Sunday

Early Sunday dawns with an ethereal mist, creating an amazing vista like a fairytale with disembodied flags waving in the gloom. However it’s not long until the heat of another scorching day burns away the mist and the temperature in the tents forces us out into the day.

There’s not much to do in the morning, all the stalls have been visited already and there’s nothing programmed for the arenas until lunch time but of course the kids’ field is again a buzz with workshops and colourful constructs. There are once again bizarrely dressed entertainers to keep us occupied and plenty of festival goers about to chat to or people watch. The cash machines are still well stocked but there’s already queues.

Sunday’s openers are Whitestar in the tent or Intervurt on the main stage. Having seen Intervurt develop over the years we take our time leaving the campsite as they play their power rock on stage. We pack quickly and hire a ‘trike-taxi’ to take our kit down to the car park. Keeping our warm weather gear with us for the evening, we’re able to get to the Big Top in time for Barnstormer’s alter ego ‘The Fish Brothers’ who are hilarious. Highly entertaining, their drummer is late from Bath so Dan Donnelly takes up the sticks and they have us all smiling with their wicked humour. Though they ruin forever Sgt Pepper replacing it with a song about a Jersey Spectacled Bear.

Once again we’re torn between what’s up next and half our party heads for Skindred where as we stay to hear Jill Sobule. More amusement this time in her darkly wrought songs delivered in an upbeat way. A particularly impressive moment is when she duets with her mother in Denver via mobile on a song about sensible shoes. Well worth watching and one of the highlight of the lower echelon billing over the weekend.

I hear a bizarre tale in the afternoon about someone who had arrived on Saturday afternoon with a weekend ticket only to be told they had no wristbands left and so they couldn’t enter the festival. Fortunately though common sense prevailed and eventually the matter was resolved and after the conversation I’m aware of how much more people there are on the Sunday, swelled by day ticketers.

We’d been recommended Yat-Kha and I can see why they weren’t some people’s cup of tea with their deep throated tonal throat yodelling but I thought it was fantastic. Their rendition of Love Will Tear Us Apart was probably the highlight and you could see the crowd lapping it up as they realised what the throat singer was uttering. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida had my mind scrambling for recognition ‘til a friend put me out of my confusion and their version of the Stones’ Play With Fire had me in stitches.

But with The Beat starting shortly on the main stage and hoping to get there in time to hear some of Los Albertos I made my exit. The heat outside was staggering! It was approaching four and yet still the day was warming up. I spotted a few performers in the crowd including a Leveller or two and it’s always good to see band members out in the throng instead of lurking back stage.

The Beat were great! They played all their hits and had us all skanking about, especially to Rock the Kasbah and drew a good crowd too. Glenn Tilbrook and his Fluffers, including a lovely looking lady bassist, did much the same playing a much better set then I’d last seen him perform, so much so I never left to catch some of Eliza Carthy.

I did try and catch Mad Orb but they didn’t appear to be playing, and there was no sign of Mad Professor, but the tunes sounded pretty thumping in the Little Big Top provided by Skull and Crossbones and Ariwa Records.

The final clash of the festival approached as we were entertained by an old clown and the field beside the arena became full of Chinese lanterns, although once launched many of them plummeted back down to earth. As I was in the main arena with all our kit I stayed to watch a stormin’ Asian Dub Foundation rather than heading off to see Billy Bragg.

I was certainly warmed up and in a dancing mood by the time the hosts graced the stage with their presence. Playing a mix of old and new tunes, we all sang and danced and before we knew it, it was over. The Levs said it was one of their best weekends ever and I was inclined to agree. Although musically they weren’t on form and perhaps they’d been enjoying themselves a little too much, who could blame them.

But then instead of the usual special treat of the wickerman, they brought out Billy Bragg for a special celebration commemorating the birthday of Joe Strummer and attempted a few Clash tunes. Whilst it was a nice idea it didn’t quite live up to expectations in reality. But it was amusing to hear Billy Bragg name-check a few big corporations while telling us how he was glad they weren’t there!

Then as the first spots of rain fell it ended. Though Dib Dub still had a few hours up in the Little Big Top we had work to do the next day. So we said our goodbyes slowly not wanting to leave and trawled out to the car. We listened to the sounds of the festival night for a while before driving away from Escot again.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to all those who had a hand in bringing us such a wonderful festival. It may have grown a little bigger but it’s still three very beautiful days. A fantastic weekend spent having a glorious time. The weather held, the acts were great, the site looked wonderful, well done for the site art it really added to the vibe. The Freeborn John thing was fantastic too, food was lovely and reasonably priced, Otter can't be beaten for price and sessioning on. Thanks for Chai. Thank you for no corporate sponsorship and advertising (apart from Billy and The Wonderstuff ;-) ). Thanks for all the wonderful festival goers - little trouble this year as far as I could tell. Thanks for the friendly marshalls, stewards, security and low key police. Thanks for the weird costumes and crazy characters. Thank you for the nights of lights and glowy things. Thanks to all my friends who were there too.

Thank you for a tremendous weekend to all those involved in the festival.

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