Peter Dutch, of Colchester, is the founder of the ALB Festival, which will take place in Lower Castle Park on September 13 and September 14.
The annual event is run by The ALB, formerly known as The Anti Loo Brigade, a community group which helped residents throughout the Covid pandemic and has a presence in the Stanway Lakelands Centre.
The festival started out originally as a celebration to mark the end of the lockdown in 2021 and more than 4,000 people attended the inaugural event.
Happy man – boss Peter Dutch enjoying the festival (Image: ALB Festival) Pop sensation Pixie Lott has already been announced for the first date of the festival and now Mr Dutch has confirmed a huge headliner will be announced next Saturday, January 18.
He said: “We are very excited, it is our fifth anniversary this year since the start of the ALB and the festival, so we wanted to make it an extra special event and to take it up to the next level.
“What we’ve managed to achieve up to now has given local families an incredible day out and donated free tickets to care home residents.
“It’s growing to be biggest family festival Colchester has seen.”
Festival – a large crowd (Image: ALB Festival) To organise a festival of this size, it takes a year of “planning, organising, booking artists”, and is generally a “mammoth job”.
Mr Dutch said the team has been “trying to source this headliner for several months”.
He said: “It is not easy attracting huge names; we wanted to go for this artist because we think they will be amazing for the demographic.
“We think they are going to be perfect for our crowd, the music programme is based on fun, partying, and dancing, they tick all those boxes in abundance.
“It will be one of the biggest parties Colchester Castle Park has seen.”
The festival has already sold-out of early bird tickets and adult tickets currently cost £49.32.
ALB Festival – another crowd shot from last year (Image: ALB Festival)
It is now allowing festivalgoers to secure their tickets for £10 before they make the complete payment in March, to ensure people can afford tickets during the winter period.
You can bring your own food and drink into the festival.
The funds from ticket sales will also be used so The ALB can continue to help projects that support victims of abuse, respite for carers, therapy for children, helping those in need get furniture, and much more.
Mr Dutch said: “It keeps it accessible to many as people as possible which is really important to us.
“As an organisation, we provide support in the community, we are hoping to make money to help support people in need for the various projects we have on.
“By booking ticket, not only do you secure the best day out of the year, but you also support community projects.”
To find out more, visit albfestival.com.