Beginners guide to The Social Festival

The Social Festival is one of Britain’s most loved dance music festivals and promises to bring a little taste of Ibiza to the South East of England during the last months of summer. The fest has been keeping us dancing since 2013 with its impressive line-up, and this year is no different.

Taking over Kent County Showground, Maidstone from the 9th-10th September, this year’s over 18s rave promises to be bigger and better than ever. So if you’re a Social Newbie or are a bit unsure what it is all about, stick with us as we have made the ultimate beginners guide to The Social Festival.

The Line-Up

Making their highly anticipated return to the festival and headlining the fridazy are the brilliant house music pioneers, Sasha and John Digweed, who will be treating us all with their B2B set. Also making an appearance on Friday’s stage will be German superstar Paul Kalkbrenner, Andrew Weatherall, Caruana, Nic Fanciulli, Paranoid London live, Nastia, Eats Everything and a bunch of other house-loving, beat-dropping artists. However, Saturday is when The Social Fest has decided to kick it up a notch and open the all 4 stages, each full with acts to keep you dancing until the sun goes down. On Saturday, you can expect to see the likes of Carl Cox, King Solomon, Pan-Pot, Agoria, Bicep, Mind Against and many more. If house music is what you live for, this is 100% the place to be. To see the full line up and follow their updates check out their Twitter page.  

The Campsite

You don’t have to camp if you attend The Social festival, but the folks organising the event have made sure to include everything that a happy camper would need to get through the weekend. To make sure you’re going to be let in to the campsite and can grab yourself a space, the festival are asking for campers to arrive by 12pm on either Friday or Saturday. If you don’t arrive at the site by then, you won’t be allowed to pitch your tent or stay the night. Once you’re all settled in, you can take a walk around to find the campsite ‘hub’ where the security team live, so you know where to go if there are any problems. You can also look out for the lockers to keep your valuables in, the campsite bar and the campsite shop, which sells everything you could ever need. However, if camping isn’t your thing, their website has a list of nearby accommodation which you can check out. The arena itself will have cash machines located around the site, so running out of money is something you don’t have to worry about. Any food or alcohol that you may have brought to consume in your tent can’t be taken into the main arena, but never fear – there are plenty of bars which will be selling well priced drinks and a variety of food stalls selling high quality global cuisine. You can actually buy drink tokens for the weekend online, which gives you a fast track into the festival and means you won’t have to queue to buy your tokens once you are inside the area.

Travel and Tickets

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to get yourself to the arena. The fest have set up a coach package which you can purchase alongside your ticket, which means you can catch a Big Green Coach from a number of destinations. If you’re planning on getting the train then you can head to either Maidstone West or East, or there are local buses and free parking for anyone who fancies a drive. A weekend ticket for The Social Festival will cost you £68, and if you fancy camping then that’s just an extra £30. If you only fancy going along for one day, then you can buy a day ticket for £35. There is also the option to upgrade to VIP with all of these tickets.

For full ticket info, head over to http://www.thesocialfestival.c om/tickets.

 

 

By Emily Thursfield