tribute acts draw the crowds on the opening night of Stockton Weekender

Stockton Weekender is now in it's 22 year and once again the town centre festival had a mini revamp. Just as with last year, there were three nights of entertainment. With a charge for two of the nights (£20 per day or £30 for the weekend) and a free family day, only the free day changed from Sunday to the Friday this year. They also added the Vela stage, which was a small platform positioned right next to the main stage. This stage mainly showcased local talent and the two arenas alternated between acts so that there was always music on. The other main change was the disappearance of the comedy tent (which was separately priced, and was poorly attended last year resulting in the organisers refunding people). The organisers filled this void by adding the Tees Active Cabaret tent which mixed both music with comedy acts, including this venue with the price of your weekend or day ticket.

We arrived at the festival on Friday night just as the main stage entertainment was starting around 6pm. Once inside the arena we noticed that apart from the changes mentioned earlier the set up didn't change much. Once again it was compact with a bar and hospitality area to the right hand side, food vans (Pizza, burger, donuts etc.- nothing too overpriced, yet nothing too tasty either) down the middle and toilets to the left. Further down there was a small children's area and across from it a fun fair with the main rides priced at £2.50 a shot. The festival ticket price also included entrance to the Georgian theatre which was outside the main arena but not too far to walk. If you wanted the full festival experience you could camp for an extra £20, the only problem being that it was a 15-20 minute walk to and from the campsite.

Friday saw the largest attendance for the weekend with queues forming to get past the bag check area, and the drink/food outlets busy. The crowds were rewarded with dry and pleasant weather all night and a line-up of cover and tribute bands, the first of which was The Funk Collective. They were billed as a music experience like no other but unfortunately came across as another karaoke - like cover band. The evening entertainment kicked on from here with Lizzy Once Moore - a Thin Lizzy/Gary Moore tribute band whipping the crowd up with old favourites before the Kings of Leon tribute came out. Kings of Lyon were an excellent tribute band, playing a selection of songs from all the KOL albums, with the lead singer's voice hard to distinguish from Caleb Followill's. After being warmed up the crowd were then taken back in time to the 60's to see The Beatles come of age.

The popular tribute band Beatlemania did this with costume changes during the set starting with the black suits and bowl haircuts to the Sgt. Pepper colourful outfits. Lucky enough to have a huge back catalogue to go at, they played all the main hits and ended on a sing-along with the crowd of 'Hey Jude'.

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