You have to make a loss before you can learn how to profit...

This is something that was said to me by a man I regard as a friend and is oh so true. If you are planning on organising a music festival for the first time, be prepared to make a loss. Luckily with a donation from Hamish Ogston, the founder of CPP, we managed to raise £2500 for our chosen charity, York's Special Care Baby Unit.

Dudestock 2011 was a huge success in the sense that we had no glitches on the day, apart from the torrential rain and thunderstorms and the financial loss it all ran smoothly. The stage, sound and lighting ran perfectly. The musicians were awesome and the crowds were fantastic!

It took place on Bustardthorpe field on York Knavesmire. The date? 06th August 2011.

The day kicked off with The Pauper Kings who were followed by 20 minutes of the stage, sound and lighting being shut down due to a very heavy down pour. Unfortunately due to the delay we had to drop a band off the play list, my thanks goes out to these guys as they made no fuss and were very understanding when Zakk, our Marketing Director, called them to let them know.

The Burning Crows

The live music resumed with Astrae, a relatively new band who were very warmly welcomed and especially loved by our Minster FM representative, Laura Sledmore. Live music continued with River City Ransom who earned their place by winning the 2011 Battle of the Bands competition in York. Believe in FATE, a finalist from York in the national competition, Live and Unsigned 2011, proceeded RCR and preceded D'Nile from Harrogate and then Testtone 3 from York. The evening was officially kicked off by The Deadlight, a five piece rock band from Scarborough and a real concoction of delights for your senses. Following The Deadlight was an upcoming DJ, Chris Laidler, who's tunes and accompanying singer wowed, and maybe even scared (a little) Dudestock 2011's crowds. Leeds band, Euphoria Audio were next, who's fusion of rock and popular music was very warmly welcomed. The Burning Crows from Norwich then really got the crowds jumping, so much so that the crowd control barriers were put in front of the stage for the first time all day to stop the ladies pulling them off stage. Following TBC were Exit State, a rock band hailing from Lancashire with a drummer who John Henry Bonham himself would applaud. Introducing our main support act was Dead Rebellion, unfortunately the band themselves had some technical issues and their 25 minute set was reduced to 15. I say unfortunately because these guys are awesome live and are a real crowd pleaser.

Zakk - A Joker's Rage

Our main support act was A Joker's Rage who were truly awesome. They came on stage in their war paint and introduced our head line act, theFALLEN, beautifully! AJR have tours lined up this year in the USA and theFALLEN have just toured Finland with a tour of China planned later this year.

theFALLEN

Some of you may be aware that Dudestock derived its name from our association with Dudeism, a religion or philosophy (you decide) that was inspired by the movie 'The Big Lebowski'. We were honoured to be graced with The Dudely Lama's presence. Oliver Benjamin is the founder of Dudeism and travelled from Thailand to show his support to Dudestock! There were many people who turned up dressed as characters from 'TBL' and at one point many of us thought Jeff Bridges had honoured us with his presence. A Dude from Runcorn, near Liverpool, turned up at the gate and was a real double of 'The Dude'. Even more thrilling was his companion who was the double of Walter Sobchek. Their attendance was a real treat.

All in all the day went really well and we were so very impressed with the crowds!

A special thanks has to go to our volunteers and all the acts, without whom there would have been no Dudestock. Thank you to everyone who attended and we'll see you next year!!!

The Dudely Lama and The Arch Dude of York discuss, well, something :)

The Dude's Prayer

Our Dude, who art in Los Angeles,

Hallowed be thy handle,

Thy rug will come,

Thy chill be done,

All over earth as it is your bungalow,

Give us this our daily caucasian,

And forgive us our stresspasses,

As we forgive those who stresspass against us,

And lead us not into Simi Valley,

But deliver us from real reactionaries and human paraquat,

For thine is the lane, and the ball, and the what-have-you,

Down through the ages,

Across the sands of time,

Fuckin Ay man!

The 2011 UK Census

So my census arrived this morning. After scanning the pages I realised there's quite a lot more to it than I remember from ten years ago. Maybe this is because ten years ago I was a stoner who was happy to fill in any form pushed in front of my face, I mean after all there was little else to do then. Maybe it's because things get a bit hazy when you smoke an awful lot of pot. Maybe it's simply because it was TEN years ago. Whatever the reason I certainly don't remember it being so intrusive.

