overview

I've been going to GuilFest for a few year's now, and each year the festival is quietly making improvements and adding more entertainment to this great weekend festival.

Take for instance the big thing of last year was the fact the organisers moved over to posh loos, and that all went a bit awry. Well most festivals would have reverted back to the original toilets, but not GuilFest, they persevered and this year they worked a treat.



But there's other things too, the slowly improving line-ups on the smaller stages, combine nicely with the new acts GuilFest prides itself on year on year. Okay so the stages were housed in less grandiose tents this year – but the white marquees made them brighter, and stages had hay bales in to sit on, a nice touch.

The reason for the hay bales is another new addition a barn dance held as late night entertainment, and if that's not your thing, there's always the late night comedy, sponsored by eFestivals, which also had daytime performances suitable for kids. Talking of which, it was good to see so many families and children attending the festival again this year. The festival caters to people of all ages, and our teenage daughter was also kept entertained with the choice of acts, her favourite of the weekend being Bowling For Soup.

This year the camp site opened earlier and so with that came a late night disco playing classic punk tunes and a cafe in the camp site serving breakfast and coffee to those of us outside the arena.

There still seemed to be a few too few loos, but in fact asking all of our family, reveals none of us ever queued for the loo all weekend, in the camp site, and the water points were all working. The atmosphere in the camp site was lively but not overpowering or troublesome in the main. However at one point I returned to our tent, to discover someone that wasn't our neighbours in their tent. They scarpered quickly as I'd disturbed them, but I do get disappointed by this rash of festivals being targeted by thieves on the first night.

I often muse over possible solutions that organisers can instigate, but considering the site was well lit, the only thing I guess is to add to security, it took me ages to find one to report it on the night, and she didn't seem that bothered.

Anyway that's my only gripe over a pretty lovely weekend, and it does seem to happen at all festivals this year. In the arena itself the real ale on offer, soon had me relaxed in a moderate crowd to watch Levellers headline, aided by the Daft Monkeys, and playing more new material, just as they did at their Glastonbury performance a week earlier, the new album sounds like it's them back at their best.



Talking of Glastonbury, I was a little worried that with GuilFest moving to the week after the Somerset event, it would lead me to feel a bit burnt out. But no, if anything it was a pretty perfect way to continue the festival summer experience.

The line-up was full of interesting little gems, particularly on the second stage on Saturday, where we treated to a trio of festie dance acts with Wobbly Squadron, Sonic Boom Six, and Babyhead, before Richie Havens, The Aliens and an excellent finale of Bowling For Soup.

Combine this with a bit of Kula Shaker, Dodgy, and Blondie and it's one of the most entertaining days a music fan can have. However, there was even more music to be savoured further a field where Go:Audio, festival favourites Macavitys Cat, and Two Fingers Of Firewater, plus youngsters Essay For The Ordinary, and blimey that's a great day's entertainment, which more than made up for our late arrival due to school and traffic on the Friday.

However two of the acts I wanted to see on Friday KizMit and Rhizomes only went and turned up on the bill at the UnisonZone on the Saturday too and gave storming performances. I was delighted that the Unison tent had chances to see some of the main acts like Dodgy, acoustic and up close over the weekend. Plus of course some important politics, and the Tony Benn speech about trying to save the NHS from the circling corporate vultures was well attended.



Sunday saw rain in the morning, keeping us under canvas and able to snooze in cool tents, we missed the Rock Choir, and packed up the tent ready for the journey home at the end of the festival instead. The drizzle meant we avoided the main open stage, preferring to listen to acts in the other end of the festival, one traditionally proliferated by the younger age range, but I was surprised to see it much more mixed a crowd in terms of attendees this year. Another Friday act Avondale 45 play in the Unison Zone, and Volcanoes and Doctor Pop keep us entertained, plus a bit of theatre in the theatre tent and some acoustic tunes in the University of Surrey Acoustic Lounge.

The kids field seemed to be bustling with activity, and kids buzzed around with cardboard and glitter creations. The David Beckham arena appeared a little less busy whenever I wandered passed. The tipi field behind it looked pretty cool though.

While we spend more time at this end of the festival we're distracted by the market stalls, and by the wealth of food options available, all of it top nosh, even the burger vans are selling great burgers. There's everything from churos, and mezze, to Moroccon, or Indian, pizza, fish & chips, vegetarian, and more. It's a bit expensive and far too tasty, and with beer at £3.50 a pint we do find that we have to take more money than we budgeted for from the cash point, but we didn't begrudge it as we had a day of Dreadzone, Simon Friend, From The Jam, Seth Lakeman, and The Australian Pink Floyd to look forward to.



They all delivered, I missed Frank Turner, and Enjoy Destroy. At one point I did wonder about the merits of a tribute act as a headliner, but they really pulled off a great show, adding Aussie humour with the tuning radio segue in 'Wish You Were Here' including The Neighbours theme, we're slightly disappointed by the no show of their giant inflatable kangaroo, but it was pretty windy, the flags decorating the arena had been removed some days ago due to the high breezes.

My only other gripe is the fact that the ale runs out again far too early on the Sunday, for those of us who don't like babycham (Brothers Perry), or lager, it makes for a sobering end to proceedings. But as I searched for other drinking options at the Pimms bus and Tequila bar it gave me the opportunity to chat to a disabled festival goer who was enthusiastic about the amount of infrastructure on offer for those with disabilities.



Clearly Saturday was the busiest day with a sizeable crowd for both Blondie, and Bowling for Soup, and the crowd numbers were decent all weekend, I think the weather helped, we had some protracted periods of sun, and only a short burst of rain on Sunday, just before Seth Lakeman to contend with.

Incidentally it was he, who I felt, gave the performance of the weekend, no surprise his new album, 'Poor Man's Heaven' debuted the same day in the UK's top 10 album charts.

We were expecting to be in a traffic jam for ages to get off site, but nope, we were on the road out of Guildford almost immediately. The only surprise was that I hadn't gone swimming this year, my vertigo meant I didn't fancy the diving boards, and the fun side of the Spectrum was closed for repair, ironically if the festival had been on its usual week the leisure pool would have been open.



The festival made for a wonderful relaxing way to unwind post Glastonbury, and I'd like to thank all those who programmed the stages, as there was some great entertainment over the weekend. Well done to the litter and loo crews who kept the place clean, the friendly stewards, and the laid back policing.

A big thanks to festival organiser Tony Scott and his team and all those there who made it such a relaxing, friendly atmosphere. I'm looking forward to seeing how the festival is improved further next year, I don't doubt it will be, despite it all running so smoothly this year.

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