Big Green Gathering

I didn't enjoy the Big Green Gathering this year half as much as in previous years. The kids enjoyed themselves but only because they got to swing in the trees instead of ploughing their way through the mud.

Everything started off OK. Even the rain didn't seem that heavy – what's one night in a wet tent? – but in the end the whole weather thing seemed to put a damper on the Big Green Gathering with a bad smell which emanated from the mud which made the festival a bit of a stinker to say the least.

It was on a new site this year. Such a big site that it seemed even harder to get around. There was no Village Green so it seemed like there was no real heart to the festival and other areas like the Healing Field and the Green Crafts felt very unconnected to the festival itself. The Croissant Neuf stage was just around the corner from the Green Forum but the sea of mud between the gate posts made navigating really difficult. The kids fell about in the mud so often that I gave up taking them anywhere a lot of the time.

Swervy World were good fun in the Green Forum on Thursday (or was it Friday?) night. I saw Seize the Day on Friday but they spent too much time having trouble with the sound desk and mixing guys who were apparently unprepared for such a big troupe of musicians. In the end more time was spent telling the audience about various important issues than on a performance of their usually great music. On Sunday they did a stunning gig but yet again spent a lot of time getting things absolutely right; this time because they were doing a recording.

I tried to see Mark Thomas, the political comedian, in the Green Forum on Saturday afternoon but he wasn't there. There were some interesting words from a Green Party representative. Perhaps Mr Thomas was delayed by the mud. A few bands had real trouble getting their gear transported to the gigs by horse and cart because of the ridiculous amount of mud and the hard work it was for the poor horses. Lots of the bands seemed to be late and many of them had to wait an hour for help moving their PAs between gigs.

Riven did an amazing performance in the Croissant Neuf tent and so did The Egg headlining on Sunday but I never got to the Small World tent at all because it was just too far from the campervan field through all that mud. However one small diversion over to Henry's Beard on Friday led me to Bark who gave a really good upbeat raunchy performance.

There were masses of market stalls on the way to the Healing Field which felt a bit commercial. There were rumours that the showers weren't working by Saturday. There was no big windmill like there has been on previous years and no compost toilets. The Rinky Dink bikes were shoved around a corner from the Groovie Moovie and seemed out of sight. Disabled parking was still quite a way from the main site through a sea of mud and the Permaculture area was nowhere near the Green Crafts area which just seemed a bit daft.

The other thing that really annoyed me was the fact that there was no cold beer for sale on site. People who came by public transport with their children were still expected to carry their own beer for 5 days as well as their camping gear and pay an extra £4 each for the Big Red bus service on top of the ticket price. I'm not sure whether the organisers were being lazy in not applying for a licence to serve alcohol or simply sanctimonious about staying healthy. Either way, the lack of at least one licensed bar irked me. The weather was hot in the end and I could have done with some cold alcohol.

The best things I did were to spend time in the Scrapstore with my kids making things and doing a horse and cart workshop in the Horsedrawn field on Saturday morning (which the guy teaching had clearly prepared and organised in advance). Now that was great! Otherwise, it seemed disjointed this year and I often felt like I was regarded as a punter rather than a participant. Hopefully the organisers will find a better way of giving the festival a more holistic shape in future. The bins should be better labelled for recycling and there should be more info available on how to improve our planet. If a few positive changes aren't made the Big Green Gathering is going to end up being no different to any other festival with or without beer for sale on site.

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