crowds are delighted to see GuilFest return with a dry start

GuilFest 2014

Friday 18th to Sunday 20th July 2014
Stoke Park, Guildford, Surrey, England MAP
£120 weekend with camping, child 12-17 £85, u12s free

Daily capacity: 25,000

Poor ticket sales have been the death of many small and medium sized festivals across the UK recently. Bad weather and the recession have been the main culprits for this heinous crime and one of the the country's best-loved family festivals became one of the highest profile casualties last year. Long-term eFestivals favourite GuilFest was cancelled after a difficult event in 2012 and was subsequently replaced by Magic Summer Live. Global heavyweights Live Nations were named as promoters and huge middle-of-the-road acts such as Bryan Adams and Joss Stone were announced, leaving many Guildfordians feeling that it was a soulless replacement for the festival that graced the town for 20 years. However following a winter of hard campaigning, festival founder and director Tony Scott's application to resurrect GuilFest was approved, sealing a major victory for festival-lovers nationwide

Guildford held its collective breath after a night of thunderstorms and lightning on the eve of the festival and a wretched forecast for the weekend. Memories of the Stoke Park quagmire of 2012 came to the forefront and many would have been forgiven for good old-fashioned British pessimism. Thankfully come Friday morning the ground stayed bone-dry, the Sun made a Lord Flasheart style entrance and lengthy queues started forming outside the entrance and box-office. GuilFest was back. Woof!

The famous old set-up remained, familiar stalls were proudly operating and the empowering Main Stage stood proudly in the roasting sunshine. Australian sisters Echo and The Empress helped kick off proceedings with their brand of indie-pop including the hauntingly uplifting 'One More Tear' and Graceland-esque 'London Town'. Following on were the even more summery The Hoosiers. The Reading collective showcased material from new album 'The News From Nowhere' as well as the more recognisable 'Goodbye Mr A' and 'Worried About Ray'. Diminutive frontman Irwin Sparke's on-stage jokes about seeing GuilFest posters on the 63 bus in his hometown when Jools Holland performed 'ten years in a row' (citation needed) were also a welcome relief from the sticky heat. This was hardly Radiohead but nonetheless it was a triumphant start to the festival.

One of GuilFest's most popular tents has been the Vive Le Rock Stage, also known as the punk tent. “We're the The Brompton Mix and play rock 'n' roll” was the announcement from one of the openers, crushing the wishes of those hoping to hear traditional Albanian folk music. The raw and increasingly intense 'Somebody To Love' set the tone and a cover of Etta James 'I Just Want To Make Love To You' ensured that the Woking four-piece added a few more admirers in their home county. It was a similar tale for Guildford's Paper Boats, playing the Good Time Guide Stage, also known as the 2nd Stage. Despite a hardcore following at the front, the band were more The La's than Converge, performing melodic tracks about treehouses and meeting girls in the summertime most notably showcased through the 80s inspired 'Holiday'.

Friday at GuilFest is notoriously the quietest of the three days, but there were still a healthy mass of revellers flamboyantly jigging in the Funk End dance tent, lapping up a beverage or seven outside the Pimms bus or raising a hearty salute to their young ones frivolously enjoying the attractions in the popular Kids Zone. After being suitably tanked on the enigmatic GuilFest bitter, it was time to venture back to the Main Stage to check out the always enjoyable Fun Lovin' Criminals. The New Yorkers are no strangers to the festival having performed in 2002 and were keen to bring their fusion of jazz and 'rap rock' back to Stoke Park. Early hits such as 'King of New York', 'Scooby Snacks' and 'Love Unlimited', their ode to Barry White, were reeled off to a rapturous ovation with frontman Huey Morgan's gravelly vocals as sexually-charged as ever. The set ended with a rendition of the 'Happy Birthday' song to their trombonist Jay before a warming cover of Louis Armstrong's 'We Have All The Time In The World'.

Following a fun-filled wait in the Big Cheese Cave for Empress AD's as yet unexplained no-show, local hero Jamie Lenman graced the alternative stage with his Heavy Mellow Band. During the soundcheck the guitarist joked that the microphone was 'actually electrocuting his face' a perfect description of flesh-melting explosion of noise to come. Dressed head to toe in trademark gentlemanly attire, hardcore hits such as 'Fizzy Blood' and 'Song For Saturday' were thrashed out. On the rare occasion a softer song such as 'Ain't Your Boy' was performed, Lenman was keen to get back to the 'bone-crushing seriousness'. The former Reuben frontman also tickled the sweaty crowd with his past GuilFest experiences giving shout-outs to Lipton Ice and chuckling about schoolboy-like mischief by Hampshire heroes Vex Red rearranging the letters on a former tent to spell out a profanity. Following a chance to hear the debut performance of 'Crimson' with his old bandmate, Lenman launched into the violently happy 'Six Fingered Hand', before undoubtedly tidying his dandily primmed moustache as he left his podium.

Seeing out the first night on The Good Time Guide Stage were the brilliant Public Service Broadcasting. Peering out behind a stack of old television sets surrounded by laptops and projectors, the corduroy coated three piece wowed the crowd with their breathtaking visuals and snippets of dialogue from old public information films to an instrumental backdrop. The tense and haunting 'London Can Take It All' and the all-out rocky onslaught of 'Signal 30' drew in crowds praying for a more innovative sideshow than fellow headliners Boomtown Rats, and Sham 69.

Public Service Broadcasting famously do not speak on-stage, instead miming gestures, leaving the on-stage banter to a talking laptop with a dainty Edwardian accent. The comical long pauses between the pre-programmed recital of the phrase 'We always wanted to play' and the word 'GuilFest' drew in reams of laughter. Signature tune 'Theme from PSB' and 'Night Mail' were sandwiched between a fatherly inquisition by the aforementioned laptop, asking if the crowd were behaving themselves. While most of the tracks were from debut album 'Inform, Educate, Entertain', the band did dabble into the ever popular genre of ice-skating songs in Dutch. J Willgoose Esquire's banjo-laden riffs and Wrigglesworth's percussion-corner complimented each other perfectly as the light rain fell. 'Spitfire' and the homage to colour television 'ROYGBIV' were played before the band brought on a brass section to the inspirational 'Everest' to end a truly colossal performance.

review by: Neil Manrai