Ramblin’ Man Fair have announced Rival Sons as their Sunday night headliner for the 2020 edition of the Mote Park, Maidstone festival taking place on 17th to 19th July.
Now in its fifth year, RMF recently announced Clutch for three sets in 2020, including the Friday Main Stage headline slot, as a special new festival residency concept with Lynyrd Skynyrd headlining the Saturday night.
Other highlights include Grand Magus, Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons, Hawkwind, Black Star Riders, Cinderella’s Tom Keifer, Monster Truck, Massive Wagons, Bad Touch, Hands Off Gretel, Those Damn Crows, The Quireboys, The New Roses and many more across several stages.
Yesterday the festival announced the ‘Spirit Of Rock Spartans Club’, describing it as “a new VIP membership packed with a whole lot of exclusive perks and sweet deals.”
This announcement was met with a chorus of disapproval from fans, due to a misunderstanding over the term ‘Golden Circle’. Festival organisers moved swiftly to explain that they “are not putting an extra area in front of the stage and nothing will be stopping you from getting to the front if you want to!”
Ramblin’ Man also quickly clarified the situation with the following statement:
******************
Dear Ramblers
Having listened to your concerns it is clear that the information on The Spirit of Rock Spartans Club was focused on RMF and did not make it clear what it is and what it seeks to achieve.
RMF is the most important function of Spirit of Rock however, there are others and the club is about extending opportunity to those who enjoy all the aspects of what we do at RMF to the wider, year round activities that Spirit of Rock is involved in.
We wish to carry on our journey all year round by hosting Spirit of Rock events at venues for members where we host live bands and enjoy music all together.
In addition, we will be providing an opportunity to enjoy full hospitality in private boxes at selected gigs within the O2 in London, as well as running a competition to win flights and access to the annual Blues Awards in Memphis, USA – the home of the blues.
With regards to RMF itself, there has been – for the past 4 years – a Spirit of Rock area within VIP where we host artists, agents, sponsors, friends and family. Throughout that period there has also been an area within the pit in front of MainStage where Spirit of Rock family has had access. These aren’t new things but from hereon in the Spartans will have the advantage of access to these established areas. We are certainly not creating new areas that reduce access for other people. Don’t worry – you will still be able to stand directly in front of the main stage and sing ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ on Saturday night just as you have always done in all previous years!
The use of the term ‘Golden Circle’ was, in hindsight, misleading given the pre-existing connotations and we apologise for conjuring up all manner of negative experiences that you may have endured at other festivals who implement those areas. We are emphatically NOT creating an elitist group and Ramblers who do not see Spartans as something for them will see no difference in how their experience is delivered.
The Spirit of Rock Spartans is about enjoying all the feelings, music and experiences that RMF delivers but on multiple occasions throughout the year, including an annual Xmas function with live bands among lifestyle committed and like-minded people.
As a member you will have the opportunity to purchase 2 x VIP Super Early Bird tickets all year round for RMF. In the Spartans inaugural year of 2020, anyone who has purchased a full price ticket and joins the club will receive a refund back of the value of the SEB ticket. In addition, anyone who has purchased a weekend GA ticket and wishes to join Spartans will have access to VIP over the weekend.
We hope that this goes some way to clarify what the club is about and remove the wrong impression left by the initial post.
Ramble on!
Spirit of Rock team
