Paul Golder writes for the Brentwood Gazette

Phoenix FM started as a collection of music lovers looking at local – and slightly less local – events. And it’s a tradition we’ve kept going over the years with our coverage at some of the area’s major music festivals.

Of course that was all wiped out last year due to the pandemic – and this year everything was announced much more at the last minute, as there was a lot of uncertainty about what a return to large music events would look like.

We’ve covered the Latitude Festival every year since 2007 and also Standon Calling since 2013, where we are now an official media partner.

Both festivals took place a couple of weekends ago – and unluckily for us, they chose the same weekend this year. But luckily we managed to put out a team at each – by which I mean a one-man team!

Gareth Williams represented the station at Latitude and Steve Robertson was on duty at Standon, skilfully avoiding the floods and thunder this year.

Gareth spoke to a lot of local acts at Latitude, including Swim School, Sean Rowley, Strawberry Lace, Ruth Lyon, Ellie Dixon and Gabby Rivers.

Steve also managed to talk to a number of charities and good causes, including Barking Heads, Mudlarks and University of Beds Radio.

All of the interviews can be heard on air and also on our website at www.phoenixfm.com. And we’re looking forward to festivals being back to normal next year!