The House Rats

UPDATE FROM THE ORGANISERS OF MOUNTFEST 2021 - 2024

Following on from our post last week about attempts to hijack our community festival by the new lease holders of the Mount Pleasant, we have regrouped and are delighted to announce:

✅ We have a new festival name that no hosting venue can stake claim to on the back of our hard work. Our new community festival will be called SaltStock

✅ We have a new date for the festival which is Sunday 6th of July and will be hosted at the Sportsman on Warminster Road.

✅ In true community spirit, all previous bands that have played at our festival that were approached by the Mount for the new MountFest have politely turned them down in solidarity of our community festival.

✅ The stage, professional sound engineer, food truck, children's entertainment, community partners and ALL the bands have been booked (including the ones that couldn't do the original hijacked date). It's set to be our best festival to date, the quality of the bands are off the scale 🚀we cannot wait!

✅ Gill (previous landlady from the Mount) who we have fondly worked alongside for the past four years hosting our festival has kindly agreed to say a few words to open SaltStock at the Sportsman.

We won't be releasing any names of the bands/artists just yet (for obvious reasons) but it will be another quality afternoon packed full of AMAZING entertainment that you have come to expect from us.

SaltStock will have the same ethos and principles as when we started putting on our community festival back in 2021:

"A festival and family fun day run by a small amount of dedicated volunteers from the local community for the local community"

We are delighted to be partnering with The Sportsman (S8) this year who understand and share our community ethos.

How to purchase tickets?

🎟️ Paper Tickets on sale now available from the Sportsman £10 adults, £5 Children , £25 family ticket (2x adults & 2x Children U18) - Cash Only!

🚗 We can deliver paper tickets anywhere in the S8 area (Cash on delivery) please DM the page for this service

🌐 Online on the link below (booking fees apply for the convenience of purchasing online tickets)
➡️ https://bit.ly/SaltStock2025

We look forward to seeing you on the 6th of July for an amazing day of music and family fun!

Much love,
Team SaltStock 🎶♥️☀️🍻🤘🏼
MountFest organisers 2021-24

𝖲𝗍𝖺𝗍𝖾𝗆𝖾𝗇𝗍 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗆 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗈𝗋𝗀𝖺𝗇𝗂𝗌𝖾𝗋𝗌 𝗈𝖿 𝖬𝗈𝗎𝗇𝗍𝖥𝖾𝗌𝗍 𝟤𝟢𝟤𝟣 - 𝟤𝟢𝟤𝟦

Background of the festival:

MountFest was born out of an idea had by our family during lockdown. There were three objectives of the festival:

1. A way of helping Gill (previous landlady) recoup some revenue after lock down.

2. Giving a number of quality bands an opportunity to have a PAID slot at a local festival after lockdown.

3. Providing local families a fun festival for all to enjoy.

The festival was run by our family and friends on a volunteer basis and PA equipment loaned free of charge by Soul Battalion. All the ticket revenue was shared between the bands, sound engineer and compere. The organisers and volunteers didn't get paid. It was our way of helping out where we could and trying to do some good for our local community after COVID.

The local community supported the event each year and we have some fabulous memories.

MountFest 2025

When Gill announced she was leaving the pub there was no mention of anyone new taking over the lease or whether the Mount would ever reopen. There was also no guarantee if anyone should take on the lease that they would require our services.

Around a month ago our family was approached by The Sportsman to put on a music festival for the local community as we had done previously for Gill at the Mount. These things take time to setup, to book the bands, stage, food etc. so a decision had to be made. With no mention of anyone taking over at the Mount, we made a decision to try and continue our community event over at the Sportsman. The stage and sound engineer were booked for Sunday 13th July and negotiations were taking place with the bands ahead of the release in the next two weeks.

We had a call today from the people that have recently taken over the lease at the Mount asking would we be running MountFest again. We explained that as we didn't know what was happening with the Mount that we had already arranged a community music event with the Sportsman. The new lease holder asked the date and then said that they were going to book the same date to run MountFest and go head to head. We stupidly thought the reason for asking the date would be to put on an alternative date at the Mount.

