Wakestock Puts Its Skates On

Although he denies the losses on last year’s twinned Wakestocks were as high as the £2 million rumoured at the time, it looks like Kilimanjaro Live chief Stuart Galbraith’s decision to drop the Oxford version has paid off.

The remaining Wakestock at Abersoch, a seaside resort on the Welsh coast, sold out its 25,000-capacity with a lineup that included Moby, Super Furry Animals, N*E*R*D, Dizzee Rascal, The Pigeon Detectives, The Zutons and Noisettes.

The event combines the world’s biggest wakeboarding event with three days of live music. Wakeboarding is a sort of combination of water skiing, snowboarding and surfing.

Buying into Wakestock and hard rock Bloodstock Festival was one of Galbraith’s first moves after setting up Kilimanjaro in cahoots with AEG Live.

“There’s been a lot of skepticism about an overcrowded U.K. festival market, but we always thought there was room for expansion in specialist areas,” Galbraith said in a statement.

On the wakeboarding front, world champion Nick Davies came away with the top prize in the men’s competition, while U.K. rider Charlotte Bryant beat off Argentinean champion Robbie Rendo and Auzzie Kath Moore to take the women’s title.

Thousands of festival fans took advantage of the free buses to the nearby Pwllheli Marina, where the wakeboarding took place.
The dates for next year’s Wakestock are July 2-4.