Thank you!

Just writing to say a very big thank you to everyone who donated to help repair the vandalised church at the Midland Railway!

You raised an amazing £935.38 for the railway (including Gift Aid) which we hope will go a long way towards meeting the repair costs. The railway have said that they really appreciate the donations and we can now look forward to seeing lots more fantastic bands on the church stage this year.

The Derby Telegraph have pubished a nice article about the fundraising, including some lovely comments from Alan Calladine at the Midland Railway and further information about how the money is being used: Derby Telegraph article.

Thanks very much again! We'll have some news about this year's festival shortly.

(Photo: Betty and the Werewolves playing the Church Stage in 2010. www.underexposed.org.uk)

Fancy running a workshop at Indietracks?



Photo: eFestivals

One of the great things about Indietracks is the selection of workshops which run alongside the band program each year. In previous years we’ve had sparkling workshops where you could make rosette badges with Eithne Farry, get crafty with the likes of Craft Guerilla and Owl Knit You, have a tea party with Fika Recordings, get cupcake decorating and be encouraged to create Bad Art with the Peg Powler crew.

Workshops will again be happening again this year at Indietracks, and we are hoping for a new, creative mix of sessions. If you would like to submit an application please read the small print below and send an email to indietracksalice@gmail.com by March 31, 2012 containing the following information:

- Who you are - and website if applicable
- What your experience is of providing workshops
- What your workshop will be about
- Will you charge for your workshop? If so, how much?
- Have you been to Indietracks before? Any interesting stories to divulge?
- Have you run a workshop at Indietracks before?

Small print

Be creative with your application as we are looking for new and exciting workshops at the festival. We like to mix it up, so we're encouraging new workshop co-ordinators to apply, but we will also accept applications from previous workshop co-ordinators too.

You must provide all materials and equipment to run the workshop with, Indietracks have nothing!

You can charge for people to participate in the workshop but it must be cheap (less than £5) and the money should only be used to cover materials and not be your beer or travel money!

There are two weekend festival passes provided per workshop.

You will be able to sell your stuff on a stall at the festival over the weekend. We charge a standard merchants fee for a stall. Details on costs and the application process are available on request. 

Please note we are keen to keep the workshops child-friendly and we are very open to suggestions for workshops specifically aimed at children as these are generally very popular.

Workshops sessions are one hour long including clear-up time.  We also may have space for longer interactive workshops in a new space in the festival site, so please get in touch if you have any different ideas.

The application submission deadline is the 31st March 2012. We will let the lucky applicants know shortly after that. Feel free to email Alice with any questions before you submit your application.

Please donate to help repair vandalised church

We're sorry to report that earlier this week six of the Midland Railway's church windows were smashed in overnight by vandals. It's likely to cost the charity over £1000 to replace the windows, and we're therefore asking if you'd like to help raise some money towards the repairs.

The church stage has been the scene for some of our favourite Indietracks memories; The Specific Heats, Darren Hayman, The Lovely Eggs, The Middle Ones, Haiku Salut, Gordon Ballboy and various versions of Pete Green to name just a few! Apparently the railway rescued and rebuilt the church, which dates back to Victorian times, from Westhouses in Derbyshire several years ago and we're really sad to see someone cause so much damage to such a beautiful and integral part of both the railway and our festival.

The appeal will run until Saturday 14 January 2012, and every donation, no matter how small, will be very much appreciated. To donate towards the appeal, please visit:
www.charitygiving.co.uk/midlandrailwaychurch 

(Photo: The Lovely Eggs by Bob Stuart, Underexposed)

Early bird tickets for Indietracks 2012 on sale!

We’re excited to announce that early bird tickets for the 2012 Indietracks festival are now on sale!

The festival will take place on 6-8 July 2012 at the Midland Railway Centre in Derbyshire. We’ve kept the early bird prices the same as last year’s prices, which means you can save £7 on every adult weekend ticket if you pick them up early.

Weekend tickets are now available at an early bird discount price of £60 (standard price £67). Single day (Saturday or Sunday) early bird tickets are available for £32.50 (standard price £35). The early bird prices are only available until 5pm on Saturday 14 April.

Tickets for children aged 5-14 are £6 for a day ticket and £10 for the weekend. Under-5s get in free!

Please pop over to the following Midland Railway link to pick up your tickets:
www.instantticketseller.com/midlandrailwaycentre

Or alternatively, please call the Midland Railway direct on 01773 747 674 between 10am and 4pm.

We’ll start announcing artists shortly. As always, we’ll have around 50 artists playing across four stages: the outdoor stage, indoor stage, the church and on the steam trains themselves. The festival will also host art and craft workshops for all the family and a selection of discos after the bands finish. And you can have unlimited rides on the steam railway over the weekend, as well as full access to all the other railway attractions and museums!
 
See you in July!
 

(Photo: Bob Stuart, Underexposed)

Santa Specials!

Just a quick post for anyone who's missing the steam trains and getting excited about Christmas!

The Midland Railway is running Santa Specials for all the younger members of the family in the run up to Christmas. There's a Santa's grotto on the train, so the kids can meet Santa during the train ride and receive a gift! There's also a mince pie and a miniature bottle of spirits for the adults! And there's a also a show from the Pinxton puppets in a heated marquee, as well as unlimited rides on the steam railway!

