Maid Of Stone Festival announces Airbourne as first headliner

Airbourne onstage — (Image credit: Kevin Nixon)

Aussie rockers Airbourne have been announced as the first headliner of the inaugural Maid Of Stone festival, which will be held on Saturday July 22 and Sunday 23 at Mote Park in Maidstone, Kent. They'll headline on Sunday, while Saturday's main act has yet to be announced.

Other acts confirmed for the festival – described by the organisers as "a brand-new and diverse festival celebrating rock, heavy rock, southern rock and blues rock" include special guests Skindred, plus Kris Barras Band, Robert Jon & The Wreck, The Hunna, Phil Campbell and The Bastard Sons (who'll play a set of Motörhead songs), Tygers of Pan Tang, The Cold Stares, Chantel McGregor, Florence Black, Elles Bailey, Kira Mac, Collateral, Bad Touch, Gin Annie, Black Spiders, Nitroville, Jordan Red, Tident Waters, Outlaw Orchestra, Brave Rival and Sons of Liberty.

The festival will also feature "cask ales, the best in worldwide street food, amazing entertainment and camping/glamping options." Camping will open at 10am on Friday July 21, while Friday evening will feature a show from live karaoke band Rockaoke, allowing fans the opportunity to perform on a festival stage.

For more details, visit the Maid Of Stone Facebook page. Early bird tickets will go on sale at 9am tomorrow from the Maid Of Stone website.

Maid Of Stone fills the space left by the much-missed Ramblin' Man Fair, which was last held at the Mote Park site in July 2019. After postponements in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, the festival found new owners and was slated to return in 2022, but that date was also shelved.

After releasing a statement confirming that a 2023 return to Mote Park had been agreed with Maidstone Council and that tickets for the rescheduled event would be "rolled over automatically", the new organisers made no further announcements, leaving fans frustrated by the lack of communication and unable to obtain refunds.

The Maid Of Stone organisers, Lucas Live, have been booking festivals in Kent for a decade, and have confirmed to Classic Rock that they are not connected to the organisers of Ramblin' Man Fair.

Maid Of Stone Festival — (Image credit: Lucas Live)

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.