From small beginnings on Folkestone Harbour to hosting 80 bands across three stages, Hevy Music Festival has become Kent’s unlikely festival success story. They can even beat the weather, as Chris Price found out.

Standing next to a giant tent at the Hevy Music Festival site, James Dutton looks bewildered.

“It is the biggest thing we have ever had. It’s monstrous,” said the festival founder and organiser, who has come up with a foolproof plan to defeat the enemy that has blighted so many UK festivals this year – the weather.

The solution is so outrageously simple it seems daft no one has done it before – a roof, albeit a really big one.

The compromise has been the merging of the four original stages into three but this has served up an added bonus for the metal and hardcore-loving festival goers heading to the county this weekend.

The fans will be arriving in their droves for UK exclusive appearances from Descendents, Andrew WK and Glassjaw and there are now two alternating main stages inside one tent, which means there will be no time clashes for all the major bands. A separate tent hosts the Red Bull Bedroom Jam Stage and organisers claim all this has been done without compromising set times. In short, it sounds like Hevy have nailed it.

“I have been to lots of festivals already this year which could have been brilliant but the weather was atrocious,” said James.

“Even with the best will in the world and even if you are watching your favourite bands, it is ruined if you are being rained on for 72 hours. It kills the atmosphere.

“I wanted a way for people not to have to worry about that and a roof was the obvious solution. Everything will be indoors.”

The huge operation to turn Hevy into a weather-proof affair is the latest step in this festival success story. Hevy began as a one-day event on Folkestone Harbour back in 2009, headlined by Feeder and supported by Ash and Gary Numan. Fast forward four years and the original line-up sounds very tame to goth fans who go along for the death metal and punk that the festival is now renowned for.

Based at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, near Hythe, for the last three years, this is also a triumph for the hosts, who have had dreadful luck with cancelled festivals in the past. Plus, who can forget the Zoo8 fiasco with its stinking toilets, unsafe stages, unpaid acts who did not turn up and the huge clean up operation that the park had to conduct itself for days afterwards.

“Port Lympne have been really supportive of Hevy and are happy to have an event that is coming back there year after year,” added James.

“It is hard to find a good festival that fits but they are really chuffed we are here.”

Putting on 80 bands across its three stages, for James, the festival is all about Glassjaw. The New York post-hardcore statesmen headlined Hevy in 2010 and this time their razor-riffs top the bill on the Rock Sound Stage. The return visit is testament to the quality of acts the event is now able to draw, despite its short existence.

The prime example of these is Andrew WK, the multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, party-champion and occasional motivational speaker. The California-born New Yorker’s debut album I Get Wet features one of the most iconic heavy metal album covers of all time, picturing Andrew with blood running down his face from his nose to his chin.

“It is incredible to have him on the bill,” said James.

“It was always the dream to have a three-day festival. You have to take these things one step at a time but the holy grail for any promoter is a festival in a field.

“Folkestone Harbour was a great start but it was very much our aim to end up somewhere like Port Lympne.

“We have just managed it much quicker than we expected.”

Friday, August 3

Rock Sound Stage (alternates with Punktastic): Deaf Havana, Lower Than Atlantis, Sharks, The James Cleaver Quintet, Marmozets, Mixtapes, Our Time Down Here, The Bots.

Punktastic Stage (alternates with Rock Sound): Deez Nuts, Trapped Under Ice, Reign Supreme, Bleed From Within, Last Witness, Blacklisters, Desolated, Gnarwolves.

Saturday, August 4

Punktastic Stage (alternates with Rock Sound): Andrew W. K., Meshuggah, Municipal Waste, This Is Hell, Rolo Tomassi, Devil Sold His Soul, Bury Tomorrow, Feed The Rhino, The Safety Fire, Campus.

Rock Sound Stage (alternates with Punktastic): Glassjaw, Norma Jean, A Wilhelm Scream, Set Your Goals, Pianos Become The Teeth, Balance and Composure, War From A Harlots Mouth, Martyr Defiled, Crocus, The Social Club.

Sunday, August 5

Rock Sound Stage (alternates with Punktastic): Descendents, Madball, Hundred Reasons, H2O, Ignite, 7 Seconds, Cruel Hand, Night Verses, Mallory Knox.

Punktastic Stage (alternates with Rock Sound): Converge, Verse, The Chariot, Rise and Fall, Suis La Lune, Lewd Acts, Worms Feed, Attack! Vipers!

Hevy Music Festival takes place at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, near Folkestone, from Friday, August 3 to Sunday, August 5. Weekend camping tickets £96, including free admission to the animal park. Visitwww.hevy.co.uk