Festival Guide: Social Festival 2017

Social Festival is located in The Kent County Showground, Maidstone, Kent. 
The festival took place on Friday 29th September - Saturday 30th September.

This was our first time at this festival but the music genre is House/Techno so even though we only knew a few names on the line-up we knew the sets would be right up our street. 

Travel

Lorraine drove and it took 1hr 30min from Basingstoke and it's roughly the same from Central London.

 Other modes of transport include: 

Green Coach – transport from various cities in the UK

Train: there are three train stations in Maidstone which can provide access; Maidstone East, Maidstone West, Maidstone Barracks.

Lil selfie before we set off (3 hours late lol)

Accommodation 

Oakwood House Hotel – very easy to find, literally 10 minute drive once you exit the M20. 

To get to the festival via an Uber – ranges between £15-£35. Really pretty hotel with a vintage English manor aesthetic. For this reason it is used for wedding quite a bit, which was probably why we got a lot of strange looks by other guests when we rolled in, in the early hours of the morning… 

Staff were lovely and room was perfect for a two night stay. We didn’t make it for breakfast so can’t review it but it will be included in the price when booking. 

Cost: £180 for 2 night stay. Only downfall is the walls are paper thin – we know this due to the fact the man in the room adjacent screamed at us to quieten down on Sunday morning because we were a little too loud for his liking *rolls eyes*

We booked through the official ‘Festiticket’ website -  found on the festival website. Although there was a list of about five other hotels to choose from. The Hilton seemed to be the closest to the festival site itself but it was fully booked by the time we hotel hunted plus is a bit pricier than the other options.

Ticket Price

Due to the fact it was Social’s 5^th birthday there were a lot of discounts on tickets eg. 241 on tickets etc. 

Tickets for Friday only were £43.45, Saturday only £54.45, weekend no camping £87.45 and weekend with camping £142.45 - all including booking fee.

We managed to win weekend tickets and only had to pay booking fee which was an absolute godsend as we were going regardless! 

Taxis

We’d recommend budgeting £40 from Maidstone to festival if you don’t plan on using Uber or there isn’t one close by. Return transport,  the festival runs a £5 shuttle (coach) back to Maidstone center. We used the shuttle back to Maidstone then hopped in a black cab back to the hotel which cost £5.20 – totally recommend doing this!

The biggest disadvantage (probably our only one) of the festival was that set times finish at midnight. Such a shame but we think it’s due to noise licensing in the local area. Having said this on Saturday night a local club; Source had afters from 10pm-8am and ran coaches to take everyone for just £10 each (included entry). Unfortunately Lorraine was driving back Sunday morning so we didn’t take Source up on their offer but if we return next year we’re 100% going

Stages

The Meadow

Only The Meadows stage was open on Friday, sick venue was massive a bit like an airplane hanger so remind us a bit of the Cocoon stage in WEAREFSTVL. Super hot though but that’s probably because it was the only stage open so everyone was in one venue as opposed to being spread out. We saw Nic Faniculli (owns the fest), Martinez Brothers and the god that is Carl Cox. It was our second time seeing the bros who did not disappoint and our third time seeing Cox oh yes oh yes

We also spent some time in here on Saturday to watch Sasha & John Digweed who did an extended set for closing. We’d never seen them live nor heard of them but it was S I C K – they’re doing a WHP night this winter which we’re considering now…

The Stables 

We stayed here quite a bit on Saturday because we rate Jackmaster quite highly since watching him perform at AMP Lost and Found in May. Love a cheeky forest rave so this stage was perfect setting for us also.  

The Caravan

Heidi performed – such a babe. 

The Barn

We popped into this arena on Saturday to see Nina Kraviz for a bit and the sound was amaaaazing - it was only later that we found out this was due to speaker being provided by Fabric London bless up

As you can see there’s a bit of a theme going on with the stage names which we loved and fits in with the surrounding perfectly. There were hay bales and everything!

Outfits

Day 1

Day 2

Atmosphere

SUCH a good crowd, literally everyone we came across was so lovely and just wanted to end summer on such a high. A lot of people had just got back from Ibiza closing which got us even more hyped and we wish it could have gone on for a few more days wahh 

Staff/security were super chill and not TOO in your face as some other similar events we've been to, they basically just let everyone be but were about if needed.

Bars were majority empty which was a faaaabulous change for once! We didn't have to queue for more than 5mins plus vodka/mixer and water weren't too expensive.

Overall

We absolutely loved the two days spent at Social – perfect way to end the festival season. Even though Kent was a bit of a trek and transport around Maidstone pretty pricey it was completely worth it and we recommend it to anyone else who still clings on to Summer as Autumn creeps in like we do. 

We’ll definitely be checking out the line-up for 2018…

xxx