Surf’s up for beach festival

Jul 4 2008 by Rebecca Edwards, Chester Chronicle

Groove Armada, Mark Ronson, The Streets, Happy Mondays, Hoosiers, Funeral for a Friend – the line-up of top-selling bands for this weekend’s Wakestock would please the most world-weary festival organiser.

However, the act at the Abersoch event everybody’s looking forward to only released her first record a few months ago, has already captured the hearts of British and now American music fans.

It’s going to be a homecoming for North Wales-born Chester University alumnus Aimee Duffy, aka Duffy, whose performance for 50,000 fans at Pen-y-Berth on the weekend of July 4-6 has been orchestrated by her ex-boyfriend – Wakestock founder Mark Durston.

Wakestock has grown enormously since the first show in 2000 when around 800 people partied in Caernarfonshire Yacht Club’s car park.

Mark said attracting wakeboarding competitors is easier than bands, with riders due from Australia, the USA, South Africa and the UK.

He’s also a fan of the sport. “I loved sport and music and wanted to do something that combined the two,” he said. “It ended up being wakeboarding. It’s really good, but can be very painful if you get it wrong.”