PRINCE--OR THE ARTIST FORMALLY KNOWN AS PRINCE.

[mariana44]

No, he is not one of my favourites, by a long way--but just read some interesting news on Ceefax---Prince is due to do a Uk concert in July---not very exciting you may say---but he is performing in Paddock Wood--honestly---well --The Hop Farm just down the road !!!!

Actually Elton John was there a few years back--and I think Bob Dylan was there recently too.

When we first moved here, the Hop Farm was you would expect--an old unused Hop Farm, the most unusual thing about it was the number of Oast Houses it had. Visitors could go and look around, and see all the old Hopping bits and pieces, and lsee old photos of Hopping days--in fact George used to go hopping in his youth--but down the road at Yalding.

Well, the Hop Farm was sold-a good few years back, and the new owner has spent lots of money, and now attracts thousand of visitors to events like "The War and Peace show"--one of the biggest--he also bulit a couple of restaurants, and plans to build a hotel, and some log cabins--and his latest plan is to build a Marina with space for hundreds of boats. These plans are not going down well with the locals, so how far he will get I do not know--but the concerts and special events attract people from all over the country--again , not always popular with the locals--the traffic is a huge problem at these times for a start.

[maureen & harry]

We are not very familiar with Prince's work but we really enjoyed reading about the Hop Farm. Hopping days must have been good fun.

[mariana44]

I never went hopping personally--but I know that George always regarded it as his annual holiday--he loved it.

[ROBERT M.]

I quite like some of Prince's work ...........are you going to buy a ticket for the event Marian ?

[mariana44]

NO !!!!!

But if I walked a mile or so, I could probably hear him--if i wanted to, that is !!!!

[mariana44]

Also appearing at the Hop Farm Festival are Brandon Flowers [who ??]
Morrissey, Bryan Ferry, and the Eagles--plus others.

The tickets cost from £75.00 for one night--£102.50 for one night plus camping---up to £217.50 for 3 night music and camping !!

I just found out that Ketherine Jenkins is singing at Kings Hill in July, I think---Kings Hill is just a bit further on from The Hop Farm--maybe 5 miles or so-I did not know it had any sort of theatre there---I just thought it was a newish housing estate with the nearest Asda to Paddock Wood ! It is the sort of place you can only get to by car, that is why I do not know much about it.

[ROBERT M.]

Maybe it is an open air concert Marian.........they will construct a stage area nearer the time

[mariana44]

I suppose it could be-I know the one at The Hop Field is.

[mariana44]

Apparently there were 30,000 people at the Prince concert at the Hop Farm on Sunday.
Although just a short distance from me, I did not see or hear anything.

I also heard that the tickets were going for hahalf price in the last week or 2--which made a lot of concert goers very annoyed, who bought tickets early on at big prices. These things happen, I guess.

Here is a link---http://celebrity.aol.co.uk/2011/07/04/p ... arm-rider/

[ROBERT M.]

Prince had to finish his show early due to a curfew in place, but he wanted to continue to party until well into the early hours

[mariana44]

The Hop farm is just behind the village of East Peckham--that is why they did not want him to continue all night---it is not right in the middle of nowhere.