- Festival Reviews
Beautiful Days 2017 had a line-up I could not resist. The festival is organised by the Levellers at Escot Park, an estate near Exeter. It is a pretty setting, hilly and green, at least at the start. Mark Chadwick from the Levellers said on Sunday night that they have yet to have a dry festival in the fifteen years they have been running it. Folks come prepared for this though and nobody bats an eyelid at the mud.
- Festival Reviews
Thursday
Set in the heart of the Black Mountains in South Wales, our annual adventure was underway as the gates opened at 10am on the Thursday. Dry to establish base camp (which is always great) it was nice to explore the site and settle in.
Green Man is full of fun, like when around 9.30 pm one night I am ordering a coffee. The assistant said "why are you drinking coffee, there is still alcohol on sale", fair enough!
- Festival Reviews
The story goes that the Tramlines organisers are bidding a fond farewell and handing over the reins to a new promoter in 2018. As such, their final throw of the dice was to consolidate the main acts (Libertines, Primal Scream, Metronomy, The Coral) to 3 outdoor stages and trust in the weather....What could go wrong? Oh.
- Festival Reviews
For those of us who have done many festivals it's a simple statistical certainty that we will experience some wet ones. And this was one of those. Initial morning (Friday) was dry for arrival and setting up so a small blessing but the persistent rainfall Friday evening and night meant the festival site, an Oxfordshire farm, turned into a muddy swamp which remained for the whole weekend. It would have taken a heatwave of Saharan proportions to have dried it out.
- Festival Reviews
During the murky depths of last Winter, booking two Spanish festivals on successive weekends (the first one was BBK in Bilbao), seemed like a good idea.... Thankfully, post Bilbao fatigue was forgotten due to a few days in Pamplona and the always excellent company of friends and fellow Rock Clubbers Si, Sally & Ali.
- Festival Reviews
Back from the ever wonderful Cambridge Folk Festival. A very wet year but as all the stages are in tents and the campsite is so comfortable, this wasn't an issue.
- Festival Reviews
Bilbao is a beautiful modern city in Northern Spain, sitting between mountain ranges which surround the estuary of Bilbao. BBK festival has been running for 8 years and is located part way up the mountains to the south of the city. It attracts c 100,000 people over it's whole course but breaking this down to a daily footfall it makes for about 30,000 each day. The site has a compact feel but it never feels overly busy and moving around was easy.
- Festival Reviews
My first Glastonbury festival since 2011 and my eighth visit to Worthy farm for this global event.
- Festival Reviews
Back from my 17th trip to Worthy Farm. I arrived in England during the mini heatwave. On Wednesday it was 34 degrees. Thursday was perfect. There was some drizzle at the weekend but all in all one of the easiest years weather-wise.
- Festival Reviews
As a quick overview, it was another successful SXSW. It's not an easy festival to negotiate without some serious planning. With 100's of unofficial shows and a slew of SXSW showcases to choose from/ The cost of the badge (if you buy one), hotels and flights, and the Increasing distance between venues means you must have a plan, then have a back up plan.
- Festival Reviews
It's the last day of what has been a solid visit to Austin. The sun is shining and a well balanced week means we still have some energy to be able to walk around the city so we are off It's a quick walk into the convention centre to check out Flatstock (a huge market of concert posters and gear) and while in the building we are able to catch two bands;
- Festival Reviews
Thanks to social media and a few great SXSW websites that dedicate themselves to highlighting the open parties each day (showlistaustin) we decide to hit a party that we have not been to before. The party put on by Wild Honey Pie is in a perfect venue. Another outdoor 2 stage venue that means they can have bands play back to back all day long and there is lots of good beer and lots of sun and plenty of seating!