Treat dad to food and music festival in Poole
For three days from Friday 20 to Sunday 22 June, the beautiful surroundings of Upton Country Park are home to a premium programme of top UK tribute acts and the very best local bands and artists, as well as a smorgasbord of amazing food and drink, much of it from local producers.
It's the top-notch festival on your doorstep where the eats are as big as the beats!
'Taking the family to festivals like Glastonbury or even the Isle of Wight costs more than a lot of holidays, but Upton House Food & Music Festival has all the flavour of bigger events with none of the stress – it's all the fun of the fare – both gastronomic and musical!' says festival organiser Serena Wren.
There can't be many food and music loving dads who wouldn't find the good stuff in Friday's line-up with tributes to Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian following local rocker Chris Payn and his new band. On Saturday, there are rockin' tributes to Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Kings of Leon and U2, with top local act Saints Of Sin, ballsy singer Jordan Watts, cover masters Wonky Donkey and the red hot All Funked Up. Sunday's lineup is topped by Police Academy's acclaimed tribute to The Police supported by banjo-wielding good time merchants Sixteen String Jack, Chris Payn and the Mother Ukers earlier in the day.
'Upton House Food & Music Festival is like having a party in your back garden,' adds Serena. 'People love the easy vibe, the chance to check out some amazing food and have a bit of drink with family and friends!'
On the menu are big flavours from around the world including street food superstars Two Lads Kitchen with their famous Afghan street food, the super fresh flavoured chicken wings of Bournemouth-based Wings & Tings, and, for a sweeter tooth, check out Chock Shop's amazing artisan brownies.
To drink there's a variety of local craft beers and ciders as well as the distinctive flavours of Shanty, Poole's very own seaside vodka distilled using five types of hand-foraged organic seaweed. And for a non-alcoholic refresh, how about the authentic Taiwanese tastes of Bubble World's bubble tea?
First Release tickets start from just £18 for families, £7 for adults and only £3.50 for kids; with full three-day weekend tickets from £50 for families, £20 adults and £9 children.
The site opens from 5pm on Friday and 11am on Saturday and Sunday with pre-paid on-site parking available and well-behaved dogs on leads welcome.
Full details and ticket booking at www.uptonhousefoodandmusicfestival.com.
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USA Today
6 hours ago
- USA Today
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More often, though, kiss cams offer those attending live events the chance to score a cameo in their own experience, claiming part or even all of those 15 seconds of fame once foretold for all of us. The power of those moments, Resnick said, lies in their organic nature. 'Authenticity can't be staged in real time,' he said. 'It resonates in the social zeitgeist.' Kiss cams 'an important metric' of acceptance The kiss cam's evolution hasn't been without its stumbles. In 2015, Syracuse University discontinued its kiss cam feature after a letter to the local newspaper cited a pair of troubling instances at the football team's game against Wake Forest. Steve Port of Manlius, N.Y., wrote that the kiss cam segment had twice featured young women who expressed unwillingness to participate but were forced to anyway, either by their male counterpart or by surrounding students. Meanwhile, a dozen or so years have passed since some major league sports franchises were accused of promoting homophobia by using kiss cams to poke fun at other teams. In those cases, after featuring a series of smooching male-female couples, the kiss cam segments ended by focusing on two of the home team's rival players, or even fans – suggesting they might kiss, and that doing so would be comedic. As a fan of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars complained after such a segment in a 2013 letter to team owner Shahid Khan, initially reported by Outsports: 'Hilarious, right? No, and the message is clear. Jaguars are heterosexual and approved. The opponent is 'gay,' disapproved and the butt of a crude joke.' A year earlier, pitcher Brandon McCarthy of Major League Baseball's Oakland A's had similarly condemned the practice after a game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. 'They put two guys on the 'Kiss Cam' tonight,' McCarthy posted on the social platform now known as X. 'What hilarity!! (by hilarity I mean offensive homophobia). Enough with this stupid trend.' Later, McCarthy — now sporting director for the USL Championship's Phoenix Rising FC — told the San Francisco Chronicle: "If there are gay people who are coming to a game and seeing something like that, you can't assume they're comfortable with it. If you're even making a small group of people ... feel like outcasts, then you're going against what makes your model successful." Before long, franchises were striving to be more inclusive, and in 2015, MLB's New York Mets told the Huffington Post they would no longer feature opposing players in their kiss cam segments; that same year, the Dodgers included a gay couple in its kiss cam. 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The two turned and kissed, to the crowd's delight. Still, Bonvissuto said it's still rare to see LGBTQ couples featured on kiss cams beyond Pride Night events. While cautioning that she hasn't seen any statistics on such representation, she said the footage she's viewed largely features white, able-bodied and seemingly cisgender individuals. 'Kiss cams act as a means to exclude certain people,' she said. 'They're incredibly important in thinking about representation — who we're seeing and not seeing.' 'Socially acceptable' voyeurism But for the most part, kiss cams have offered streams of harmless fun, fodder for highlight and blooper reels and glimpses into the relationships of everyone from fellow citizens to celebrities and sitting and former U.S. presidents. Kiss cams, said BYU's Darowski, offer audiences the constant thrill of knowing they could be onscreen combined with 'a socially acceptable, safe form of voyeurism that is traditionally taboo.' The presumed authenticity of couples' raw, unrehearsed reactions is key, too, he said. 'So much of our entertainment is highly mediated, edited and packaged for our consumption,' he said. It doesn't always play out as planned – and not all of it is necessarily genuine, thanks to some sports teams' creative minds. Many couples share crowd-pleasing kisses. Others, not so much. Some, snubbed by their companions, stomp off in a huff or peck adjacent fans instead, while youthful pairs looking to lock lips are thwarted by chaperoning adults. Whether any of it is staged doesn't matter much. Fans and audiences alike have enjoyed their moment in the limelight. Resnick, of 15 Seconds of Fame, recalled a moment in June 2024 after a Dallas Mavericks loss in game five of the NBA Finals. The arena cameras zeroed on a fan tearful over the outcome. 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