More Than Just a Music Festival

LeeStock is about music. It’s about people. It’s about fun and it’s definitely about remembering. It’s a little bit about football and a lot about bands.

Whether you like listening to bands, spending time with your friends, raising money for charity or raising a drink to the legend that is Lee; LeeStock is what you need.

Starting in 2006, LeeStock was born when a bunch of Lee’s friends wanted to put on a tribute gig in the memory of music mad Lee Dunford who had sadly passed away earlier that year. The gig was a rip-roaring success, very well attended as be-fitting someone as popular as Lee.

After a year’s break, it was back and bigger than ever. 2008’s event saw 6 local acts rock out at Glemsford Social Club and leave an audience of nearly 300 people very happy. Attendees ranged from the young to the old, bringing together many different people and raising nearly £3000 for the Willow Foundation charity.

So after the success of 2008, where could we go from there? Well with all of the kind words received about the success of the festival, the only way was up. In 2009, there were twice as many acts playing over two days. Saturday 2nd May saw 6 live bands rock out the LeeStock venue with some noisy, excellent music and Sunday 3rd saw the bands unplug and 6 more acts played acoustic sets.  There was amazing weather, excellent music, a big curry, nearly 500 attendees and the odd auction or two!  In total, over £5000 was raised, bring LeeStock’s grand total donation to the Willow Foundation of £8000.

2010 saw LeeStock move to The White Horse pub in Sudbury, with a huge outside stage, gazeebos, BBQ and ponchos not to mention our specially Sudbury imported turf for all our Stockers. The bands were absolutely amazing, even when the show moved inside to escape the weather. The atmosphere was electrifying and LeeStock 2010 raised almost £8000, matching the amount donated from LeeStock from the previous 2 years put together!

LeeStock 2011 was again held at the White Horse in Sudbury.  We were delighted to sell out of tickets, and this was no doubt in part down to our two massive headliners – Dodgy and Mark Morris of the Bluetones. They put on an excellent show, and that along with the Sunday G-Roast (extreme bug eating), the pyrotechnics and the good weather made for an amazing two day festival. The amazing generosity of our Stockers meant we could take the total amount donated to Willow up to an amazing £25,000.

In 2012 we needed a bigger venue and were welcomed to The MEL Group Stadium, home of AFC Sudbury.  With Wheatus headlining as part of the UK tour, with support from D:ream and the return of Mark Morris, the event was the biggest yet – despite the down pour! – and brought our total donation to the Willow Foundation to just under £40,000.00 to date.

Perhaps the only regret was that there was only one day at LeeStcok 2012 so from 2013 LeeStock has a new home at Melford Hall Park with the potential for an even bigger festival for many years to come.  The opportunity here is extremely exciting and Melford Hall Park really does feel like coming home.  The line up is already exciting us and your feedback has been overwhelming too.  Roll on May 25th and 26th!

LeeStock doesn’t stop at the festivals though.  There have been quiz nights, basketball matches, the annual football match, a fun run and even a fancy dress pub crawl!  If you’ve got something you want to do to raise money, please contact us or visit the Involvement page.

Thank you all for visiting the site and being part of LeeStock.

Please buy your tickets early, spread the word, visit our facebook group. LeeStock is about fun, but it’s also about raising money for a very worthy cause and remembering a very special individual – none of which can be done without your active involvement. So get involved. Send us messages, keep an eye on the website (there should be some fun updates if any of our ideas come off!) and start donating.

Let’s make LeeStock 2013 the best yet.