The Bays are Bloom-in' marvellous

It was hard not to be worried that Bloom was going to be cancelled in the weeks before it started when a number of acts were announced not to be playing with the only possible reason being a lack of ticket sales. This was evident when arriving, being greeted with plenty of open space in the arena. One bar, some scattered food stalls, a healing field – of two small tents, and a non-existent children's area. This made looking round the site fairly pointless as there was very little to do except enjoy the music.



Finding the London Breakbeat Orchestra playing quickly stopped the disappointment with their unusual, drum'n'bass playing, thirty piece band. Their jazzy breaks were an instant lift drawing a fair sized crowd. Despite this Barry Adamson managed to be left with only a handful of onlookers. His almost cruise-ship blues was totally out of character for the festival. With a line up of mostly electronic acts, to have such a curve ball so high up the bill was a guaranteed failure. A miserable looking band tried to make the best of it but struggled against the uninterested audience.

The real troubles started when Roisin Murphy came on stage. Greeted by eager fans, 'Overpowered' was suddenly stopped by a technical hitch, cutting all the sound. Looking bemused they left the stage till it was 'fixed' only to have it cut out again not much later. Adding insult to injury, the last song was cut short due to the councils early time restriction of 11pm for the main stage. Turning the on-stage monitors to the crowd, so they could hear, they finished the song. Obviously surprised by the short set, it was hard to tell who looked more upset, Roisin or the fans.



Finding the sound restrictions also applied to the tents, where the volume was dropped down, made the DJs struggle to keep everyone dancing. Calling it a night, I returned to my tent hoping a new day would bring new energy...

Sods law, the weather forecast was correct... Rain, rain, wind and rain. In front of the main stage it felt like a wind tunnel, funnelling the rain into a horizontal torrent. The best description was from Jesse Budd of Flipron, breaking an introduction to a pseudo 'love' song with "..shiiiit..." as the wind came up. Despite this, there were loads of people in fancy dress, not wanting anything to get in the way of having fun.



The highlight of the festival had to be The Bays. Despite a shaken up line-up, putting them on the main stage half way through the day instead of headlining the Beats Bubble, the music was impeccable. Fully improvised, their freestyle progressive dance was unforgettable. With no recorded material, you have to catch them live.

As the evening went on, the music got older. A return to 90's jungle with Roni Size Reprazent followed by the Stereo MCs. Favourites like 'Brown Paper Bag' and 'Connected' got even the most miserable people having a good time and dancing.



Finding a large puddle in my tent the best place to go seemed to be the 24 hour Buddhafield Cafe. The friendly relaxed atmosphere brought the best bits of the festival together, the people. Chilled out staff, as opposed to the somewhat heavy handed security, good food, drink and everyone having a laugh.

Bloom was struck by a lot of bad luck, with the weather and the council / site, and this had its toll on most people going. Hopefully, the festival will return again next year as this intimate festival has a dedicated following that would be sad to see its demise.

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