borough Council, CMR Radio and 96.4 Eagle Radio with Scott later saying it was the year people started to take GuilFest seriously. 8,000 people occupied Stoke Park that year with The Levellers, Saw Doctors, Carter USM and Dreadzone. ’98’s festival, just called Guildford ’98, saw BBC GLR getting onboard and Space, Shed Seven, The Lightning Seeds, Asian Dub Foundation, Bentley Rhythm Ace, Beth Orton, and The Levellers on the bill, entertaining just over 9,000 punters at what was now the UK’s 6th largest outdoor music festival. Guildford Live ’99, continued the events connection to BBC GLR and added BBC Radio 2, with Stoke Park reverberating to the sounds of James, The Saw Doctors, Bob Geldof and Jools Holland & His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra across the four stages for 10,000.
Still going by the Guildford Live sobriquet, the 9th (2000) and 10th (2001) festivals continued to expand the events status. 12,000 people attended to see Van Morrison, Joan Armatrading, Jools Holland, David Gray, Culture Club, Motörhead and Rolf Harris in 2000. The following year Pulp, James, Reef, Dreadzone, Lonnie Donegan, Catatonia, The Wurzels, Bentley Rhythm Ace and Dead Men Walking did the same. 2001 also saw the first Comedy Tent introduced and the number of stages increase to five, with 13,000 people in attendance. Jools Holland was back in July 2002, for the first festival officially called Guilfest, with the likes of Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Echo and The Bunnymen, Billy Bragg, New Model Army, The Stranglers, and The Pretenders. Uncut Magazine supported Guilfest 2003, rocking out to Madness, Alice Cooper, The Darkness, Atomic Kitten, Skin and Daniel Bedingfield. The phalanx of sponsors continued to grow over 2004 and 2005 as the event reached towards its zenith. Blondie, Simple Minds, and UB40 were the headliners in 2004, with an ever-expanding number of supporting acts across the six stages; that included Ocean Colour Scene, Katie Melua, The Damned, Midge Ure, and Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel. The 2005 event, the biggest in the event’s history, featured 6 stages and a comedy tent. 15,000 people turned up to watch Paul Weller, Status Quo, The Pogues, The Subways, The Proclaimers, Chas and Dave, Nizlopi, and The Storys. Also in 2005, The Surrey Advertiser sponsored the Guilfest 2005 Unsigned Heroes CD featuring: Black Night Crash, Get Amped, Ariel X, Kovak, The Roosters, Who Will Miss Mary?, Epuldugger, The Citadel, Daybreak, This is Seb Clarke, Stylus, Big Wednesday, The True Deceivers, Intervurt, and United Stoats Of America. The Storys were back in 2006 with Embrace, Gary Numan, A-ha, Billy Idol, The Wonder Stuff, Kosheen, Blue Oyster Cult, Newton Faulkner, Sandi Thom, Nizlopi, The Lightning Seeds, The Stranglers, and Gary Numan. This was the year GuilFest won the Best Family Festival Award, introduced a Theatre Tent, and members of Sammy Rats Big Big Blues Band, having reformed in 2005, appeared at Guilfest under the name Sammy Rat and The Resonators.
In 2007 the BBC Radio 2 main stage was headlined by Supergrass, Squeeze and Madness, who were supported by The Magic Numbers, over the three-days. The second, Ents24, stage featured Richard Thompson, The Saw Doctors, and Uriah Heep. Morcheeba, Jimmy Cliff, The Ordinary Boys, and The King Blues also appeared on one of the ten stages. While we are not sure which stage they were on Sammy Rat and The Resonators returned and Redwood, who reformed in 2006/07, played at GuilFest that year, releasing a collection of B-sides and unreleased tracks, titled “Roadtrip” [GTR001MCD] on 15 July 2007 especially for Guilfest 2007. Redwood returned in 2008 for the University of Surrey, Guildford sponsored festival that secured The Levellers, Blondie, The Australian Pink Floyd Show, Kula Shaker, Cerys Matthews, Bowling for Soup, and Seth Lakeman. On the Rock Cave stage, sponsored by Rock Sound, Fightstar, The Ghost of a Thousand and The Blackout played. Now marketed as a three-day camping festival set in the idyllic grounds of Stoke Park, Guildford; Guilfest ’09 included: Motörhead, Goldie Lookin’ Chain, You Me at Six, Nouvelle Vague, Brian Wilson, Joe Bonamassa, Happy Mondays, The Wailers, The Charlatans, Athlete, Toploader, Will Young, Eureka Machines, DJ Yoda, Rusko, The Love Band, The Fins and Andrew Morris, Pendulum and local band Hundred Reasons. The event rolled on. 2010’s 20,000 attendees saw Status Quo, N-Dubz, Hawkwind, The Blockheads, 10cc, Orbital, The Human League, Level 42, Just Jack, Tinie Tempah, Chase & Status, The Blackout, Rock Choir, and Hadouken!, among others.
2011 saw Roger Daltry, Razorlight, James Blunt, Adam Ant, The Farm, Erasure, Ziggy Marley, The Rifles, DJ Fresh, Funeral for a Friend, and Peter Andre take the stages. And 2012’s line-up included Olly Murs, Bryan Ferry, Gary Numan, Ash, Alvin Startdust, Slider, Tim Minchin, Cher Lloyd and Ash; but a plethora of competing events, including the London Olympics, and some pretty poor weather, that turned Stoke Park into a quagmire, took their toll.
After 21 years, Guilfest shut down. Tony Scott reported that the company had been left with debts of about £300,000 after 2012 and matters were in the hands of an insolvency practitioner. The event owed taxes and money to Surrey Police and Guildford Borough Council amongst many others. Reasons cited by organisers included the abundance of competing major events in that year, most notably the London Olympics. Poor weather also contributed with the rain turning Stoke Park into a “quagmire by Saturday – and by Sunday it had turned into sticky bog”. Two events popped up to fill the gap in 2013: Magic FM’s “Summer of Love” held at Stoke Park, headlined by Jamiroquai and Bryan Adams; and the protest event, standing against the “corporate takeover” of the former Guilfest by Magic FM’s promoters Live Nation, called “GU1 Free Festival” at the Holroyd Arms. The line-up at The Holroyd included The Feathers, Louise Distras, Shakespearos, Anarchistwood, The Unbelievable Freeloaders From Mars, P45, Unexpected Item in the Bagging Area, Archive 45, Gobsausage, Black Anchor, Collage of Sound, Snork and Kerb.
Guilfest was back in 2014 with The Boomtown Rats, Kool & The Gang, The Human League, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Boney M., and The Blackout. It went into insolvency again shortly after on the back of late permissions/licensing, a bad weather forecast, and low ticket sales.
WE are also aware that the GuilFin Ambient Lounge, a 24-hour performance and campaign venue that toured a number of UK festivals appeared at GuilFest one year, led by event producer Liam Rich. Eight years would pass before GuilFest returned again, still being run by Scott, on 16–17 July 2022 at Hurtwood Polo Club, Cranleigh, headlined by Peter Hook and Sister Sledge. Although this was on a much smaller scale to earlier event, 2022 enabled the festival to gear up for its return to Stoke Park in 2024, and a surprise announcement was made in December 2023 with the line-up.
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