If Carlsberg did Rock Festivals ….

… then they still couldn’t beat Winterstorm!

The sedate seaside town of Troon was awoken from its slumbers over the last weekend by the Winterstorm rock festival.

One venue, two stages and 36 bands played from Friday 23rd November to Sunday 25th November. This included bands such as Oliver Dawson Saxon, Zal Cleminson’s ‘Sin Dogs; Gun, Magnum, Bernie Torme, Girlschool and the Dead Daisies. The main stage was compered by the legendary Tom Russell of RockSport Radio. Although there were some over-runs in the timing, this could only have been expected with the number of bands playing and didn’t detract from the event.

Some of the highlights included former Gillan guitarist Bernie Torme

and the excellent Dead Daisies

Saturday night was finished off with Glen, White McManus (featuring Chris Glen of Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Doogie White of Rainbow & Michael Schenker Group and Pat McManus of Mamas Boys) who were joined by pipers from the 1st Troon Boys Brigade to launch the first Winterstorm charity single – an excellent version of AC/DC’s It’s a long Way to the Top. The single will be released on Friday 30th November will all proceeds going to two mental health charities.

The organisation of the event was superb, with support from ‘Storm Troopers who were there to help anyone who needed support. To make sales at the bar and foodstall quicker money was exchanged for tokens and this meant shorter queues and a quicker turnaround when buying drink and food. The Winterstorm branding was everywhere from giant banners, a giant deckchair and even on the pies and empire biscuits! The local Troon RNLI manned the cloakrooms and managed to raise around £1,200 in donations over the weekend. There was even a beach clean up for anyone able to get up early on the Saturday morning.

Winterstorm 2018 was an excellent example of how to organise a rock festival. The charity single is available from 30th November so jump online and buy a copy (or two) and get yourself ready for 29/30th November next year for Winterstorm 2019.

More videos from WinterStorm … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC18WDIQ_OY