Plumber Stu’s music festival is no pipe dream (From York Press)

Plumber Stuart Kelly organising new Apollo Music Festival

8:02am Tuesday 9th October 2012 in News By Dan Bean, dan.bean@thepress.co.uk

A YORK man is well on his way to organising a new one-day music festival for the city.

Stuart Kelly, from Acomb, has created and self-funded the Apollo Festival, which will be held at York Acorn Rugby Club over next May’s Bank Holiday, with all proceeds from the event going to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Mr Kelly, 31, said he wanted to set up the event as he considered himself “a failed musician”.

He said: “I flirt with the guitar, and have played on and off for about seven or eight years.

“I thought to myself, ‘I want to get into music, so I’ll give it a go’.

“There’s more to life than just being a plumber, which is what I am. I thought ‘it’s not too late, let’s do something about it’.”

A number of bands with a wide variety of musical styles have already committed to the event, including We Could Be Astronauts, Memorium, Little Triggers, Cop-owt, Supermodels, Columbia, Forgetting Yesterday, Barcode Zebra, The Talk, Funktion, and Hungry Ghosts.

Creating advertising banners, posters, fliers and booking the stage has already cost Mr Kelly £2,500, and interest has been shown from a variety of traders who wish to hold stalls at the event.

He said: “I am very, very confident that this festival will be a massive success and be York’s biggest festival ever. I have to be honest though, money is a problem, and I am looking for donations.

“In return, they will be mentioned on our banners and posters and fliers. We will print 6,000 of each, as well as possible mentions on our radio and paper coverage as well as advertising magazines and through our social network sites.

“My aim is to ensure that at some point everyone will have seen the advertisement banners, posters and fliers within York and the surrounding areas.”

To find out more, or offer services to the festival, email Stuart on stuart.apollofestival@mail.com