Shropshire Star

Ambitious Shawn has vision for new Oswestry music festival

Most people in their early 20s have graduated university, done some travelling and started their careers.

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One Shropshire man with high ambitions has done that and then some, as he embarks on hosting his own music festival, at the age of 22.

Shawn Melusi launched the Fieldbounce Music Festival last month in an ambitious move that has already seen him announce acts Scouting for Girls and Dappy.

He is in the process of announcing another eye catching performer in two weeks time, and has ambitions of getting 10,000 people through the gates at Park Hall in May next year.

He said: "Progress is going really well, we've only marketed things in Shropshire so far, we want a local feel to it before we go further afield.

"We are into the thousands now and have sold over 10 per cent of tickets, so we are looking to keep that going.

"In the coming weeks we will be taking it to Liverpool and Manchester and marketing things to see how it goes."

Mr Melusi is a highly ambitious man who has his goal set on retiring in eight years time at the age of 30, something most people can only dream about.

However, there is more to it than meets the eye with the young entrepreneur's ambitions.

The driving force behind his festival vision is charity work. He has previously raised money for the Kenyan Schools Project and ran three marathons in three days to raise money for muscular dystrophy.

He also founded the Melusi Foundation that raises money for homeless people.

Mr Melusi added: "By the time I am 30 I want to retire, and that sounds strange to some people but I want to be comfortable enough that I can concentrate on my charity work.

"It is something close to my heart, and I wanted to set up a centre for homeless people. Some people are homeless through drink and drugs, but I want to set up a home for people who are homeless through other circumstances.

"It is almost to create a legacy, to pass something on to someone else."

The start of that is the festival on May 5, and it isn't just the top acts he is after.

Almost 100 bands and acts from around Shropshire have applied to perform, and others are expected.

He added: "Currently we have 93 people applying to perform, but for the first two hours we want to open it up to other acts, dancers and things like that to make it a big community feel.

"And we also want to offer the main stage to others, and we have acts from all genres to be announced."

For more information visit fieldbounce.co.uk