Two iconic Corby clubs come together to host music festival

At the ‘Corby Music Festival’ each club had two stages. At The Grampian there was the Future Hits stage and the Jam Knights stage and at The Irish Centre there was the Covers stage and the Acoustic stage.

Hundreds of people attended the festival and were free to move between each stage and also enjoy the various food vendors that were there on the day.

The event was originally put together by both The Grampian and Sour Promotions but due to safety concerns over the size of the event it meant it was necessary to expand, which led to them asking the Irish Centre to get involved.

Despite being next door to one another, the two clubs haven’t collaborated for a number of years.

However, after the success of this weekend’s event, this is something they’ve both said they’d like to do more in the future.

Lee Gribbin, vice chair of The Irish Centre Committee, said: “It’s been very smooth, The Grampian have been a joy to work with, as have Sour Promotions. They’ve been upfront with everything.

“We met with The Grampian a couple of times over the last couple of weeks and everyone that we spoke to was easy to speak to. It’s been good, good spirited between both clubs.

“We’d definitely like to work together again, it’s something that we spoke about, working more together as a club. The pub industry across the country is struggling, so if we can help each other out and lean on each other, it’s only for the better for both clubs.”

Paul Mckenna, club secretary at the Grampian said: “I think it shows that if people put their minds to it, what can be done. We’ve got two brilliant venues here, the size of both you can utilise and make good events.

“We had meetings in the week, we’ve discussed other things going forward, there’s lots of ideas floating about.

“They’ve got their 50th anniversary this year, we had our 40th not so long ago, we’re only three years behind them. Somebody’s taken the vision to build these two clubs in the town, let’s make sure they’re here for another 50 years.”

James Hunter of Sour Promotions, said: “It’s about bringing a local Corby promotion to two iconic Corby venues. The Irish has been going through a really good revamp, The Grampian is looking to try and do the same and I’d probably say that the Irish is one of the best venues around now, definitely.

“In a time when venues are struggling, the idea of this is to push local bands and local venues.

“When I first started talking to Paul he always said the committee had ambitions to connect the two clubs a bit more so it just made sense and the Irish have been really good since they’ve got on board. It’s been a good day.”