The Clay Pit: Inside the Secret Woodland Concerts Coming to Sussex This August
Three headline shows across one August weekend
Secretwoodlandconcerts.
A hidden former clay pit, turned natural amphitheatre, hosting three intimate headline shows this August. Forty minutes from Brighton.
Some venues get built. This one was waiting in the woods. Hidden on the Chiddinglye Estate near East Grinstead, a clearing that spent hundreds of years being dug for clay and shaped into bricks has quietly become one of the most unusual places to hear live music anywhere in the south east.
This August, The Clay Pit opens its gates for the very first time: three secret woodland shows across one weekend, put on by independent Sussex promoter Firestory Events.
"We've been searching for a space to host some really special seasonal shows for ages," founder James Gander told us, "and when we stumbled across The Clay Pit space back in February, we knew it had to be here. The space was used hundreds of years ago for digging clay and making bricks, leaving behind this beautiful woodland hollow that is just perfect for an outdoor live music venue."
A hollow in the woods
What the old workings left behind could not have been better designed for music if someone had tried. Trees close in on every side, light filters down through the canopy, and when the sun drops the string lights and a campfire take over. It is a long way from a normal gig, and that is exactly the point.
"This season is our first at The Clay Pit," Gander said, "and we're so excited to share the space and what we've been creating with everyone when we open the gates."
James Gander, Firestory Events“These woodland concerts are a chance to hear some incredible artists outdoors in an intimate space, much smaller than any festival, and much cooler than an indoor gig.”
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Secret woodland concerts, 40 minutes from Brighton
Three nights, three headliners
Each headliner has been chosen to suit the setting, artists whose sound belongs under a canopy of trees rather than a club ceiling. Tickets are on sale now, and the support acts are close to being announced.
Your new favourite venue, hidden in the Sussex woods
Will Varley
The weekend opens with one of British folk's finest storytellers. Brixton-born and Kent-raised, Varley co-founded the Smugglers Records collective in Deal and built his name the hard way, once walking almost 500 miles down the south coast with a guitar on his back, playing 24 shows along the route.
Since then he has headlined Union Chapel and Shepherd's Bush Empire, opened for Billy Bragg and Frank Turner, and had his songs covered by The Pretty Things. He even placed third out of more than 20,000 entries in Nashville's International Songwriting Competition. It is exactly the kind of writing, quiet, funny and devastating in turn, that a woodland clearing at dusk was made for.
Will Varley opens the weekend on Thursday 6 August
Keston Cobblers Club
Friday belongs to the soul-healing indie-folk magic of Keston Cobblers Club. Formed in Kent in 2009 by siblings Matthew and Julia Lowe and named after an 18th-century dancing cobbler, the five-piece build big, joyful, singalong music from tuba, banjo, mandolin and what they call "a blanket of voices."
Championed on the radio by Bob Harris and Steve Lamacq, they have played Glastonbury, Green Man and Cambridge Folk, soundtracked campaigns for Burberry, and turned up everywhere from Countryfile to their own woodland festival. Beneath the stars on a summer Friday night, they are about as perfect a fit as this venue could hope for.
Keston Cobblers Club play Friday 7 August
Girl In The Year Above
If you haven't seen them, you must. I caught them supporting Seb Lowe in London last year and was totally spellbound. I knew then that I'd have to include them on our first line up for The Clay Pit.
James Gander, Firestory EventsAn Irish-Cornish six-piece led by singer Jennifer Ball, they fuse Celtic storytelling with a fierce, emotionally charged indie-rock edge. They have toured with Razorlight and The Kooks, played The Great Escape, drawn close to 50,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and even reworked Massive Attack's "Teardrop" for the Peaky Blinders film soundtrack. A band very much on the up, closing a weekend to remember.
Girl In The Year Above close the weekend on Saturday 8 August
Local, right down to the next field
The bar pours beer from Missing Link, and you cannot get much more local than the other side of the same field, the Great Taste award-winning brewery sits on the very same Chiddinglye estate. "We're a totally independent venue," Gander said, "so working with other local suppliers is really important to us."
Woodland dining options are being announced soon, and the whole thing is built to be savoured slowly. "Bring a picnic blanket or cushion, grab some food or a cold drink, and soak up the atmosphere long before the headliners come on."
- Outdoor woodland venue, so shows go ahead rain or shine
- No bringing your own food or drink
- No dogs, except assistance dogs
Intimate headline shows under the trees
Forty minutes from Brighton
The Clay Pit sits near East Grinstead, around forty minutes from Brighton. Most people arrive by car, with parking on site.
Coming by train, the nearest stations are each a short taxi from the gate.
The exact location is shared with ticket holders ahead of the shows, half the fun of a secret woodland venue.
Sussex's newest live music venue
This is a first season, three shows to open a space that took years to find. If it lands the way Firestory hope, it will not be the last.
We've got plenty of ideas up our sleeve for more shows here. Watch this space as we build Sussex's newest live music venue.
James Gander, Firestory EventsFind it before everyone else does
Three secret woodland shows, one weekend, forty minutes from Brighton. Tickets on sale now, with more lineup announcements and news coming soon. Get down early and make a night of it.
A new outdoor music venue near Brighton
Paid partnership with The Clay Pit and Firestory Events.
