Arley Hall Outdoor Concerts – Back to Boogie Review

DISCLOSURE – THIS EXPERIENCE WAS GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST/S FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW.

Reviewed by Alison Rood

The sun was shining, and ahead of us lay a night of nostalgia headlined by Boney M, The Real Thing, Odyssey & Special Guest Kennie Simon of Hot Chocolate.

Back to Boogie was hosted at the beautiful Arley Hall, Cheshire. With gates opening at 4pm, there was ample parking available with staff directing you to a space to prevent any parking chaos.

A short walk from the car and you’re at the entrance and box office. We collected our tickets from the box office and it was a quick and easy process. Other staff were available to scan tickets too and this queue also seemed to go down as quick as it started, really well organised.

You’re given bands to enter the festival based on your ticket type – standard or VIP. As you’d expect, VIP tickets are a little more spenny – but the VIP area was absolutely beautiful with bell tents, large tables, prettier toilets, own bar and couple of food stalls. So if you want a bit of luxury or are celebrating a special occasion, I’d highly recommend.

Speaking of special occasions, a lot of festival goers seemed to be celebrating one! Tom Finkill (DJ/Presenter) was forever putting shout outs for people’s birthday and anniversary celebrations – multiple generations from 40 to 90! This just goes to show what a great day out it was for people of all ages. There weren’t many children, but children are welcome and if they’re brought up to be outdoorsy music lovers, it’d be a great family day out.

You’re allowed to take in food, drink, chairs, tables and even gazebos. All this added to a really relaxed and chilled atmosphere. For those who didn’t want to cart their own food, drinks or chairs however – there were plenty of food stalls offering all sorts from pizzas, to Asian to ice cream. There were also a couple of bars, none of which ever had a large queue so it was easy to get served. They even hired chairs out for a small fee – the organisers really had thought of everything.

The only queue I saw was for the standard ticket toilets (Portaloo’s) which most festival goers are accustomed to anyway!

Tom Finkell started his set and played a bit of well known music before introducing the first act, Kennie Simon of Hot Chocolate. With the night being young, it took a few minutes but the “dance floor” soon started to fill up and groups of mates, couples and families started boogying along to his hits such as “You sexy thing” and “So you win again” Kennie performed around 7 songs much to the crowd’s delight.

After a little bit more music from Tom, the next act took to the stage and I have to say, they were probably the highlight of the day for me. As a 40 year old, Odyssey are one of those bands I’d heard of, but couldn’t tell you what they sung (music blasphemy I know!!) but as soon as they came on, they played hit after hit that I recognised; Inside out, Native New Yorker and If you’re looking for a way out to name a few. Steve Collazo’s energy was unmatched and he really got the crowd going with his made up dances, which he encouraged us to join along with. The ladies Annis and Anne looked stunning and their vocals were amazing. The ladies appeared to surprise Steve by starting to sing a song called “New York City” – he looked visibly touched and explained that his late mother Lillian had written the song. It was a lovely end to a fabulous set.

We were then introduced to the chosen charity of the year, the Gem appeal. The cause is an amazing, yet heart-breaking one. Which you can read more about here https://www.gem-appeal.co.uk/. Fundraisers were scattered round the grounds throughout the day selling raffle tickets to raise money for this wonderful cause, with some great prizes to be won. Whilst I completely support having featured charities, I hate to admit that the video going into detail about the charity was a bit of a buzz kill and changed the mood (as you’d expect!) of the festival for a while. The founder doing a speech on stage with info would have been more than enough as an introduction to the charity. I ended up crying on an otherwise uplifting day.

But the mood was soon lifted again as The Real Thing took to the stage. What a pair of show starters! Their humour (what more do you expect from scousers?!) was contagious and they constantly engaged with and encouraged crowd participation.

They played a few of their hits, but nothing got the crowd going quite like “You to me are everything” and “Can’t get by without you” – timeless hits enjoyed by people of all ages (and mainly swaying, smooching couples!)

After another small set from Tom, came the headliners Boney M. By this point the majority of people were up out of their seats and dancing. Like with most of these groups, there’s generally only one original member remaining – and with Bony M, that was the founder Maizie Williams. She looked absolutely stunning and sounded as good as she looked. The honorary members did the classics proud belting out Daddy Cool, Brown Girl in the Ring, Rivers of Babylon and Ma Baker to name a few. The crowd really went to town when Rasputin came on though!! We thought the show had some to an amazing close when Maizie and the gang bade us farewell. But of course they were teasing and came back to give us an encore of Ma Baker – finished off by a spectacular firework display which was a perfect end an amazing day and night.

Arley Hall concerts is a two day event with Russel Watson headlining the following day. So depending on your musical preferences, you’ll most certainly be able to enjoy at least one day (maybe two?!) at Arley’s next outdoor concert.

Tickets range from £17.50 to £75 (plus booking fee) and can be purchased from liveatarley.ticketline.co.uk

On the day tickets may be available at the box office but I’d recommend purchasing ahead of time to ensure you don’t miss out and also to save yourself some money, on the day tickets are slightly pricier.

5/5 review from me. I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for the next outdoor concert at Arley Hall!

Rating: 5/5

Arley Hall & Gardens, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 6NA