Blissfields is a world record-breaking festival

Blissfields Festival 2014

Friday 4th to Saturday 5th July 2014
Vicarage Farm, Woodmancott, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 3BL, England MAP
tier 1 £85 for weekend

Daily capacity: 4,000

After the rain that arrived the day before Saturday morning saw the weather clear away leaving the day cloudy, but warm. Although the rain hadn't completely cleared and throughout the day short showers still worried the site. For those who hadn't over-indulged the night before and could get themselves up for 10am, there was a fairly unique opportunity - a talk by and chance to meet Born Free founder and star of the film of the same name, Virginia McKenna. Despite being in her 80s she is as passionate about the cause as ever and gave a short, but very interesting talk about the making of the film and how the foundation was started. Her son Will then took over and spoke about the current work they undertake.

After that there was a pause before the music started again which gave us a chance to explore the craft village, where blacksmiths, weaver and woodworkers show off their skills and offer some of the things they've made. It also gave us an excuse to get a delicious breakfast muffin from a converted ambulance dubbed 'Original Fry-Up Material' - essentially it's a freshly made version of the ones made by the Golden Arches - the ones with the clown, but far more tasty and probably a lot better for you too.

Although the stages started at 12 I have to confess that nothing on any of them really grabbed me, and so I wound up drifting round the site, dodging the occasional shower and waiting for the big event of the weekend. One thing that Bliss-fields was trying to achieve is a place in the record books, and so they decided to set a record - in this case for the largest group of people wearing animal print in one place. Surprisingly this is already a preexisting record, which stands at 263 people - something that a 4,000 strong festival should be able to beat. After contacting Guinness, the ground rules were set, and to be eligible people had to wear an animal print top, plus one other accessory. Fortunately the zebra print on the wristbands counted as the accessory, so it was just a matter of filtering out those who did and didn't qualify. After careful monitoring those who made the cut had to stay in place for five minutes. It was calculated that over 450 people joined in, but they will not hear whether they officially have the record for a few weeks, so fingers crossed that they made it.

I finally found something that appealed on the mainstage in the form of the Moulettes - a folk band that sit in the gap between Mumford and Sons and The Unthanks - not an unpleasant place to be. Their bright upbeat melodies even managed to bring the sun through the clouds for a short while. They were followed by Ry X, an Australian electro-indie duo who seemed fairly ambivalent as to whether anyone was out there listening or not, which was fortunate as they managed to clear most of the crowd who had gathered for the Moulettes.

The rest of the day on the main stage seemed to belong to the pop acts, starting with Bipolar Sunshine whose breezy summery soul was the perfect setup for the rest of the day. He was followed by Chloe Howl, who graced this stage almost a year before. A lot has changed in those 12 months as Chlöe's career has taken off and seen her gather award nominations and mainstream success. Her performance has changed too, last year she was a slightly nervous performer who used her mic to hide behind. Now she is a far more confident artist, who moves freely around the stage engaging with the crowd. Although she had no new material to bring to the show this year, what she did have was more awareness of her music and so provided the crowd with several sing-along moments.

Singalong moments were what the next act seemed to be all about, with another festival exclusive the New York disco pop act Hercules And Love Affair were there to get the crowd dancing. And dance they certainly did. The performance mixed disco, pop and elements of classic 80s hip hop, and even though the crowd clearly didn't know much of the bands work it didn't seem to matter as the party vibe was set up.

Tonight's headliner was, rather than a band, a DJ set form 2manydjs. Now while this was a great thing in the eyes of the crowd who danced themselves to a selection of other bands hits it just didn't grab me that much, mainly because rather than full songs, you just got a few snippets of tracks, which just as you were getting into them, they switched to another track. So leaving it to those who get these things better than I, we went off to the Hustle Den and saw the fantastic Flyte, whose summer pop anthems would work well on a sunny afternoon on a main stage somewhere.

The final act in the Den was one that I had been looking forward to all weekend. Melt Yourself Down are a band that are difficult to define in simple terms, but the closest I've managed to come to is if you imagine a metal band who sack their guitarists, then hire a couple of saxophonists instead, and proceed to perform Ska/Cuban/Punk music, but still like they were a metal band. The final result is something quite unique, with the saxophonists leaping around the stage, while lead singer Kushal Gaya growls and hollers in a mix of his native Mauritian and off the cuff scatting - the crowd don't have a clue what he's singing about, but don't care either, as they are quickly caught up in this infectious energy. Gaya seems to spend as much time in the crowd as he does in front of them, which only serves to whip the crowd further - soon a smallish crowd expands to a heaving mass of bodies sensing a chance to maintain the momentum of the evening. Finally after an hour or so of this madness, the band leave the stage, and the crowd are buzzing as they head into the night in search of bed or the continuing party in the Hidden Hedge.

As far as festivals go, Blissfields is one of the best out there - it is one of a few festivals that don't need a big headline act to make it worth going to, in fact it almost seems to be better when you don't know the acts as there is that sense of discovering acts for the first time. It is a festival that manages to balance being somewhere to bring the kids, but still provide the sort of hedonistic abandon that hardcore festival goers crave. Ultimately it is a festival that has a lot of love poured into it, from the organisers, the artists and the audience - something that only a few festivals can boast - and it's a potent combination that results in one of the highlights of the festival calendar.

review by: Steve Collins

photos by: Steve Collins / Marie Magowan