By With Armed Forces weekend falling on the same weekend as Glastonbury or vice versa you could be mistaken for missing Cleethorpes’ very own Glastonbury; ‘The Society Weekender’.
Simply named due it being on the same weekend as the famous Worthy Farm event, local bar owner Brett Smith grouped up with Rob Bywater, a local musician and promoter, to challenge their famous counterpart Michael Eavis and save our lovely locals from travelling all that way to Pilton in Somerset and enjoy not only live performances from Glastonbury itself but numerous local live music acts within Society plus much, much more.
So, what did go down at Society? You could be forgiven for looking at the line up and wondering what to choose, the amount of things happening was overwhelming for a brief glance. Plus with one eye on Armed Forces Weekend, many struggled to fit it all in! Fear not, the dynamic duo are doing it again on September 6th – September 8th in association with the Festival Of The Sky event being held in Cleethorpes and here’s what you can expect to enjoy.
Glastonbury itself was shown on the 8 large TV screens Society holds and also the 80sqft giant outdoor cinema screen they have in the back garden with popular artists such as The Courteeners, Liam Gallagher, The Cure, Hot Chip, Kylie Minogue and many more being live streamed from the festival itself for you to enjoy. Surely you can do that at home right?
Well yes, but that if anything that was the gap fillers in an otherwise mouth watering array of other reasons to come that included 20+ locally born & raised musical acoustic acts, bands & other artists. 15+ Live DJ’s playing anything from Indie, Punk, RnB to Funky House, Classic Dance and Soul music into the early hours.
As well as the music the event showed 15+ films on their big cinema screen, had various street food choices and worked with local other businesses to sell their merchandise and products. They even had their own wristbands made to create the festival vibe, but enough of an overview let me walk you through our weekend at exactly what we got up to.
Thursday 27th June 2019
After a long day at work we popped in to sample some of the many street food menu’s on offer and watch an episode or two of This Is England, in keeping with the local theme as our very special local talent Thomas Turgoose is the star. We opted for a Foot:Long Dog, aptly named as it’s a foot long Lincolnshire sausage hot dog with more toppings than dog, more dog than bun and more flavours than I could figure out! We stayed away from the alcohol as the weekend was looming and we simply didn’t want to be in a fragile state come the next day…Bongo Bingo! Not heard of it? Society did their very own version of the popular bingo event where Bingo is turned into a booze fest with £500 worth of prizes throughout, styled in the theme of Glastonbury and free shots, drinks and food being given out throughout to let’s say, warm up the crowds with a spot on Dutch courage: Friday wasn’t looking at all appealing after struggling to avoid the laughs, banter and good old guess the song (music bingo) they were playing inside
Friday 28th June 2019
Bingo ended well, we didn’t win, someone did a £250 bar tab prize, instead you’re only reading this article in (semi) fluent grammatically correct English as I didn’t write it the day after. Friday was a different day, Live Music streamed from Glastonbury we enjoyed Tom Odell, The Wombats & The Lumineers while listening to local talents such as Jaz Beeson, Stompin Steve or Lola & The Cosmic Getaway. We crammed in some hangover cure in the form of a Social Burger which was a burger made of more bacon variations you can think of, named You Remind Me of The Babe: What Babe; in homage to a David Bowie Song. We even got chance to watch American Pie, well the Apple Pie bit, (which to be honest we think is the funniest bit) with a box of popcorn & a bag of sweets.
We didn’t make Trinity Sounds DJ sets which is a shame really as it’s such a great project set up by Kurt Grantham and others who give their own time up to mentor budding music DJ’s at Trinity Youth Club in order to keep people off the streets and out of trouble.
Saturday 29th June 2019
A much milder Friday evening, lots of live music from Society, some lovely well needed comfort foods and a much fresher head saw us start the day with a Box-Fit class, yes exercise class. Unit One, a newly formed group personal training gym on Wilton Road, Grimsby put on a free class for anyone and in true Glastonbury style with any donations going to the Inspire TCI charity (which Brett’s businesses support).
After working up a sweat, the lovely Nic from Riverhead Coffee had provided granola pots and fresh breakfast sandwiches for us all to buy with again charitable donations going into the overall pot. A quick grab of one of each, it was straight home to shower up but not before we spotted two great local businesses offering their merchandise; Forward & Docks Beer. One 15 years old the other barely a year but both offering merchandise in the way of their equally popular branded t-shirts. What to wear? We got one of each, we knew we’d be back Sunday so it was a Docks Beer black t-shirt today (after the freshen up of course ) and a white Forward, Meggies t-shirt tomorrow.
Saturday was jam packed, so let’s sum this up really quickly for you: from Glastonbury we got to see live sets from: The Proclaimers, Lewis Capaldi dressed as Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher, Chemical Brothers & Hot Chip. We were treated to the superb local talent of Phil Stocks, Sam Simmons, Back To Basics and headliners Alternative 80’s and hear DJ sets from former Orphan Boy Paul Rowston Smith and funnily enough local lad and previous Manager, Guy Keeble. There was no time for films today, we ate so many sweets and tried some of the dirtiest loaded nachos we’ve ever come across from a company called ETC.
Saturday ended with a superb Gyros type food being demolished from local budding cook, Cooky Cooks and after he’d washed up, listening to his group of DJ’s play 5 on 5 off music of all genres Saturday Social.
Sunday 30th June 2019
A Methodist church choir, a full-on orchestra nursed our sore heads on Sunday morning, we didn’t make Yoga or Pilates but we did need a hair of the dog. Message In A Bottle had provided 15+ craft cans, some terrifically tasting sour beer, flavoured beer & other ciders to boot; we strangely felt like we were ready for the final day, in true festival style.
The wristbands were still on, the glitter that funnily enough we didn’t remember getting, but looking at pictures was superbly administered by Michaela Stephenson had semi worn off and the morning after head almost cleared: Let’s Do This!
Kylie Minogue added a bit of light listening first of all, Tom Walker and Friendly Fires warmed us up before sets from popular Edan-Rae Lake, Rob Bywater and The Chris Cooper Band got us into our stride. We couldn’t face a film today, too much sitting still and concentrating but Jurassic Park, Back To The Future, Wolf of Wall Street & Inception all played through for those wanting a lazy Sunday in the purpose built outdoor cinema.
We ended the night with The Streets & The Cure, Society ended the night on a bang, everyone around us ended the weekend on a high and as we started off this piece, although we can forgive you for not coming, do not miss the next one!
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