Alchemy is the small festival season's worst kept secret

Alchemy is a small festival located near Coningsby in Lincolnshire. It is one of the last festivals of the summer, usually held around the time of the autumn equinox. Whilst this means it can be cold, it's the perfect last blast before autumn rolls in properly. Being so small, it is also one of the friendliest festivals, and if you're in certain festival crowds you'll find yourself knowing or knowing of what feels like half the people there. Yet despite this it is in no way cliquey and everyone you meet is up for a drunken conversation or a natter in a (generally short) queue.

A queue that was unfortunately not short as the one to get in. We arrived around 2pm on the Friday and whilst the queue did nothing to rival those of the larger festivals, the system of having one person looking through a list of 1500 names to find yours was clearly not quite as efficient as it could have been. Fortunately the festival was dry and the people friendly enough to make this only a minor gripe but it would definitely be an improvement if tickets were issued. This needn't be expensive, an email would do!

One of the best things about Alchemy is the size. The walk from the car park to the queue to the campsite is under a minute (if you take out the actual queuing bit) and so this is a festival you can take a lot of things (aka a lot of booze) to without the long trek to and from the car. By public transport the festival is a little more arduous to get to, but there is a bus stop a short walk from the site. The campsite is spacious and wherever you camp you are close to the main part of the festival.

It's a bit of a cliché that you can go to Alchemy and not see any bands, and this is what happened to me on Friday night. Being used to bigger festivals it's always a bit of a shock to be thrown straight in on the first day and my problem was that I spent far too much time catching up with people in the campsite around the campfire. The small size of the festival does however mean you can hear a nice amount of music from the campsite and so you don't really miss out if you do take this option.

Alongside chatting to people I also went to sample some of the food on offer. Nothing at Alchemy is supposed to cost more than it would on the high street and the most expensive thing I bought all weekend was a mushroom pizza from Huggy's pizza and puppets stall for £5.50. Cooked freshly to order in a stone pizza oven, the pizzas were a highlight for many people at the festival, and children got to make and eat their own for free during special pizza workshops. Also worth a mention was The Fat Falafel, which did some very tasty falafels in pitta bread and It's All Greek To Me who served chicken skewers, lamb or halloumi in a flat bread with a delicious minty yoghurt sauce. Alchemy decided to run their own café this year, which was reasonable and incorporated a burger and chip van and an open mic area into the tent. My only moan is the lack of chai lattes to be had on the Sunday!

Of course the star of the Friday night was the fireball which lit up the sky and confused us all! Apparently it was space debris coming out of orbit.

Saturday was a bit more successful music-wise, I actually managed to catch 4 bands! The first of these was Deferred Sucess, an acoustic skiffly punky band from Essex. The crowd enjoyed a sunny sing along to "I don't want to go home", aided very cleverly by boards with the lyrics written on. Hot on their pursuit were Dub The Earth, a female fronted dub band. There is a lot of dub at Alchemy, and if it's your cup of tea you'll love it. I'm admittedly not a huge dub fan but Dub the Earth are clearly very good at what they do and got quite a lot of people dancing. The generally nice weather on the Saturday meant the mood around the site was very nice and lots of people were chilling out on the stacks of hay bales and the strange mound outside the dance tent.

There are five stages, the Philosopher's stone stage, which serves as the 'main' stage, the undercover liberty stage, which featured bands such as Flutatious and the dance tent which make up the main concourse of the arena. There are two alternatively powered stages, the solar Kaplick stage, which featured the more folky side of the line-up and the shroomery, powered by bikes pedalled by festival goers and a little more acoustic. Finally the psychedelic breakfast tent provided the festival with bacon, coffee and a chilled out vibe.

The dance tent was heavy on the psytrance this year, but the likes of Eat Static, Ed Tangent, and Astralasia got the festival dancing at all times of day. I saw who I believe was Prognosis on the Sunday night and the tent atmosphere was lovely, lots of smiling dancing people. For when the bass just got too much a quick trip round the corner to the Shroomery could get you some blues from artists such as Sean Taylor, who played to a very small but appreciative crowd in the small woodland glade. It wasn't all blues but I didn't get round to the stage again for the rest of the festival.

The Sunday was, well, not quite as good weather-wise as the Saturday but this did little to dampen anyone's spirits. One thing that was moaned about rather a lot during the festival was the toilets. Whilst really they should have been a stroke of genius, wooden stalls positioned over wheelie bins, the lack of locking doors on many of the stalls and the position of the toilet seat made using them quite a task for short legged people. If the seat was located just 2 inches closer to the then it would have been less of a balancing act to go, and a bit less messy too. It was a good idea in principle but just some tiny tweaks would make them more viable for next year.

Alongside the music are some lovely art installations, including a giant chair made from driftwood. There is also lots for kids to do, with a large area devoted to circus toys and a big sandpit. Sustainable living groups held workshops, and there were arty things like bunting making and crochet learning too. Much of the festival is actually located undercover and so a bit of rain does little harm to your dancing abilities or your mood. Dancing is an important heat source in late September, as are the campfires that everybody, and you can do both of these things well into the night on the Friday and Saturday, with music finishing around 11pm on the Sunday. Playing my way to this time were the almighty Ferocious Dog, who played a criminally short but brilliant set on the Kaplick Stage. Fusing folk and punk and managing not to sound like the Levellers, Ferocious Dog were the perfect end and everyone had a brilliant time stomping and bouncing along. And then it was back to the campfire to talk rubbish long into the night and make the festival last as long as possible, even if it was raining.

Alchemy can be a little disorganised, but it makes up for it in charm, friendliness and downright loveliness. You don't feel bound by a line up and you meet so many lovely people that missing a band doesn't feel like a hardship. It's the small festival season's worst kept secret and the best possible way to see it out!

Latest Updates