Firstly big ups to everyone for making That Amazing Camping 2010 such a success.  Our 10th birthday year is certainly proving to be a cracker and the camping was no exception.  Massive thanks go to all the DJs who came and played for free to support our charities (looks like nearly £200 each for Greenpeace and the Eden Rivers Trust, we’ll put the accurate figure up when the last of the bills have cleared).  Gratitude also to our volunteers (pre-arranged & spontaneous) who did an outstanding job of running things, special commendations to our Elisabeth, Phil, Kim, Dan & Dan-the-sound.  Most of all thanks to everyone for being such a great and up for it crowd and for respecting the vibe and keeping on top of recycling etc. as the event can’t continue without this.

We have a list of the festivals we’ve got coming up opposite but here we’d like to talk about our next event.

A lot of people asked during the camping and certainly since “when can we do it again?”.  The answer to this is on Saturday 9th of October.  We’ve been trying to gently put the vibe about since the spring on this one (it’s been a year in the making).  We may have been too gentle on this or it was too far away yet or people were just thinking about the camping as it doesn’t seem to be on anyone’s radar much.  If you’ve clocked it you’ll have seen we’re being quite mysterious about it.  Maybe people want more before committing.  So perhaps we should explain that our (possibly naive) hope was that people would know the camping (and our parties generally) are big fun, be intrigued and just snag all the tickets, as there are only 100 and they’re not expensive at £28 when you consider it includes (very basic) overnight accommodation.  This is still our hope, we think it’ll be fun if people don’t know exactly where they’re going but we’re realising we’re going to have to set out clearly the facts (as opposed to scattering them round as we have done) that we obviously realise you will want before you know if you want to go.

So here goes:
The venue is basically a hostel type place that sleeps 100.
It is situated in beautiful countryside.
It’s a little shabby round the edges but fine for an overnight stay and perfect for our purposes; chilling and enjoying the countryside in the day, a bit of a rave on at night.
We should warn you now though that we can only have the soundsystem on till 2am (as the owner lives close by) though of course micro parties in rooms etc. are bound to continue after.
Those rooms are mostly communal dorms sleeping between 8 and 16, the standard of the place is that you get a bed with a mattress on it but we’d be more inclined to use a sleeping bag on this than only have a sheet!  The place does have great kitchen which looks fine for cooking up a feast.  Is this making sense?  We’re trying to say it’s fine, just not the Ritz, has a few bits of peeling plaster in the corners etc.  It also seems reasonably well heated. 
If you’re wondering about what the weather’s going to be like of course we could be unlucky but when we went to scope the place out (we said it had been 1 year in the planning) it is the perfect area if we get a bit of Autumn sunshine for those fabulous colours, so it could be a real winner.
It is about 130 miles by road north of Manchester and should take 2½ hours to drive to (according to the AA Route Planner).
You can get there anytime Saturday (maybe even Friday night, we’re looking at this but just bearing in mind the communal sleeping etc. that might be better for 1 night than 2) and stay until Sunday afternoon.
Just like the camping to operate it at such a cheap price it’s a bit of a co-op, involving everyone mucking in and looking after the place, helping clear up at the end etc.

Is that enough for now?  We’d really like to do it our way and keep a bit of mystery about it.  As the time draws near we’ll reveal directions, postcodes etc. for you to find your way there.  As well as DJ line ups and such stuff, but you know all that’s going to be right, right?  Be assured it will be a cracker.  If the time gets nearer and we’re not selling it out (we expect to) we might have to reveal more of our hand, if we do that people will be captivated by the quirkiness.  But we’d rather keep it fresh and save that quirkiness for time so why not get on board now and keep it a magical mystery tour?

£28; Ticketweb (08444 77 1000) Piccadilly Records in Manchester or us in person.

Saturday 14th August; That Amazing Thing! at Moorfest at Skipton in North Yorkshire with the boys from Freakin, Mr. Luke Unabomber, Sir Chris Duckenfield and a massive line up.  We're playing on the Saturday but this is a 4 day event with loads of big names and voted one of the UK's top 10 independent festivals by The Observer, check that link for all the info and tickets.

Friday 27th August to Sunday 29th August; That Amazing Thing! at Electric Elephant festival, Petracane, Zadar, Croatia.  We'll be there playing records and lazing in the sunshine during this lovely bank holiday getaway to the beautiful Dalmatian coast.  We might let Francois K, Andrew Weatherall, Juan Maclean, Prosumer, etc. etc. warm up for us.  If you fancy joining us for fun, beauty and working on your tan the wonderful Electrikal peepz have lots of travel information on their web site, for those with a dislike of airports why not take the handy door to door coach trip soothed by the dulcet tones of Lisa Stannard? (psychiatric help available on disembarkation ).

Saturday 9th October 2010:  Secrets and more secrets.  With the success of the camping trip over the years we've decided to try our hands at another rural shindig.  Only thing is, this time we're not telling you where (just yet and if we can think of a way of getting you there without telling you at all we will!).  We'll say it's another hour's drive beyond the camping.  And that you don't have to worry about it being outside as it's inside (heated) and there'll be somewhere to sleep (albeit it very basic and with other folks).  And it's ace and that's it!  100 tickets only, these cost £28 (remember this does include some kind of accommodation, albeit primitive), again from www.ticketweb.co.uk (08444 77 1000) Piccadilly Records in Manchester or us in person.

November 2010:  Yet another large Amazing happening is in the planning stages, not sure what's come over us this year!

While this site always seems overdue updating we actually have a couple of reasonably recent mixes up on our sounds page.  We've tweaked a couple of the other pages too.  The scary thing is the pics page, which we know is waaaay out of date, we definitely want to get this sorted, but it's turned into such a mammoth task!  We really will try to get it up to date in the next couple of months.

If you're new to That Amazing Thing! check some of the other pages for more info.  The sounds and pics should tell you everything and you can also join our Facebook group.  Many of our parties are free, mail us at info@thatamazingthing.com and we'll add your address to our e-mail list which gives news about upcoming events and lets you know when invites are available.