AN INAUGURAL music festival that showcased Bracknell's best talent has prompted plans for a bigger, better outing next year.

South Hill Park's Affinity Festival, which took place in the Wilde Theatre, Cellar Bar and Atrium last Saturday, August 3, has been hailed a success, attracting nearly 700 people.

Organiser Joe James praised the 15 volunteers who gave up their time to help him, along with staff at SHP and visitors to the event.

He told the News: "We felt it went really well. In the end we were only running five minutes late, which for any festival is a real achievement!

"It was definitely a bit of a learning curve because we're trying to work out what the people of the area want for next year's festival." The Birch Hill event was packed with an eclectic mix of acts, spanning genres from ambient electronic and acoustic to epic rock, post rock, prog and punk rock.

It even included special guest headliner and pop/rock giants In Colour, but Mr James said the most popular bands were Rage DC in the Cellar Bar and Shadow Box - who packed out the Wilde Theatre stage. "They were brilliant," he added.

And with this year's festival done and dusted, the team are already looking ahead to next year - which they hope will attract 10 times as many people and will be entirely outdoor, held over two days.

Mr James said: "I've worked quite a few music festivals and with the infrastructure at SHP it's a very nice place to put an event on. The grounds are a good, natural place for it - hopefully people will flock in." He has earmarked the same weekend next year, August 2-3, for the festival and is also looking to hold a smaller festival in January or February.

He said: "We learnt a few lessons this year in that, unfortunately, it was sunny so we got quite a lot of people outside but we couldn't quite convince everyone to come into the main stage." Mr James added that an indoor festival would be better suited to the winter.

The end of the festival also marks the start of a local talent showcase which will see a year's worth of high-end concerts from Berkshire bands - the first of which will be 'noisenik' artists Three Trapped Tigers.

They will perform in the Wilde Theatre on Friday, September 13, and tickets are �10 in advance or �12 on the door.

Keep an eye on www.southhillpark.org.uk for upcoming showcases or call the box office on 01344 484123.

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