Pyromid fire is a final glorious end to Glade festival

Keeping an eagle eye on the weather leading up to Glade Festival weekend was very emotional, thunder and lightening storms full force gales and a hell of a lot of rain was predicted so off I go with my wellies, waterproofs and warm clothes weighing me down.

On the 5 hour journey from Bristol the weather got better and better the sun was shining and with blue skies ahead I began to feel hopeful that it was all going to be okay.

It was only a 20 minute queue to get in and to get our bags searched and off I trundled to find the perfect spot to camp. The car park is very close to the campsite, which then leads into the festival so although the grounds are quite an expansive in size everything was nicely close by with the feeling of getting away from it all.

The early arrivers were all in good spirits and some of the sound systems were already pumping out the heavy bass music I expected for the weekend.

The Dance Off stage was in its full glory already blasting out cross genre music in a crowd-pleasing display of wacky costumes and antics. The boxing ring being the epi center for where dance offs were taking place day and night with the encouragement from the compares to get people moving and getting up to silly antics, a free for all quirky stage to spend your time at where the spirits of people were heightened with motivational energy.

Friday is when the thunderstorm hit with heavy rain and wind, but that did not deter any of the festival goers from carrying on or dampening their spirits. Every time the thunder clapped so did the crowds and the lightening was like the flash on my camera, as if the sky itself just took a photograph of everyone enjoying themselves regardless. It only lasted about 40 mins and for the rest of the weekend the sun kept breaking through the clouds creating the perfect weather to dance outside especially in regards to the Origin stage.

There was indeed a lot of mud but what's a festival without a bit of mud? - at least 80% of the time it was dry and very warm. Glade Festival goers were very lucky considering all the weather reports on the lead up to the weekend.

My least favourite part of any festival is the loos these were also a nice surprise as most had lighting above and white roofs so you could see and it stops people making a lot of mess they were efficiently cleaned and kept very well throught the festival.

There was a varied selection of food places on site to delight just about anyone's pallet at Peckish Peacock I had a vegetarian spinach and chick pea curry box with pakora it was pricey at £8 but there was a very large portion and could easily be shared and it was delicious.

There was fire burner pizza place giving you the choice of pizza with toppings such as asparagus etc… The food choices were very good scattered all over the festival grounds and catered for all.

The Vintage Tea and Cake place was an all time favourite for my friends and myself. Inside it was like a whimsical vintage tea room where you are served tea in little china cups, every cake was divine, I had a chocolate rum and raisin mud cake that was out of this world.

Glade Festival over the years has always provided music that covers many genres and this year was no different, whether you are an avid psytrance fan or into dub or drum and bass, for me it outshines a lot of other festivals in its ability give the its festival people just what they want in terms of an eclectic variety of sounds.

Everyone in the crowd went crazy for Foreign Beggars there obligatory mosh pit was a success such a high energy performance again a rather early set for these guys but that didn’t stop the true fans enjoying every minute from the new tracks they played all the way to the tracks from 10 years ago but then again every time I've seen Foreign Beggars they always have the same response it just never gets tiresome.

About half 2 in the morning on Saturday Million Way from Bristol played in the Rabbit Hole though they were not on the official printed line-up I stumbled across these guys just giving it large to the crowd their live music set was amazing and had dancers on stage inspiring even the most exhausted of us to dance.

After seeing The Correspondents live before, I made it my all time purpose to see them at Glade and boy was it a showdown, I can't even pin a type of music to them its very cross genre electronic/swing/dance/hip hop crazy mix that gets everyone moving.

Mr Bruce the front man was enigmatic and energy driven his set included dancing on a treadmill and throwing all sorts of shapes in his custom unitard one piece I couldn't take my eyes off him… sorry DJ Chucks I didn't even glance in your direction once.

The Meteor stage was like a space craft landed in the forest in fact it was decked out like something from stargate enterprise, landing in another world it even had its own moon. The bass in the floor was heavy you did have to queue a while to get down to the enclosed area but I admit it was worth every minute. The effort put into creating this new area for the Glade crowd was phenomenal.

Origin stage was Psytrance heaven not particularly my favourite genre but you just couldn't help but to soak up the vibe of the music with its 3D surround sound the crowd and energy. It was decorated in all psychedelic patterns which was perfect for the theme of music and the crowds were there all day long happily stomping their way in the mud, the sun shining on their faces creating an all round sense of euphoria. The Origin Stage attracts characters of all ages and for me I found that amazing, a few of these die hard festival lot were in their late 60's and 70's it was really incredible to see that they still wanted to dance all day and night.

The woods were all lit up majestically in the dark, reminiscent of my time a few years back at Secret Garden I was happy to find out it was these guys who also pulled this off at Glade.

One of my favourite chill out places was the sparkly curtain strips in the woods called Polyphant there wasn't any music specific to there but you could hear the nearby stages and it was quite a treat the way the silver tinsel glittered and reflected the multicoloured lights. My amazement at how such a simple idea worked so magnificently well and I've got to admit there is a bit of 'Phoenix Nights' in all of us!

Heavy Baselines were prominent in the Basement stage the whole festival, this is where you could let your hair down and have a good rave it was always full of people skanking out.

Interface, and Stanza, with Carasel up front on the mic was definitely a highlight I'm sure this dynamic trio ripped an extra hole in the tent dropping solid basslines to everyone's enjoyment.

High Rankin replaced Rusko who sadly couldn't make it due to illness, it was a high impact vibrant energy with the female singer and keyboard player playing key parts but nothing could distract you from his eccentric moustache and hyper attitude although it was an early-ish set so wasn't very busy in the main Glade stage it was indeed one of my personal highlights as the music was infectious.

Andy C, I think, was the highlight of the festival was the first time the Glade tent was fully packed out even people dancing outside.

The sound, visuals, and all round performance was a must see and everyone I spoke to after the set had glowing reports of it, Andy C has his touring stage set up which I have seen before in Bristol but here it worked perfectly with the projected visuals, and the crowd were going wild the music was intense and it was the best set of the whole weekend.

Straight after the Andy C set I caught the grand finale firework display and the pyromid was set on fire as a final glorious ending to the festival. Crowds in their thousands circled it in a bid to squeeze the very last drops of the weekend as sadness gathered that it was in fact over… Until next year that is where we will all re group and go on the next Glade adventure.

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