Levellers top a beautiful opening day of Lakefest

Lakefest 2013

Friday 9th to Sunday 11th August 2013
Croft Farm Waterpark, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, GL20 7EE, England MAP
£79 for the weekend

Daily capacity: 3,500

With the sun in the sky, and the car packed for the weekend, I made the journey to Tewkesbury, the home of Lakefest. About 2 miles out of town we easily found Croft Farm Waterpark, a beautiful site to hold a little festival

We managed to find a camping spot right next to the lake, with a view of the festival on the opposite side of the lake, and the Malvern hills in the distance back to the west. This was easily the most beautiful view from my tent I have ever had at a festival.

After pitching the tent, having a little bimble around and finding some tasty food, we had a little sit down beside the main stage tent, in the glorious sunshine. With a reasonably priced cider in hand, it was a delight to see how clean the festival site was looking. The bars were only serving drinks in plastic tankards which cost £1.50 each, and they were then being reused by everybody. The knock on effect being a pristine rubbish free site, which always goes a long way in making it an enjoyable weekend.

Already onstage when we found a nice spot to lounge were Erica, who after having a few technical issues, did a great job of kicking off Lakefest for me. They are an Indie pop band with a great deal of potential, their stunning chord progressions filling the summer air. One of the real treats of the day for me was to follow. Baka Beyond are a stunning band with African beat percussion, and a Celtic infusion in the strings. They are veterans of making people dance at festivals, and this was my first time listening to them. They showed exactly why they are still getting bookings 20 years later, everyone watching was powerless, they had no choice but to get up and dance.

After a captivating set, we decided to go find the toilets, (all weekend they proved to be the cleanest best kept toilets at any festival I have attended) and got drawn into the Guildhall stage, by something a bit more contemporary. Novella Noise were ‘Bringing The Noise’ to the sedate Lakefest, a band that draw comparisons for me to Enter Shikari and Hadouken!. I think these boys have a big future, they kept me in the tent for their whole set, which was full of fire and aggression. They could easily step up to bigger stages.

After getting all pumped up, we took a little amble down to the lakeside, wandering through the brilliant kids field, with a designated swimming area, and checked out all the watersports available. We opted to take a little trip out on a pedalo, and sat in the middle of the lake with a few drinks and a bite to eat whilst watching the world go b. We could still hear some of the performances from our mini ship, and with the sun dropping low in the sky it provided a beautiful back drop to the music.

Arriving back on dry land we looked round the various stalls and found the Tiny Planet stall. Coming from a music producing background, it was clear to see they were here to party. Bringing with them a big sound system that pumped out some great festival classics, and soon they had a crowd big enough to almost warrant being billed as a stage. Selling jewellery and a new brand line of underwear entitled ‘Tiny Cock’ it was one of the stalls which totally epitomized the friendly vibe at the festival, with the current fashion of men walking around with the waistband of there underwear showing it brought a huge grin to my face seeing many a man walking round with theirs displaying the tiny cock logo.

Duke Special were the next band I caught, the Irish Tim Minchin maybe? With a great sense of humor and a great commandment of the piano, yet again Lakefest, another great booking, with some really good material, a nice warm voice and a percussionist using a cheese grater and a whisk. What could you not love about this performance?

Another little wander about the compact site led to finding a snow cone stall, selling alcoholic ice slushies, which were sublime on the warm summer's night. Vodka lime and lemon slushies, with the drinks topped up there was only one thing for it, the Levellers, Lakefest's Saturday night headliners, and boy did they pick them wisely!

Coming on early to give extra time for their set, they turned the clock back. The tent was a full pulsating dancing mass of bodies moving to their singalong songs, with another 800 people enjoying the warm night sat outside listening. Bringing out all the crowd pleasing songs the audience were baying for, their set truly ended ‘A Beautiful Day’.

review by: Jamie Licence