Saturday overview

The rain of the previous days had abated as we arrived and parked up in the quite empty car park, we carried our stuff in through the gates and pitched up in a fairly empty campsite. Before strolling down into the arena as it opened. The site was immaculate with no mud to be seen and we wandered around the site, bemused by the lack of people.

The site had a fun fair at one end, and a figure eight of stalls running through the middle, before arriving at the Live Arena and the Air Breaks/Soulwax Arena, the former running it on the Saturday and the latter the Sunday. Further up the hill behind the Live Arena was the Hospitality Area with it’s own HedKandi Tent.

We decided that we’d check out the Dance Arenas (big tents) before the start of the live stage. There was still no one about! The Electric and Movement (Drum and Base) were very close together but only the former had anyone in it – and we spotted our first eFestivals t-shirt!

After a quick hello, we wandered on passed the outdoor arena PunchFunk – the only one with a traditional sit in the sun festival feel and it’s line up boasted local DJ talent. Before heading into the legendary Godskitchen – which had already started and also contained a few keen dancers. The overall feel is that it’s desserted and with the mist and dour weather the overall feeling is that we’ve come to the graveyard of dance music.

We completed our circuit of the festival arena by returning to the Live Arena next door to se the first live act Director. The crowd is tiny, but it is early doors. They play melodic indie anthems and will be gaining a following to assault the indie charts by the end of the summer.

The set is short and the numbers outside and in have doubled as we head back over to Godskitchen where Mark Eteson has a sizeable crowd, larger than that of Director all dancing happily away in Godskitchen. Mark Knight is starting folks off in the Electric Arena which also could be a rival to win the award for the largest audience.

By 4.30pm new boys Kharma45 take to the live stage and suddenly the festival is starting to liven up. They’re very lively and sure to be the next Snow Patrol. Nic Fanclulll is getting the Electric Arena hotting up and there’s so much smoke pouring out from behind him it looks like smoke grenades have gone off! This effectively recreates our drive to the festival and it’s so foggy you can hardly see the light rigs. Sander Van Doorn in Godskitchen is testing the soundsystem by providing the thumps and whooshes to punctuate our wander about outside. Only the Drum and Bass has to get going now, but hardcore fans are starting to get it on there.

Danny Howells takes over the decks in the Electric Arena, as the heavens open up outside and rain pours down making the entrances to each Arena muddy in minutes. Danny rubs his arms motioning he’s a little chilly in his T-shirt and as the Hi Fi logo swirls on the screen beside him he livens us up with some samba beats and the crowd sure are warm now.

We’d like to have stayed but Go! Team are about to start and the largest tent on site is looking pretty full. The band tear through most of the album Thunder, Lightning, Strike and get the crowd dancing with irrepressible energy. They start the festival proper with a great high energy performance which has the crowd happy.

We wander out of the arena crossing the site to the Air Breaks Arena to see Soul of Man but instead it is Ali B who we watch finishing in style and Evil Nine blow us away! Wow, they are mental oriental! From the start it was hardcore dirty excellence and from then on we were hooked on this tent. Returning all night, again and again and had the best crowd in it too, friendly and not to zombied or hardcored to the point of scary.

As we walked back to see Super Furry Animals in the Live Arena part of me didn’t want to leave the Air Breaks Arena and there were spots of blue sky poking through the cloud and we felt the sun briefly and SFA didn’t disappoint and were fun and on musical form. Delightful psychedelia and they prepare us for a wonderful night.

We decide to risk heading for the Movement Arena for some Drum and Bass for Fabio and Grooverider and after Kanye West and some pretty hardcore looking members of the crowd and feeling slightly overwhelmed by how jumpin’ the place is we retreat to catch Mylo, the tents are all pretty full now and there’s lots of people milling about the festival site. He plays the set of the night and is my highlight outshining the Live Arena headliners Hard Fi. They appear to be flavour of the month but only have one killer tune, they play it last and we walk away singing, ‘Living for the Weekend.’

As the Live Arena closes for the night the dance arenas are just starting to get into gear. So we head for Air Breaks again and discover ‘The Freestylers’ playing live. Wow dance music with real drum fills, mmmm scrummy. Great scratching and great rapping and a top tune in ‘Another Place, Another Time’ we wait for Scratch Perverts and wait and get hungry and cold and as the timings go out the window we listen to a bit more Kanye West as the Perverts get the crowd’s hands in the air and chanting along.

After a wander about the tight arena (we hear it’s smaller than the Homelands site) sampling the delights of each tent we plump for Godskitchen and Ferry Corstan although we did rather like Eric Prydz rather fantastic visuals!

By the time Judge Jules hits we are feeling wiped out lightweights (well it’s our first festie of 2006, we’re unused to it) so we make for our tent to crash out listening to the monumental soundsystem in Movement and the sounds of Planet Pendulum’s drum’n’bass.

However we didn’t get much sleep as every five minutes noisy, buzzsaw inanity carved through the night with it’s aggressive tinged edge as revellers kept going (pointlessly) all night. And it was only as the tents warmed at silly o’clock that the stereos started up to hide the mindless banter despite nothing being open ‘til 1pm and the first acts not being billed before 2pm

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