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 :)