overview

The rain's stopped for days now, and the sun smiles on us, as we head for a little soggy corner of Devon by car, bus or the short walk from the train station for Beautiful Days. The excitement builds as we get funnelled quickly through the car park system (in our case) and it's all smiles and banter as we swap tickets for wristbands. Not long after we buy a postcard itinerary , a great idea with a more useful programme including a Pete Loveday piccy - terrific!


We're at the top of the world, and the site that'll be home for the next few days is obscured by trees. It's a long slope down to the bridge at the bottom, some have trolleys, some have backpacks and some a trike taxi. As we descend into the arena, there are familiar faces to greet and we notice changes to the arena.

The two main stages (Outdoor and Big Top) are still at either end of the arena area, but now the Pussy Parlure is beside the outdoor one and there's more shops, caterers and site art to dazzle the eyes. As we wonder whether camping in the nearby family camping zone would be a better idea we notice the other camping field, to which we advance through soft mud, are also re-arranged access has moved, the Tiny Tea Tent is left alone, a solitary figure at the rear of the camping field and the Dance Tent has made a return to it's original home it had in the first year. Can't they squeeze another late night chill out tent in beside the TTT next year and a few stalls?

Seems to me, the older you get, the more other things about festivals matter and the less rawking guitars and the latest sound from the latest hot act becomes important. Perhaps it's a generation thing, but it tends to be more about how the festival feels, its vibe rather than the bands, and the kind of people who are here seem to reflect that. Beautiful Days certainly does appeal far more to those who love a festival vibe.

For the young mentalists this appears to mean poppers, fuelled on NO2 and for a few saddos ketamin (why oh why?) but to those a bit longer in the tooth it's a drink, perhaps a smoke, the occasional excess and a relaxed atmosphere spending time with the kids, away from the stresses of the job that funds the fun.



Perusing at the line up for Beautiful Days it's clear it's tailored for the festie goer less at the cutting edge of popular scene music (thank god), however there's a wealth of highly entertaining and talented veterans of the music scene, as well as a few up and coming big things. Looking around at the mixed crowd it's populated with people who go for the 'festival feel' over the 'music of now', well they're probably all at V. Most are here to enjoy the weekend in a field with good food, drink, a high standard of entertainment and a lovely vibe. None are disappointed.

And it's this that Beautiful Days offers it's not a tilting explosion of frenetic hedonism, but more a glorious celebration of all things good about festivals. Okay, so perhaps nearly every act boasts a fiddle and many of them are in the CD collections of those over 30. But we're fine with that, many people hang out in the campsite, the huge kids area with a wonderful atmosphere and so much for them to do, the family fields, the bars or the open spaces and spend their time enjoying each other’s company. It’s a festival utopia and it’s no wonder Beautiful Days sells out.

The festival seems, to me at least, about enjoying yourself, with family and friends and the music is merely a soundtrack, admittedly a very good one. The festival is firmly rooted with a great location for you to immerse yourself in, masses of site art, lots of weird and wonderful characters, a wonderful natural landscape and at night a visual feast for the eyes. Lights and colours emanate and this year there's the addition of banks of smoke and jettisons of flame courtesy of mutant metal-art street lamps.



This is a whole festival world, a complete microcosm to enjoy and when the town of tents we've made our home is hit with wind and rain, most of its population are weathered enough to resist the impulse to return to civilisation. The walkways rapidly spawn that foot slowing mud that has hit most festivals this summer, it seems. Except this mud is red and not brown, from the iron content, and fortunately it keeps out of much the arena areas preferring instead to clog the access routes, so people are still able to find sitting space amongst green grass when not getting wet. Toilets were plentiful and if there were queues at one set you could walk on to less busy ones. Although the positioning of the mens’ urinals was rather errrr revealing.

Despite the sticky stuff, the festival continues, people dance, cheap cider and cheaper Otter ale flows and kids make merry and are kept thoroughly entertained. There’s roving performers tugs of war, travelling samba bands and much more. By Sunday it's clear resources are getting thin on the ground, the slopes of the campsites are harder to reach to empty toilets (it's good that the organisers recognise this and they keep us informed on both the toilets and car park situation), and clothes and tents are becoming harder to keep dry.

The only downside is the police, no happy poi twirling by them this year, their new policy is one of busting smokers - I've not seen that in a few years, guess it's the new smoking rules, does seem a shame they can't bust whoever it was that broke into our tent, not that they took anything, but it did mean I missed Gogol Bordello, while I pacified an upset daughter - perhaps we should camp in the family area next year.

Numbers slowly dwindle, but the site isn't haemorrhaging revellers and the crowds are still impressive for the music bouncing from the stages. Sunday has some great acts to offer, including a rare appearance of Boney M, the scintillating Easy Star All Stars and the wonderful Back To The Planet and come the final act on the main stage - The Levellers -there's a bigger crowd than previous years and a storming set followed by fireworks and this time the bar is still open after the merry making!



It's The Levs' festival and they know how to put on a good one. There's quality in everything: site performers, decent food and drink - sensibly priced, awesome visuals at night (the Bimble Inn area was truly incredible to see), a fantastic range of interesting shops with eye catching wares, quality acts like Dreadzone, Subgiant, Back To The Planet, 3 Daft Monkeys, Boney M and Willie Mason to name just a few of many. (See the daily musical overviews) I felt this year was the strongest yet for great bands.

Yes, I have been to all five Beautiful Days and seen this festival grow and yet I'm never bored there's always new people to meet and enough new stuff to see if you explore (especially at night) and I do like the visual treats on offer. Give me some glowing floating balls and a landscape of lasers and oil bubbles and I'm happy all night, especially if there's also some comfortable seating and a wicked soundtrack too. I did think more would be made of it being their fifth year, but the fact was remarkably understated other than the merchandise. (Although I missed out on a Dennis the Menace XL T-shirt - after five years I succumbed and went, unsuccessfully, to buy a shirt.)

Monday morning we awake to rain, loads of it, so go back to sleep until it abates. It doesn't so we get up and strike camp, it stops raining as we reach the car, (typical) up THAT hill, after a late breakfast. The stalls are mostly gone, the vehicles that are transporting them to the next festival, I guess, are being towed out by big tractors. The car park is a bit of a swamp, but we go for it and get out without the cloying mud halting our progress, well we are local. Despite the weather we've had a smashing time.

A big thanks to all those who kept it running to so well, to all those stewards and security who had smiles on their faces and to the organisers who created such a wonderful colourful little world with a superb soundtrack. See you all there next year!

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