With Kiddstock fever climbing, the team here at Kiddstock HQ are counting down the days until the carnage commences. From the hippy vibe of Pandora’s Box to the sights of a giant inflatable Zippy taking centre stage, the mini festival at its original home of Thimbleberry is in a league of its own, all based around its own unique randomness.

One event down, three more to go - the Kiddstock clock ticks on... Operating within turbulent times, faced with continual challenges - how is the man in the driving seat coping?

As Alex ‘Kiddstock’ Kidd ponders the past three years on a flight back to sunny Manchester, he asks himself:

“The date is set, the line up has been revealed, but just how the fuck did I get here?!”

“The well-documented tale of the impromptu chalet rave at a Tidy Weekender is now suggested as part of modern hard dance history. The determination and vision to take this sense of anarchy to the next level created a stir on the hard dance calendar as Kiddstock was born in 2007. In year two, the ‘Stock went bigger, louder and generally a lot madder than any of us could have envisaged. And that brings us to the present day...”

“2009 and I come up with the deluded plan of running four Kiddstock events, one in each corner of the UK. To be fair, in theory it’s a friggin’ marvellous idea – why not take my baby outside of its cot and unleash the fury on those willing to test it? The deluded part of it though, was to be how much I underestimated the time, skill, effort, money, headaches, energy, stress, planning, risks and sleepless nights I’d be taking on board.”

“I was happy to grow a bigger set of bollocks and deal with whatever was thrown my way and I was ready to sacrifice the normality and routine in my life in order to see my vision out. Don’t get me wrong; I wouldn’t change what I do for a second, not for a million pounds. But there gets to a point when even I have to tap myself on my own shoulder and say to myself;
‘Alex, are you sure you know what you’ve got yourself into Mush?’”

“The debut for the Enchanted Realms was by far the biggest success story so far in Kiddfectious’ short history. When 2500 people in their element lapped up the Kiddstock vibe at the Magic Kingdom in Wales, it compared to some of the best raving experiences I have ever been a part of. Everyone knows I’d rather be getting my trainees mucky having a stomp on the floor rather than quaffing Moet in the VIP so giving me the job of looking after Mr Mixmag Journalist was probably not the wisest decision ever made! Twenty minutes into the walk-a-round I found myself lost in a sea of hardstyle fanatics. Letting myself be devoured by the beats and bass took priority over looking after the media and with that I never saw the Mixmag journo or tog again. Oops!”

“It was a day filled with sunshine, smiley people and disgustingly addictive music. All the hard work that my team ploughed in to the event seemed to have really paid off and it was another proud moment to take home with me, once my ears had stopped ringing that the following Tuesday that is!”

“So what’s next on the cards? Back to the home of the ‘Stock at Thimbleberry of course! The Mystic Peaks event is just around the corner, ready to bewitch you and enthral you and all the other fancy stuff that the press release promises. But what does that actually mean? What goes on in the months leading up to this one day of madness to make sure that it is, well, a day of complete madness?”

“It’s not a case of waking up in the morning, jumping in my car to the farm, pitching a tent and setting it up with borrowed decks and speakers off my mates! We do actually have to become ‘professionals’, haha! The 12 weeks work that we put in to ensure that those sacred 12 hours goes off with minimal problems and maximum insanity does actually involve some pretty hard graft.“

“In an effort to keep control all the stuff that swishes round my head in the last few months, I started to write down the thoughts and events surrounding the beast that is Kiddstock. What started as scruffy notes and ramblings have become to resemble an autobiography, there’s that much of it! Thankfully I’m not that ‘up my own backside’ to think anyone would be so interested in my day to day activities but now I’ve had a look back, there are some pretty interesting and amusing bits in there that I thought I might share.

Amongst major issues, random happenings and days that stressful that I almost wished I worked in a bank, the planning and preparation for the mother event of Kiddstock commences... But before my tale makes it to the big screen and before Kiddstock takes up residence in Hollywood, butcher your eyes on a few of the key moments of the story so far – and when you get to the end there is even a little going home present for you all – enjoy! X

Thursday June 4th - 15:04
Meeting with Andy the Farmer. After a cup of tea and a smoke in his ‘front room’, we get down to the nitty gritty of running a dance festival. After getting through the business of finance, security, insurance, police and site clearance Andy whips out his nelly the elephant 12" and starts dancing round the room with a cup of tea

Wednesday June 17th – 13:09

just found out we have a police visit on site tomorrow –we have 24 hours to transport 300 sheep with only a crappy red 5 door on site – spent 8 hours chasing sheep down the hill in the pitch black

Monday July 6th - 10:06
Another site visit and early start to get upto north east for a morning meeting, it’s absolutely chucking it down and as we arrive at the site the audi’s wheels and grip are given a stern test of negotiating the boggy ground and deep puddles

Monday 6th July - 13:14
Still raining and we are about to leave, it seems the Audi is stuck in the mud (shades of kiddstock 2008!) looks like we will be here for a little while yet…

Monday 6th July - 19:45
Still stuck in the mud but the rain has eased off now so hopefully we should be able to move the car and get our asses home, mummy kidd has the tea on the table and it is going cold!

Finally – As a little warm up for the main event – this has been the most requested track of my sets this summer – it was a bootleg only meant for myself but with all the inundated request I thought its only fair to spread the love – which is what Kiddstock is all about – sharing is caring ! x

Click here to download La Roux - In For The Kill (Alex Kidd Crash remix)