Alex Lowes is the founder and promoter of Southport Weekender. Before giving life to the legendary festival, Lowes was a regular DJ at some early events: he had been a soul music fanatic since the late ’70s. After travelling from his home in Newcastle to Wigan Casino, the legendary Northern Soul club, he began to broaden his horizons around the UK by hearing new dance music. Later, he began DJing and promoting his own parties. In doing so, he brought together a loyal following of soul music fans. Few years and gigs later, Lowes led us to the Festival we know today.
Here is the interview with Alex by our man in London Randy Peterson.
R: Hello and welcome, my name is Randy Peterson, for House of Frankie and I’m here at Southport Weekender, in London and I have been joined by the Festival’s promoter, Alex Lowes! Hi, how are you? Thank you for joining us!
A: Hi, I’m fine man! Thank you for having me!
R: What do you think of the festival so far?
A: So far so good, great vibes, great family, lovely people!
R: Getting positive feedbacks from everybody!
A: Fantastic!
R: So could you give us some brief history of the Southport? You know, how did it all started..
A: Yeah! So, it started 30 years ago to this year, we started as a small holiday camp, we moved in around a few times and now we’re in London!
R: So why did the festival ever ended? I took part to Southport 52 and it was absolutely awesome, and than I wondered, why is this even ending?
A: Can I be honest with you? I think it just got to the point where the expections were so high that I think we needed to give it a break, and I think, by coming back here with 11 thousands people today has proved there’s still something for the future!
R: Yeah, that’s totally understandable! You are also working on SuncéBeat now, how’s that going?
A: Oh yeah, that’s great, we have a great location!
R: OK, great! Thank you Alex for the great interview! Cheers!
