Gottwood offers epic music, wonderful people & good vibes in Anglesey

Gottwood somehow managed to sneak up, tap us on the shoulder and introduce itself as the best electronic music & arts festival we have had the pleasure of attending.

In its sixth year, set in the beautiful Anglesey backwoods, Gottwood attracts an approachable, psychedelic crowd who interact like long lost, yet never-met friends. Art installations, from graffiti walls and LED igloos, combined with the most stunning light displays (both at the stages and in the forest areas) delivered the most visually pleasing experience we’ve encountered.

Travelling to the festival from London is quite straightforward; you can catch a direct train to Holyhead in just under 4 hours. From there, it’s a short taxi ride to the site. Expect the train to be busy and noisy with fellow Gottwood attendees starting the partying early.

On arrival there was already a decent sized queue formed. Don’t expect hours and hours to get through though. Attendance was kept to just under 5,000; big enough to feel busy, but small enough that you saw people you’d met repeatedly over the weekend. So no need to panic about making plans to meet up and worrying about phone signals…

Once past security we had our first taste of the Gottwood family vibe. To save you carrying your heavy bags and tents you could take a ride in the back of a trailer up the hill to the camp site. We had almost enough change for the trip, just £2 short. The guy managing the queue wasn’t fussed in the slightest, a huge grin planted firmly across his face the entire time as he welcomed us all and helped everyone along their way. This was how the entire weekend turned out; every single person we met was warm, welcoming and happy to be part of such a vibrant celebration of electronic music and arts.

We had booked to stay in the Boutique camp site, and were greeted on arrival by the wonderful Woodville Project team. After a glass of champagne and some strawberries we were checked in and dropped our bags off at the bell tent, decked out with woven flooring, a wooden table, night time lamp and fairy lights.

After a quick dab of glitter we found our way along the short path into the site and arrived at the shopping end of the walkway in. Bright colours, stripes, sequins and crazy designs were bursting from rails for those in need. We popped into Jack Fruit and BanyanTribe for a browse and came out with a new bum bag and a pair of Papaya Pants.

After the shops we started wandering around to get our bearings and found the first of the stages. The Treehouse (looking exactly as it sounds), was surrounded by stacked hay bales giving it a warm and enclosed feeling.

Next door was one of the many bars serving ice cold Tuborg for £4.50 and water for £2. Spirits and mixers were also available and owing to the well planned layout there was never more than a 3 deep queue.

Further into the festival we found one of the busier parts, where the absolutely stunning Mother Owl stage dominated the scene. Food vans were also in abundance, offering energy filled Mac N Cheese, pizzas, burgers and plenty of veggie options with wraps, salads and bean burgers.

Once fuelled up, we went off in search of some music and found ourselves bopping along to Mr G at the busy Walled Garden stage. The DJ booth was an old caravan which had been gutted and had to be craned into the site; maximum effort and was well worth it.   

Mr G didn’t disappoint with heavy bass lines, keyboard funk and lots of high hats dropped in to keep time. The crowd were super excited, not only for the first night of the festival, but also enjoying the talents of a DJ who dances as much as those on the floor.

We woke Friday to another dry day. It was raining all across the UK, but Gottwood has its own special weather, being so close to the Irish Sea, and remained dry (despite wet forecasts) until Monday morning.

We ventured out to check on some of the other smaller stages. Cpt. Cabeza had a constant mix of excellent DJs, set just a few metres from the edge of the Gottwood lake. Crowds ranged in sizes, from small and intimate at around 30 people, all the way up to 100 plus dancers enjoying the tunes.

Later on in the evening we arrived at the Curve, one of the bigger stages; a huge canvas topped tent with open sides and two strip LCD panels stretching half way around the inside.

We caught our good friends James & Giles from Secretsundaze who never fail to impress. Deep house and some top notch tech set us up nicely for the rest of the evening.

Later still (or early AM to be exact) we made our way back to the Walled Garden and caught Andrew Weatherall & Roman Flugel playing back to back. The music was an excellent, steady 3 hour mix complete with a phenomenal light display that almost tipped us over the edge.

After a slightly longer-than-planned lie in, Saturday was spent almost entirely back at the Curve stage. Half Baked and then tiNI and the gang put on an array of DJs that were easy to dance to and hard to leave. We danced well into the early hours and for the third day in a row made it back to the tent a few hours before sunrise.

On Sunday we were treated to two of our most favourite artists of the weekend.

Firstly, on the Lawn stage, just as the early evening mist rolled in off the lake, HVOB played a live set that was absolutely magical. Live drums and keyboards added to the soft, purring vocals of Anna Müller and everyone present seemed in awe of something very special.

Finishing off the weekend, Jane Fitz played us out at the Walled Garden. Probably one of the happiest DJs we’ve encountered, constantly beaming either at her decks or the crowd, she took us through more of her finest house and techno tracks whilst perched 14 ft up a tree. At the time, it didn’t seem bizarre at all.

To wrap up, Gottwood is currently sitting in the number one spot of festivals we’ve attended. We made many friends, dance for hours on end and felt a part of something so special we didn’t want to come home. If you’re into electronic music, this should be at the top of your list of festivals for 2017; you can thank me on the dancefloor.

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