Sark Summer Festival could be on again

It was organised in place of the Sark Folk Festival, whose organisers have taken a year off for the first time since 2010.

Around 1,000 tickets had been sold in advance for the new festival, and founder Simon Couldridge said hundreds more had turned up and bought tickets on Saturday or yesterday.

‘It has well exceeded our expectations, we got really lucky with the weather and we have had countless hundreds of people saying “please do it again next year”.

‘We have had everyone from mothers with their push chairs to eight-year-olds – there has been something for everyone.’

‘We had a shedload of people turn up on one of the days, and on course we had all of the band members, volunteers and caterers, so we must have had in excess of 1,500 people here in all.’

Whether the organisers do return to Sark with the event next year remains to be seen.

‘It is a little bit early to tell, but the feedback has been great,’ said Mr Couldridge. ‘We were wondering about doing something in August. That’s just an idea that is in the melting pot.’

The Norman Piette and Rocquette Cider-sponsored event attracted bands from the UK, including British country-pop trio The Adelaides, and further afield.

Guernsey bands such as Static Alice, Matt Bonneville and the Cage Shakers played at the festival, while local bands, such as Sark’s contemporary five-piece The Recks, were also crowd-pleasers.

Musically, Mr Couldridge described it as ‘an eclectic mix’ of styles and genres, set against a ‘beautiful’ backdrop.

‘Last night it was a baking hot evening, we had hundreds of people on the terrace and the sunset was absolutely to die for,’ he said.