Now however, I have a lot less time on my hands and after ten years have become a bit more concerned about the information I divulge. I think as you get older you get wiser (some may say grumpier). It's a very lengthy form and thankfully there was the option of filling it in on-line. This certainly saves a lot of time especially when you have psoriasis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psoriasis) in your thumb on the hand with which you right.

After 3 years of working in the card and identity protection industry you become slightly wary about the details you pass onto people. I mean why on earth do the government want to know the name of the company I work for? The best part of the census form was when asked about my children. Let me explain. My two children are Emma and Sebastian, 5 and 2 respectively. One of the questions was 'On the 27th March 2011, what is your legal marital or same-sex civil partnership status?' This could easily be avoided if the system was intelligent enough to pick up on the fact it asked me only one question before what their Date of Birth was. Am I just being grumpy here? I'll let you decide.

Anyway the main point for my blog is to highlight the religion question. 'What is your religion?' How many people do we think would be offended if a perfect stranger asked this question? I for one wouldn't but it has been the height of controversy since it appeared on the last census in 2001. Now maybe Dudeism won't get as strong a response as Jedi did back in 2001 but then that's not what we're about. To put Jedi as your religion on the last census was an attempt to make a mockery of the question. Marking Dudeism as your religion this time round is simply to make a point. It's to show the world that there of us out there who refuse to get uptight about things. I set up the group on Facebook 'Dudeism for the 2011 census' (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=297196961824&ref=ts) with that sole purpose in mind. We all know that Dudeism is the slowest growing religion in the world, something that as an ordained minister I am very proud of. We have no intent of rivalling Jedi (not just yet anyway) nor even the 'Heavy Metal' campaign also going around on Facebook but we are here with a purpose. That purpose is to teach the world how to take 'er easy. To not get too uptight when the ringer is thrown from the car or when the toe goes over the line.

We are simply here abiding and I don't know about you but, I take comfort in that.

Time for a caucasian I think.

Take 'er easy Dudes, I know you will.

Dudeism for the 2011 census appears in The Sunday Times (27/02/11)

Big census fib: I’m a disciple of
the Dude

Jeff Bridges' famous ‘Dude’ character has inspired disciples of his lifestyle to try and have his ways recognised as a religion in the 2011 Census

Jamie McGinnes 

Published: 27 February 2011

Jeff Bridges's the Dude has followers who want the Census to recognise their faith (Polygram)

We’re all dudes now, man. As Jeff Bridges waits to see if he will win an Oscar tonight for his role as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, another of his famous parts is set to become a ruse to annoy the census-takers this year.

Whereas nearly 400,000 people claimed their religion was “Jedi” in the last national survey 10 years ago, some want “Dudeism” to be recognised this year.

Bridges played the Dude, an unemployed slacker from California with a penchant for bowling, marijuana and white russian cocktails, in the film The Big Lebowski.

The Facebook group called Dudeism for the 2011 Census (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=297196961824) has more than 500 disciples. It was set up by Kristian Lewin, 30, a sales manager from York, who is one of 100,000 self-proclaimed “ministers” of the Church of the Latter-Day Dude.

The “Heavy Metal for the 2011 Census” group last week had the largest support to be recognised as a new religion, with more than 30,000 members on Facebook.

The census is due to take place on March 27 and most people should have received a questionnaire by then.

The question on religion is the only one that is voluntary. Lying on other questions, including marital status or types of central heating, is punishable by a fine of up to £1,000.

A decade ago the Jedi phenomenon was inspired by an internet campaign and fuelled by protesters unhappy with the inclusion of a question on religion in census forms. Those claiming to be Jedi knights had outnumbered Britain’s Jews, Sikhs and Buddhists.

“I was curious to see how many Dudes there are in the UK. I don’t see it rivalling the heavy metal group or Jedis, but then that’s not what Dudeism is all about,” Lewin said.

Dudeism, which is described as “an ancient philosophy that preaches non-preachiness” and “practises as little as possible” was founded in 2005 by Oliver Benjamin, 43, a journalist originally from Los Angeles but now based in Thailand. Women are free to become Dudes as much as men.

Benjamin said last week: “We think of Dude as an attitude, a state of mind and a term of endearment used towards people who are non-pretentious, easy-going and limber-minded.”

This year’s census has caused an outcry over its near £500m cost. The 32-page survey is being printed in 57 languages.

The Office for National Statistics said that information from the religion question will be used to “assess potential discrimination and support equality monitoring”.