As the 20th century drew to a close the musically artistic folk of Kelvedon (i.e. Tony Winn) decided to organise a week long festival to see out the old and welcome in the new.

For nine days in June 1999 there was an event each day somewhere in Kelvedon and Feering; gigs, classical performance, open mike nights, bell ringing, morris dancing and sing-a-longs round the joanna, culminating in a concert on Saturday afternoon at St.Mary’s Primary School. The concert saw the world premier of the Kelvedon Millennium Song, written and performed by Tony Winn and the children of the school (this song was performed again at the Kelvedon Millennium New Year Party and fireworks).

But we’d started and we couldn’t finish...

A ‘committee’ was born and had the bit between its teeth. A Weekend Millennium Festival was planned for 2000 to celebrate the big year itself. Saturday featured Weapons of Sound running a sonic workshop and performing two sets in the afternoon; Mooks struggling through the last set with a broken finger. The Kelvedon Dance Studio and School of Dance both performed. Tony Winn was ‘Singing in a Box’ (only a matter of time before he progressed to a bath!) and Michael J Fitch held the day together with magic, stilt walking, juggling and punch ‘n’ judy. Sunday switched to a different venue. Brockwell Meadows hosted an afternoon of scarecrow making and willow weaving on the banks of the Blackwater. Roxy’s Toolbox Busking Band played (once they had finished batheing in the river) and Kelvedon Players put on a show of medieval dancing.

Lets get powered up...

Seemed like a good idea! The 2001 festival heralded ‘the generator’ and went to the now familiar Saturday afternoon format but had two stages. Two sound systems for seamless, back to back musical entertainment, plus a craft fair in a marquee. Why did we make it so complicated?

But the rest, as they say, is history...

For 2002 and subsequent years we went to a single stage (OK it’s a truck) with ‘filler’ acts while the stage is reset. The emphasis has been and always will be on community; involving local people in organising, running and performing at the festival. The acts are predominantly from Essex, mainly from the immediate area, and if memory serves, The Marques Brothers headlined that year. 2002 was also the first ‘beer tent’ year – grant funding was drying up and we had to start making money on the day if the festival was to be sustainable.

The following year original rock band Relay made their first appearance, while Downflow and Escucha proved how musically diverse our festival could be.

2004 saw the launch of our Battle of the Bands competition, which gave the chance for school age musicians to experience festival life from the frontline. Thurstable band Landslide won the right to open the festival that year, which saw Coggeshall based Carrier headline, with Maldon's Cousin Joey and Braintree band Bouncing Off Concrete also featuring.

In 2005 we went global. International chart band Eddie & the Hot Rods took Kelvedon to a whole new level, having previously headlined the Reading Festival. That year we also saw Automatic Slim bring us the blues, whilst Chelmsford metal band From Almost the End certainly polarised musical opinion!

2006 saw us double in size musically, when with the introduction of our 2nd stage. Originally it was set up as an acoustic stage, and was run by Shutupfool Studios, with bands such as AloneMe and Cav-OK playing. Over on the main stage the New Town Kings made their first appearance, as did chart band Koopa, but the band who had everyone talking that year were the frighteningly outrageous Scary Bitches. The other major innovation that year was the introduction of real ale, and in particular Brewers Gold into the beer tent. Cheers! Hic!

It all went a bit mad the following year. John Otway headlined - the man is totally bonkers. And we made it on to Radios One and Two traffic reports as we gridlocked mid Essex. One casualty was the Exposé drummer, who was caught up in the tailback, missed the turn off, then caught another jam as he tried to get into Kelvedon from the other direction! Massive thanks to Travellor and AloneMe who filled the gap. Chinese lanterns adorned the Kelvedon skies, and Koopa returned as a top twenty act, bigger and better than ever.

The history is to be continued, watch this space...!