The Santa Specials will run on the following dates: 1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, 15, 17, 18, 22, 23 and 24 December. Booking is strongly advised.

Alternatively, there's the Festive Day Out With Thomas taking place from 27 December to 31 December. Kids can take a trip on the festive Thomas The Tank Engine train, meet the Fat Controller, recieve a gift and visit The Imagination Station with balloon modellers, DVD Shows, Thomas Play Train Table, colouring activities and temporary tattoos!

Back to indiepop-related things, we'll be putting the Indietracks 2012 festival tickets on sale very shortly. Hopefully within the next week or so. Please pop back here soon!

Dates for next year's Indietracks: 6-8 July 2012

Hello! We're SUPER excited to announce that next year's Indietracks festival will be held on 6-8 July 2012 at the Midland Railway in Derbyshire.

We have decided to hold the festival earlier than usual this year. Usually the festival takes place on the last weekend of July, but we became aware that clashing with the Olympics that weekend might have meant higher travel and accommodation prices for bands and festival-goers.

If you would like to make suggestions for bands playing next year, please visit the Indietracks thread on the Anorak forum and leave your suggestions there.

Any bands wishing to apply to to play at the festival should e-mail indietracksbands@gmail.com with a short biography and a web link to their music (no MP3 attachments please) by 30 November 2011.

Tickets will be onsale shortly, and will be available from the Midland Railway website. For the latest news, please subscribe to this blog, follow us on Twitter or sign-up to our e-newsletter.

We also have a few Indietracks canvas bags left over from this year's festival. Perfect for carrying records, nipping to the shops or as a Christmas gift for anyone who loves pop music and steam trains! You can pick one up from the Make Do And Mend Bandcamp page for just £5. This includes a free download of this year's 40-track Indietracks compilation and all the proceeds go to the Midland Railway charity:
http://makedoandmendrecords.bandcamp.com/

Hope to see you next July!

Vote for Indietracks in the UK Festival Awards!

Hello everyone, just a little note to let you know that we're nominated in the UK Festival Awards for the Fans' Favourite Festival Award, and it would be great if you could vote for Indietracks!

Voting opened today and will run until 5pm on 10 October, with finalists and winners being announced at the UK Festival Awards on 15 November at The Roundhouse in Camden.

Everyone who votes will automatically have their name entered into a prize draw to win two tickets to every festival next year.

Visit the UK Festival Awards now to cast your vote for Indietracks! You will need to register your e-mail address to enter.

Bid for an Indietracks 2011 canvas bag – signed by the bands!

Ah September. As we dash about trying to keep our brollies from blowing inside out while the wind whips the leaves around our ankles, it’s hard to imagine that just six weeks ago we were bathing in glorious sunshine surrounded by steam trains, hot air balloons and our favourite bands. If only we could go back and grab a little piece of it to keep forever and ever...

Well now you can! Because while we were all going about our fun at the festival, our friends at the Midland Railway were secretly sneaking bands aside to sign their names to two very special canvas bags that YOU CAN OWN! And that’s not all – besides being autographed by the very hands of our favourite pop stars, they come filled with all sorts of goodies donated by the artists, record labels and the railway themselves!

These two bags (oh, how we wish we could keep them!) are now up for eBay auction, with all proceeds from the auctions going to the Midland Railway. The two bags vary slightly, but you’ll find all the details on each of the eBay listings, here and here. Happy bidding!

Limited edition canvas bags now on sale

If you miss out on the little beauties above, then you can always buy a limited edition Indietracks 2011 canvas bag online for just £5.00 – these are now for sale along with the digital compilation of the festival over at the Make Do and Mend bandcamp page. Buy a bag and get a free automatic download of the compilation!

Winner of the festival prize draw

We’d also like to congratulate the winner of the filled goodie bag won in the festival prize draw, Lindsay Bilborrow of Heanor, who was thrilled to have won and was hand-delivered her prize by one of the Midland Railway staff. Well done Lindsay!

2011 quiz answers!

Thanks very much to everyone who entered the quick quiz that we ran on this blog a week or so before the festival.

We tried to make the quiz a bit harder this year. However, for some reason, lots of you were able to identify the favourite crisp of John from Butcher Boy, the bass player on a 2003 Athlete b-side and the date when the first apple pie receipe was created. Seven people scored full marks on the quiz, and lots of others came very close, which was very disappointing. So next year, we're going to make the quiz fiendishly impossible. We will take it as a sign of our own failure if anyone dares to enter.

Anyway, for the second year running, it came down to a nail-biting tiebreak. Contestants were asked to come up with a fun name for a ficticious Indietracks workshop, drawing inspiration from real-life Indietracks workshops such as Knit Cave and the Bad Tweed. To be honest, it was a bit of a mixed bag. However, we're delighted to award first place and mystery Indietracks goodie bag to Lauren, who came up with "Say No To Gloves": a seminar (a) extolling the virtues of mittens as a superior hand warming garment and (b) teaching new converts how to crochet tiny ones for use as devices of propaganda. Congratulations Lauren!

The quiz answers are here: Indietracks blog 2011 quiz answers. Thanks again to everyone who took part!

White Town - She's A Lot Like You

There's nothing we like more than one of our favourite pop stars shooting a video entirely at Indietracks, so imagine our excitement when we saw the video for White Town's new single 'She's A Lot Like You'. We LOVE it!

See if you can spot yourself and your friends!