Approximately an hour after the phone call the Mount started advertising the date and selling tickets via Facebook. Shortly after that the lease holders have also messaged some of the bands from last year asking if they will play/run sound at the event and blocked members of our family from their page!

We would have potentially worked with the Mount putting on an alternative date but to be told that they were going to be going head to head with our date and trying to book bands from last year - all seemed an underhand tactic to say the least.

We tried to reach out to the new management to say this wouldn't be a good start to their tenancy but they said that the music festival belonged to the Mount and so did the date.

The fact is the music festival was hosted by the Mount and run by a team of volunteers and the date changed several times during the years.

We have since had another phone call from the lease holder saying they didn't realise how much we put into organising MountFest and offered payment to get on board organising MountFest on the hijacked date. We declined their offer on principle and want to disassociate ourselves with MountFest from this point forward.

We think it is a ludicrous idea to put on two music festivals on the same date at two local pubs so we will not be going head to head with the new MountFest event as this would dilute ticket sales for both festivals.

We will speak to the Sportsman with regards to potential alternative dates and see which bands remain loyal to the spirit of MountFest. We will update you in due course if and when anything is confirmed.

Many thanks to all who supported the festival over the years, we had some fantastic days of music!

The Salts

Get your motor runnin', put on your red shoes, and bang a gong with us - we're back at Trippets Lounge Bar this Saturday for with a fantastic lineup of acts ❤️🐁🎸 Free admission.

Be sure to also catch our friends Soul Battalion on Devonshire Green beforehand at 3.45pm for the best of Soul and Motown!

We had some wonderful guests with us this weekend. Here's Teddy, a fellow House Rat, rocking out with the band to All Right Now 😍🐁🎸

Playing at Mount Fest, Sheffield S8 this Sunday! Should be a fantastic day with a great lineup of bands 🐁🎸

Tickets available from:

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/soul-battalion/mount-fest-a-day-of-family-entertainment-and-fun/2023-07-16/12:30/t-morgjne?fbclid=IwAR11itF38WEn68fZXFpVfJAokNIw8PsE75UZ7fI_t8FWSA7skqwvX1kU_gI

Playing on Saturday 😊

This Sunday 😊

MOUNT FEST TICKETS AVI ONLINE
SUNDAY 16th JULY 2023 -
12:30pm - 8pm - MOUNT PLEASANT INN, DERBYSHIRE LANE S8

This year, for the first time, we are trialing online ticket sales. We only have a limited amount of tickets available for Mount Fest this Sunday. It's an event that always sells out so be quick! Alternatively, there are a handful of paper tickets available at the Mount.

Please note, there is a small booking fee that applies for buying tickets online:

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/soul-battalion/mount-fest-a-day-of-family-entertainment-and-fun/2023-07-16/12:30/t-morgjne

Mount Fest is a family day of entertainment and fun that takes place in the grounds of The Mount Pleasant Inn on Derbyshire Lane S8 on Sunday 16th of July from 12:30pm to 8pm. The event features seven quality bands playing you all the hits of the decades. In addition, there will be a performance by the fabulous Concord Allstars junior band.

There will also be a circus workshop for the kids!

Food can be purchased from Fat Pig BBQ

The bands that will be performing throughout the day are:

The Music Masters
Wild Blue Heart
The House Rats
Tin Soldiers
Open Jaw Fayre
Ri-Fi
Soul Battalion

Looking forward to another fantastic fun day of Music at Mountfest 2023 on Sunday 16th July. Starting at 12:30pm with a performance by the fabulous Concord Allstars junior band followed by another seven fantastic bands covering a wide range of genres with something to suit everyone!

We have ordered the good weather 🙏 and once again Big Shaun will be our festival compere.

Don't forget your festival outfits and dancing shoes!

Food available from Fat Pig BBQ.

MOUNT FEST
Sunday 16thJuly

Tickets are in the pub.
If you have pre booked can you please collect your tickets by Sunday 18th June.
Cash only!