It takes real courage to create something entirely of your own devising, in particular when it concerns music. Too many original thoughts and concepts have known to be immediately quashed by outside forces or by seemingly unavoidable obstacles – impeding progress and leaving the big dreams that are created in the mind to stay there as unfulfilled desires. However, this description does not apply to our very own Sandy Sweetman - the co-director of our home-grown music festival, Doonhame Festival.

A man and his collective that saw a glaring gap in the market and was compelled to not simply commentate on it, but do something about it, Sandy was keen to explain that: “Spotlighting the huge amount of local talent and the supporters of it was the founding blocks of the festival.” Radical within its approach and based on a model closely twinned with a Branson ideal, “Screw It, Just Do It!” Sandy is a firm believer that sometimes that is just the way to roll.

The Skatuesques performing on the main stage at Doonhame Festival 2019. Image credit: KSS Images.

Having only been in existence for one year, Sandy cleared up exactly what led to the inception of what is now becoming a hotly-tipped music festival for south-west Scotland: “Our team have been working in and around festivals and events of various scale for a good few years. This experience tempted us into providing an, initially, very locally focussed offering with high infrastructure and production values that would grow into whatever the market wanted.”

Although, the festival has taken on a great amount of learning from its first year, Sandy was taken aback by the sheer immediacy of how the project came to life: “The ludicrously short lead up put a lot of pressure on the curating team, and they all delivered admirably. Our line up was really dictated by the short run up time and we were really pleased with the support we had from all the acts.” However, since then, the festival has grown arms and legs, allowing it to find its feet as a music festival that will “...look and feel great, a comfortable place for people to be and experience live music”.

Fraser Clark of Redfish performing at Doonhame Festival 2019. Image credit: Martin McKeown.

With organisation firmly under its belt, unfortunately Doonhame Festival has fallen victim to COVID-19, but rest assured all plans for 2020 will now slide straight into 2021. Doonhame Festival still concerts a real element of D.I.Y spontaneity within its curation and production. Not looking to become too conformist like most of the country’s bigger-led music festivals, Sandy confidently prides that: “It’s a festival for all! It’ll never be bigger than 3000 capacity and will deliver a locally focussed line up with top level acts and will ensure people get a great value weekend.”

Known for its ability to provide a platform for artists that may not yet be household names, but have the very talent and drive to become one, if they’re allotted the proper nurturing and ability to communicate to a wider audience, Sandy sees this as an integral part of what they do: “Our first priority is to showcase the local talent that have been flying the flag for D&G. There are many acts, DJ’s etc doing incredibly well on a national and international scale, but rarely get the local recognition. Year two brings in the acts that we couldn’t fit into year one.”

13 Crowes performing at Doonhame Festival 2019. Image: Martin McKeown.

With further afield bands ranging from The Feeling, Bad Manners, Colonel Mustard & The Dijon 5, as well as Skerryvore, there are a range of the hottest local breakout talents such as Emma and the Poets, EBB, The Meanies, FRANKY’S EVIL PARTY, Tiderays, The Lutras, Sons of Flynn and many more. To cater for such an eclectic mix of music, Sandy has teased that: “There will be some changes to the layout next year, dictated by what we learned last year. There will be a second live stage and instead of genre led spaces we will have a DJ tent delivering a mix of genres throughout the weekend.”

Clearly a versatile festival for the people, this is rather refreshing considering the lack of festivals of this ilk in Scotland. With the festival quick to take off and deliver its vision, it seems that it’s ethos of being ’boutique, home-grown and independent’ is one which attracts a broad spectrum of both artists and music lovers alike. In terms of the decision to take the festival from September to July sees this as a logical next step to meet the continued success, however apparently it was always the festival’s intention: “We always had July as a date for the festival. Year one was so short to bring together that our options for the Crichton site put us into September. We had the choice for that date or do nothing for 2019. We chose the hard option!”

ONR headlining the main stage at Doonhame Festival 2019. Image: Martin McKeown.

Now sat amid the hopeful heat of summer of 2021, undoubtedly, the festival is going to be a strenuous weekend for those at the helm of the event, although Sandy explains indirectly that there are many aspects of the festival to look forward to, outside music: “We have a timeline to announce all the things that are happening in addition to the core festival. There are a good few surprises and curved balls to announce!”

With so much going well for the festival as it joins the elite of unique and unconstrained festivals, Doonhame Festival will now take place on the 30th and 31st of July 2021. However, Sandy remains greatly positive and optimistic with another year to build on Doonhame’s profile and campaign.

Not afraid to continue to declare themselves as a different entity and a festival for music fans to invest in, we know that Doonhame Festival will come together for 2021 with an attitude fighting to continue to go from strength to strength as it enters an exciting new era.

Get your tickets for Doonhame Festival 2021 by clicking here.

In Conversation With.. Doonhame Festival