Bedford River Festival – Day 1
The Bedford River Festival returns on Sat 23rd & Sun 24th July following an absence of 4 years. The event is FREE and features a Main Stage in Russell Park on the Embankment with musical line up with something for everyone in the community. The 2nd biggest free event in the UK after Notting Hill Carnival – it’s a great day out for all the family.
SATURDAY 23rd
9:00pm – Back to the 90s ft Urban Cookie Collective, Dario G & Cappella + DJ Covie
Closing Saturday night on the main stage is a special hark back to the golden period of 90s dance music, with three of eras biggest artists performing, all held together by Bedford’s own DJ Covie. Famed for their chart topping hits ‘The Key The Secret’ and ‘Feels Like Heaven’, Urban Cookie Collective will be headlining, with Dario G performing a multitude of hits including ‘Sunchyme’ and ‘Carnaval De Paris’ and Cappella performing ‘U Got 2 Let The Music’, ‘Move on Baby’ and more. With multi million sales between them, expect a feel good, hits packed set of some of the 90s most classic dance sounds. On hand with all the big 90’s bangers will be DJ Covie.
7:30pm – Oh My God, It’s The Church!
We’re very pleased to be bringing a soul review with a difference and solid festival favourites Oh My God, It’s The Church! to Bedford River Festival. Shaking off the shackles of dusty dogma, Oh My God! It’s The Church is a truly unique take on what a modern church service could be, with its light-hearted teachings and acclaimed original music centred around themes of inclusivity and equal rights. Their ongoing success lies in simultaneously creating a comedic and joyous atmosphere whilst also highlighting significant challenges within our society. Expect to dance and laugh, possibly at the same time.
6:00pm – The Dekkertones
The DekkerTones are a 9-piece ska / reggae / rocksteady / 2tone band, playing varied authentic ska and reggae from the late 60’s Trojan and Bluebeat scene right through to the 2tone era. Formed in 2013, with members involved with the ska scene for over 30 years, the band have left a string of sold out shows in their wake and have supported the likes of The Dualers at The O2 and Neville Staple from the Specials.
4:45pm – Sarpa Salpa
Northampton four-piece Sarpa Salpa are one of the most exciting new alt-indie-disco bands of the moment. The band have built a loyal live following around the UK and had have constant support with every single release from BBC Radio 1, 6 Music and Radio x. Fresh from the huge festivals SXSW in Austin Texas and The Great Escape in Brighton, the band return to Bedford for the first time in nearly a year with a peak 4.45pm slot.
3:30pm – The Bug Club
The Bug Club’s name does a good job of introducing the band & their music: a tight-knit, collaborative effort focused on telling tales of the everyday that we often take for granted, shot through with humour & riffs-a-plenty. The Welsh 3 piece are current indie darlings, with their last two singles playlisted on BBC 6Music and a slew of major festival appearances in 2022. Each song is 2 minutes long and contains more hooks than most bands back catalogues. We’re very excited about this one – make sure you don’t miss them.
2:15pm – PAT
Pat moved to the UK at the age of seven when his family moved from Poland, not speaking a word of English. Settling in Bedford, he quickly picked up on the language through a combination of the playground and YouTube videos of his early musical heroes such as Devlin and JME. These influences quickly took hold as he embraced the culture, and started making music. Fast forward to 2022 and PAT is now one of the town’s brightest prospect, amassing millions of social media followers and streams on his debut record, and for good reason, it’s great! With previous performances on the main stage from hometown heroes like Tom Grennan, we highly recommend catching PAT.
1:00pm – The Ouse Valley Singles Club
The OVSC are a completely original act that will give you a show unlike anything you will have seen or heard before. They take the traditional basic sound of Skiffle along with Folk, Funk, punk, Soul and Rock n Roll and combines it with saucy British postcard humour. Their sound has been described as George Formby meets the The Clash and is a Cabaret show in the tradition of Music Hall and Working Men’s club values. They will be playing one of their ‘clean’ sets to kick off the Saturday main stage action.
MORNING
12:00 noon – Song Squad
Song Squad / Street Squad / Show Squad – we Sing, we Dance & we Act!
11:30am – HEART Choir