Gravesham Riverside Festival 2024 with tributes to The Beatles, Tina Turner, Arctic Monkeys, the Spice Girls and performances from Sweet Female Attitude and BGT’s Harrison Pettman

One week after headlining the Acoustic Stage stage at Glastonbury, The Bootleg Beatles topped the bill at the Gravesham Riverside Festival on Saturday.

The act, now in their 45th year of performing, entertained the crowd with hits such as Help, Yesterday and - somewhat fittingly as their set coincided with England’s quarter-final match against Switzerland which saw Jude Bellingham score one of the penalties - a rousing rendition of Hey Jude.

The Fab Four were on stage at the Riverside Leisure Area, Gravesend, for just over an hour as part of the free festival, taking the crowd through the legendary band’s back catalogue, even changing costume halfway through to go from sharp suits and hair to hippy garb and beards.

But their costume changes were no match for the previous act, Totally Tina!, who appeared in five different outfits in her set.

Steamy Windows, Private Dancer and Simply the Best got the audience dancing, and just as she was singing Proud Mary and the lines “rolling on the river”, a cruise ship pulled out of Tilbury opposite and sailed past.

The two acts topped off a day which had started with GYG youth service which runs dance, singing and performance classes for kids in the borough.

They were followed by local band The Sunday Roast, who battled strong winds and the rain to deliver a rousing set of covers from Primal Scream to White Stripes, and then Spice Forever, a tribute to the Spice Girls.

Britain’s Got Talent singer Harrison Pettman, who comes from Gravesend and studied and works part-time with GYG, made a whistle-stop visit to support the youngsters and perform one song.

He said: “I’m working on a couple of bits. I’m currently working on an EP, so I’ve got music coming out soon, hopefully, fingers crossed.”

He was followed by Mardy Bums, an Arctic Monkeys tribute, and then electronic music act Sweet Female Attitude who got people jumping with some 90s classics, along with their biggest hit, Flowers.

The day also included lots of activities for youngsters to do such as a climbing wall, crazy golf, football, boxing bags and more, and many of them were free.

There was more fun for the youngsters with other activities in Fort Gardens.