Americana International Festival

Whilst Glastonbury and all of the other major festival take up their fair share of media coverage, we thought we would go and sample a festival that has not had that much media attention in comparison to Glastonbury, Download, and Leeds festivals. Welcome to the Americana International Festival held at the County Showground Newark (Nottinghamshire).

So where do we begin, well it is currently in its 31st year, 25 of those years have been at its current site at the Newark Showground. Which is certainly a rare achievement in today's economical climate where landowners seem to be becoming more and more awkward with regards to festivals taking place.

If you have never heard of the Americana International festival, it is a family orientated festival, where children are made to feel welcome. Let's be honest festivals like Download and Leeds aren't the most suitable places to entertain children. At the Americana Festival children up to the age of 16 are allowed in free of charge when accompanied by a paying adult.

Being a family orientated festival the bands and the security people seemed to be very mindful about the use of bad language in front of the children and this made a refreshing change to the other festivals where certain rock bands and festival crew think it is still 'cool' to swear in front of young children.

Maybe the reason why Americana has such a strong family orientated ethos, is possibly due to the fact that it is run by the Jackson family (no, not the one with Michael, Janet and Latoya). The head of the family Chris Jackson along with his wife (Bev) and the rest of the family all help in organising this yearly event.

Ok so if you couldn't guess from the name of the festival it is themed around all things American, so obviously music is orientated around country and western, blues, alternative, 1960's feel good music. There is definitely something for everyone.

If the music isn't enough to captivate you, then there are hundreds of American cars to browse through and get up close and personal with them, talk to the owners and even sit in a few of them. The cars range from 1940's all the way up to the newest Corvette and Mustang cars. There were even a couple of Monster trucks roaming around. As well as a few classic old fashioned pickup trucks. Although this is primarily based on American music and vehicles, they also allow cars that are not American to be exhibited, Ferrari and Lamborghini's were mixed in with the American cars, and as much as I love Lambo's and Ferraris, they definitely aren't American!

Even the stalls were themed around American food and drinks, Funnel cakes, American Lemonade, you name it, it was at this event. The prices were reasonable on most of the stalls. There was even a Tattooist, and a flight simulator and fun fair as well as a fashion show to keep people occupied.

One of the most remarkable things about this festival is that the toilets were kept in almost perfect condition, toilet rolls and soap was always available. As well as Portaloos there were numerous brick toilets which again were kept well maintained. I think this is the first festival where they organisers seemed to actually care about the amenities.

Unlike other festivals, you could literally drive around the site in a car, so as a pedestrian you had to be careful, although to be fair it is rather difficult not to hear a V8 engine roaring towards you from behind. In all seriousness at times it was like being on a film set with all of the 1950's Cadillac's and Buicks gently gliding past as you walked around the stalls.

The Americana has a show and shine competition each year and the judges deliberate between them to choose which car is the most deserving to win certain trophies such as best car in show etc. With so many great vehicles on display, I feel that the judges have a very difficult task each year.

The music is on from dinner time up until late on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Whilst watching bands playing on the outdoor stages, it made a refreshing change to see cars parked at the back of the arena with people standing on the back of their vehicles to watch the bands, it gave it a real American feel, just like in films when they go to drive in movies.

Whilst on the subject of the music, it was mainly a list of bands that I had never heard of, maybe with the exception of Alvin Stardust, and Quill. However all of the bands were very talented and some such as Modern Earl seemed to have a good following judging by the crowd.

Alvin Stardust to me will always raise a smile when I think of his hair style back in his day, it could be argued that he has become a figure of fun in general, however after seeing his performance at the Americana Festival, any jokes about him are soon forgotten as he belted out cover versions (Queen) as well as his own classic tracks. There is no denying that Alvin still has a voice which is incredible to listen to. He knows exactly which buttons to press to get the audience on his side. As much as I would like to have written a few jokes about how bad he is live, the truth is he is an incredible live performer with a vocal ability which would give most of the so called 'popstars' of today a master class in how to sing.

Another band which seemed to attract a big crowd was Quill. From what some kind person in the audience was telling me they are usually at Americana most years. They have a unique sound of violin and guitar based songs with grandiose vocal harmonies to create an angelic sound musically.

My overall impression of the Americana International festival is one of utmost respect and fondness, this festival really does have everything you could possibly want from a festival. You can even bring your own camping chair into the main arena and sit down and be lazy all day if you choose to. The security team were friendly and very helpful. Children are welcome. Stalls reasonably priced. There is even a real pub on site.

One thing that I feel would be a great addition to the American International Festival for next year would be a section for famous movie cars. As I did see a few cars based on movies such as Herbie and The Dukes Of Hazzard (General Lee). Hopefully over the next few years this fabulous festival will gain a lot more media attention and take its place alongside the better mentioned festivals such as Glastonbury.

I'm already counting down the days to next year’s Americana International Festival...

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