"THE CULTURAL VIBES WEEEKEND 2011"
Midday Friday 3rd June ........................until.................................Midnight Sun 5th June.
Hello and a very good day to all you Groovers, Shakers, Cultural Vibes fans and the new and curious looking for some special friendly weekend dancing fun ......................................some great news for you !
As you are probably aware i have been busy organising lots of goodies for this years 19th Birthday Cultural Vibes Weeekend, which will be held from the 3rd-5th June 2011. In keeping with last years Green/Eco themed venue i have chosen another beautiful, spiritually run venue, that needs our support as for Crasken Farm, your money over the bar and on food in June last year went long way believe me. Its not often you find venues that fit the bill perfectly for our type of fun, but to also have had such a positive effect having been there makes it all the better. Crasken Farm suited our purposes perfectly in June 2010but before we had even gone there i had already decided that the next Cultural Vibes Weeekend was going to be somewhere special from my childhood and to be honest the whole mad idea has Cultural Vibeswritten all over it !
Dartmoor Zoological Park (DZP) is situated just 15 mins (A38) from Plymouth and has been reborn in recent years thanks to the vision and kind hearts of all who work there. Led ably from the front by owner Benjamin Mee the DZP has blossomed since he took over the crumbling old "Sparkwell Wildlife Park", but its not come without huge personal and financial cost. The once popular attraction was literally on its last legs, having been shut down by the authorities as unsafe before Ben & his family stepped in at the 11th hour to save both the park and most of the animals, many of which had been earmarked to be destroyed. A monumental amount of work was needed to get the park safe and habitable for both the animals and Ben's family before the relevant authorities would award the park its license to trade back.
Since re-opening to the public in 2007 the all new "Dartmoor Zoological Park" has been upgraded to full conservation Zoo status and Ben & the DZP team have been busy improving and re-building the enclosures, stocking up on rare, endangered species and stepping up their important educational output.However the rising costs in borrowing have had an adverse effect on progress recently, I will not go into too much detail here as its all on the website (http://www.dartmoorzoo.org/) and in the wonderful book that Owner Ben has written on the whole saga called "We Bought A Zoo"
The pages of this book contain a truly inspiring story and one i highly recommend you all read before we meet up there in June. Its a great way to get to know the staff & the animals your going to meet. The book was good enough to spawn a BBC2 series called "Ben's Zoo" and also good enough to be optioned by Fox Studio's and is currently in post-production, being made into a huge Hollywood movie with top draw director Cameron Crowe in the hot seat and Matt Damon & Scarlett Johansson in the starring roles with a host of famous British & American talent in support. Sadly however these film productions take their time coming to fruition and any box office funding dreams for the park are still quite a long way off.
Therefore the money realised from our special "one off" Cultural Vibes Weeekend in June will go directly to help fund the running of the park and hopefully filling a financial hole until the film is well underway. Cultural Vibes doubled & paid the quoted hire fee as a good will gift last year and I personally guarantee that every penny we spend there in June will be going to a very good cause indeed. And just look what we get for it !
A stunning privately run Conservation Zoo with 230 happy, exotic WILD animals including: Tigers, Lions, Jaguar, Linx and Cheetah (The largest collection of big cats in the region), Bears, Wolves, Tapir, Capybara, Racoons, Otters, Meerkats, Monkeys, Ostrich, Emu, Antelope and many many more. Plus hundreds more native birds & animals, and all set in 33acres of the glorious Devon countryside for 3 days of summer camping fun and dancing.................NICE !!!
Like Crasken Farm, the Dartmoor Zoological Park is also populated by a wonderful team of dedicated staff and volunteers (including our very own Tim Steward & Alex Smale) who will all be doing their very best to make this your best weekend away ever. Rupert, Petra & their Wonderful FOOD- GROOVE team will be with us once again this year, serving a wonderful range of quality Organic fare with plenty of vegetarian options so everything is also covered food-wise. The FOOD-GROOVE tent will be in the main camping field for all 3 days & nights. There will also be several licensed bar areas on site, plenty of toilets, a shower block, and this year we will have ample parking nearby as no vehicles will be permitted in the camping field (Except Campervans) this time around.
OPENING NIGHT FRIDAY 3rd JUNE
Top Hat Stage:
12-4pm - Residents
4-7pm - Graeme Fisher (Extended Mix)
Main Room:
7pm - 12am - Verdi & Duncan Parks (Cultural Vibes)
12am - 3am - Tom Middleton (Cosmos, Global Communication) & MC Ribbz Present ONE MORE TUNE!
SATURDAY 4th JUNE
Top Hat Stage:
12pm - 2pm - Residents
2pm - 4pm - Mark Luvdup
4pm - 7pm - Earl Gateshead (Trojan Sound System)
Main Room:
7pm - 10pm - Kelvin Andrews (Wonk, Soul Mekanik)
10pm - 12:30am - Justin Robertson (Dead Stock 33's)
12:30am - 3am - Mr. Andrew Weatherall
Room 2:
7pm - 9pm - Residents
9pm - 12am - DJ Digit & Max Mistry
12am - 3am - Girls On Top
SUNDAY 5th JUNE
Top Hat Stage:
12pm - 2pm - Cultural Vibes Resident DJ's
2pm - 4:30pm - Justin Robertson (alternative set)
4:30pm - 7pm - Mr. Andrew Weatherall (alternative set)
Main Room:
7pm - 8pm - Verdi
8pm - 12 midnight - OPTIMO (Espacio, Nuam Gabo)
THERE WILL ONLY BE 400FULL WEEKEND TICKETS FOR SALE @ 85.00
THERE WILL ONLY BE 100 SINGLE-DAY TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR THE SUNDAY @ 25.00
( WEEKEND PRICE INCLUDES 3 DAYS ONSITE CAMPING + 3 X ZOO ENTRY & ALL ENTERTAINMENT)
Main entrance gate will be open from 10 am until 10 pm on each day, sadly due to firearms requirements we cannot allow early arrivals on the Thursday. The camping field is adjacent to the African Savanna field so we will be sharing space and a wonderful view with Ostrich, Lechwe, Waterbuck etc which will make for an amazing experience, but please remember not to feed the animals anything over the fence as it is strictly forbidden.
I cannot begin to tell you just how beautiful the venue is, I spent many memorable summer days there as a child and if you had said to me then that one day i would get to put on a private party on there, i would never have believed you. More importantly this truly special place and all the animals & people who's lives have become entwined there could really do with some help as well as some fun. The finance generated from our "Cultural Vibes Weekend" is going to do some serious good, and we can all go there on a high next June knowing we have done something wonderful with our money. There are very few places like this left in the South West and just wondering around the Old Georgian mansion and its glorious wooded grounds visiting the animals (and getting sprayed by a Tiger!) with Alex the week before last years Vibes Weekend made me feel very special indeed. It was my first visit in over 25 years & i loved every single minute of it. To be perfectly honest i'd made up my mind on this next event before i had even left the gate.
Anyway I'm rambling................. go get excited ............ and start planning,..........there's lots of fun to be had !!
Verdi xxxxxxx