review

It must be great having a back garden big enough to hold a music festival in?



That's exactly what the Duke of Argyle did this year with the inaugural Connect music festival held in the stunning setting of Loch Fyne on one side and imposing Inveraray Castle on the other. Brought to you by the same team who hold T in the Park but marketed for a different age group, non bucky swilling 30 somethings who apparently like oysters and fine malts.

The arrival is summed up by one festival goer who's blog entry I read last week: "I expected to turn up pitch my tent and get pissed not have to complete one of the ten tasks of Hercules. As a relatively fit 30 something I did find the alleged 15 minute walk hard going especially when carrying camping equitment/food.drink all main stays of a festival. In reality you are looking at a 30-40 minute walk from car park to camp site through a woodland setting. The bad news is it's largely uphill but take it easy and you'll be fine. You might be inspired by the lovely hand painted signs along the route encouragingly telling you that there's 'not far to go' 'nearly there'. All I can say is by Sunday night someone had daubed 'Lies' over these in mud eco graffiti style. Hike aside it's a stunning location for a festival in one of the most scenic corners of Scotland."

Arriving at the campsite which is a relatively sheltered site with large mature trees all around, the lack of toilets and fact that they were all located at one end of the large site led to the unsavoury fact that many folks were urinating and defecating near their tents. So much for refined 30 somethings!

After the trauma of the hike as fans entered the site they were greeted by a barrage of staff dressed as superheroes offering free hugs. What a welcome!

As for the line up, a lot of thought must have gone into it. An eclectic mix of Scottish and International talent that worked well over the three days.

The main arena's Oyster Stage, headlined by the Beastie Boys Friday, Primal Scream on Saturday and Bjorke on Sunday, sloped into a natural amphitheatre which resulted in great acoustics from all round the site. Usually at a festival if you are several hundred meters away from the stage you can get slightly muffled version of the live acts. Not here as the natural slope from the stage at the bottom of the field lead to a great sound even well away from the stage.

Apart from the music the 'extras' that were laid on really made this festival a bit different. Yes, the standard crap stalls of any festival were there in abundance but look a bit deeper and there were hidden depths to the food. Never in my wildest dreams could I envisage queuing on Saturday morning 40 minutes for porridge! However the biggest food line of the day was well worth the wait. Stoats Porridge with whisky, berries, cream and honey fired me up for the day and judging from the queue they kept going at this pace throughout the weekend How they squeezed so much porridge from one wee van heaven only knows.

Elsewhere the Loch Fyne Oyster Limited ran a massive food tent that seemed like the best of Scottish cuisine lifted from various restaurants and plonked in the middle of a field. If you could only bottle the smell of smoke and hickory it would sell like hot cakes. Being into my food I sampled many of the delights in this tent over the weekend. Although I could not personally stomach the thought of oysters the highlights included hot salmon rolls, mussel soup to die for, perfect bbq-ed hog roast and possibly the best sticky toffee pudding I've ever tasted. No doubt in my mind this tent was a festival revelation. It was packed all weekend long. Simply put it was like having a separate food festival within Connect. Book my place in the queue for next year.

After food the whisky tent was next port of call. Again a great touch. I took great delight in hearing that the person running the whisky tent had bollocked two lads for downing a rare malt like a shot then sold them two more so he could teach them how to drink malt properly. This place was as well stocked as any whisky bar I've ever been in. Enjoying rare 15 year old malt that I'd been looking for years was a real highlight.

There's no doubt that target audience for this festival love café culture. Again this part of day to day life was transported into the site with the Speakeasy Café. Everything from a giant game of operation, chilling reading the Sunday papers and listening to great live acoustic sets set in a backdrop of cappuccinos on brown fabric sofas. Don't know how they planned this but the organisers pulled it off. Had I not been at a music festival I could have hanged out there all day it was such a chilled place to be.

Entering into the Enchanted Forest I was impressed from the start. As a concept placing a massive white tarpaulin over woodland setting and filling it with wood chip floors and wooden swinging seats was a first for any festival I've been at. Apart from the bar staff this part of the festival was staffed by people dressed in 17th century French Aristocratic. It was all a bit surreal, but as a place to chill during the day it worked a treat and come nightfall the post live music transformed the forest into a dance tent that had the crowd living it large until the lights turned off at 2am.

Talking of the late night scene there was plenty to chose from for an after show party. Aside from dancing under canvas in a forest the Cider tent stayed open late with new aspiring DJ's mixing it up to a packed tent. On Saturday evening Club Noir, Scotland's well know burlesque club night, brought a bit of panache to the audience whereas Sunday's Vegas introduced the chance of winning a free pint by gambling with monopoly type money at roulette or blackjack while Vegas showgirls danced into the night.

Aside from all that the late night DJ set from Mani (ex-Stone Roses and current Primal Scream) was a true gem of a set. Anyone who loved that Manchester sound of the '90's would be in true heaven as they sung along to all the best of the Stone Roses in the pouring rain. Who cared, everyone was having a ball.

With all this late night partying the inclusion of the Rest and be Thankful spa was an other inspired choice which catered for the audience. As vanity is one of the first things to suffer on any camping experience the spa was busy all weekend massaging, washing, detoxing and exfoliating. The fact that the staff were run off their feet all weekend speaks volumes.

All in all aside from the initial hike and some lack of facilities on the camp site this festival has the potential to grow into a classic. The best thing was the lack of bare chested drunken idiots who usually clog up so many summer fests. Add to that all the extras, great line up and you've got the recipe for a great experience.

Thinking about it logically the fact that the car parks were located before Inveraray kept disruption in the village to a minimum. Given the hilly surroundings the car parks could not be any closer to the campsite than it was. The hike into the site is not going to go away, but is worth it for a great weekend. My advice? Get fit and live with it.

Latest Updates