Friday overview

Beautiful Days is our local festival and we only live a few miles from it and after the traffic jams of last year we expected a quick jaunt to the site as we had in its inaugural two years. However everyone else had the same idea (again – everyone is so keen to miss nothing of the weekend) and we hit a queue on the old A30 where the routing had been co-ordinated to use so it didn’t affect the main road traffic.

But it didn’t take too long to get there despite the unexpected police presence and twenty officers ready to stop and search random vehicles and their passengers or do checks on diesel usage. Despite the delay we were wrist-banded and parked within the hour.

After leaving the family at the over full car, I wandered down the steep slope beside family/quiet camping and the flat campervan field towards the arena and found a trikes4transport cycle taxi to take all our gear to our usual campsite – it would have taken hours to move our gear and numerous trips without them. Despite clouds the day was getting quite warm by the time we reached our camping area and after dumping all our stuff over enough space for as many of our friends’ tents as possible we put the tent up.

Once the tent was up and a can of ale opened it was a case of helping others put their tents up and take calls and help with directions. It seems the queues had got longer outside the festival by this time and the delays meant we had time to survey our surroundings. Noticing the addition of more shops like Mezzanine Dream as well as caterers along the top edge of the campsite and nestled amongst them the Tiny Tea Tent (£1 deposit for mugs as they’d lost so many here last year!) and the new addition of a Spiegel Tent provocatively named ‘Pussy Parlure’.

The numbers of tents increased rapidly over the next few hours until it was as crowded as last year but at least there was less cordoning off of personal camp space hampering mobility this year. Gazebos, flags, fairy lights and even palm trees were the order of the day adding to the colourfulness of the area.

However despite the increase in numbers the number of toilets had not been increased and they were to turn into a no go area fairly rapidly by nightfall. Water points also appeared to only partially work, but we took it in our stride as the sun shined occasionally and darkening clouds skidded across the sky, which we could see were drenching the landscape on the horizon but missing us entirely.

It wasn’t long until I fancied a taste of the real ale on offer and loped down the hill to the Otter Bar beside the main stage and arena, once there I met faces old and new and managed to duck in from the occasional rain shower before the sun came out for the evening and The Crimea started things off on the main stage. They were good to listen to, reminiscent of The Waterboys at times and so I arrived at the Big Top to find Drunk in Public already in full swing, the tent was packed and as I sung along and danced I met many more friends. The boys opened in style and we left with grins on our faces, ready for the weekend.

Returning to the main stage bar I passed the fairy dwelling full of colourful strange plants and fountains before heading through the smoking gateway of red lights and exhaust pipes (looking like a metal tree in winter) and back to the flag and star filled main arena. Cara Dillon, had started. I have to admit that more acquaintances had arrived and so I was unable to concentrate on her easy listening folk-pop ballads although her delicate voice punctuated the arena clearly showing the sound system had some welly and clarity this year.

Shorts and shirts gave way to hoodies and jackets as the sun faded and the stage lights spilled over the arena. Many of our growing throng headed for Seth Lakeman who I knew having seen him five times this year would be superb but the indie-bluesmen Gomez have a true gem in their new album How We Operate, my album of the year and so wild horses wouldn’t have torn me away from their melodies, blues and harmonies and a good sing along to ‘Get Myself Arrested’ and ‘Whippin' Piccadilly’ they are masterful live and already I’ve seen what was for me the act of the weekend.

It’s a shame they aren’t headlining because the packed crowd dissipates into the night rapidly with the arrival of Echo & The Bunnymen and many are heading for either the end of Pama International Live or the start of Dub Cartel in the Little Big Top or for that other great festival act Hayseed Dixie, again having seen both this year I elect to watch Ian McCulloch wittering unintelligibly on and eliciting Doors tunes as well as the highlights of The Killing Moon and The Cutter. The crowd’s thin and the band perform adequately but bring little new to their set, and I have no idea what he mumbled in between songs, it was enjoyable none the less. I’m fairly sure Hayseed Dixie watchers had more out of that show than we did.

It had got fairly cold now midnight had passed and the arena seemed darker this year, so we wandered up to the tent for blankets and a bite to eat intending to head for Greg Dread at the Little Big Top but discovering we could hear it easily outside we elected to sit out under the gazebos and listen while chatting to others from the tents surrounding us.

Dawn appeared before we knew it and so I elected to grab a few hours kip before the next day got into full swing.

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