opening day of GoGo is a breath of fresh air as far as "Lesbian" festivals go

Billed as "Europe's Biggest Women's Weekender, The Event of 2011", GOGO Festival at Headcorn Aerodrome in Kent between 17th-19th June was a breath of fresh air as far as "Lesbian" festivals go.

First there was the initial excitement - the planning, the packing, the driving there (which took 3 hours from Birmingham) the buzz about seeing Uh Huh Her, BETTY and feasting upon the 50 live acts the website boasts about. Wowwhee, there was even a comedy stage/dance tent!

BUT it was all a bit of a let down and just didn't live up to expectations. For a start headliners Uh Huh Her pulled out at the last minute. The band released a statement explaining the due to illness they would not be able to perform on the Thursday, and the festival announced the news on their Facebook page saying: "The GO.GO team knows this will be disappointing news to some festival goers, and we're as disappointed as you are, but we wish Camila Grey a speedy recovery."

The organisation was muddled when the Mrs and me arrived onsite. First we were forced to the weekend camping car park through the quagmire of mud with the anti skid controls going mental. I left the car running to see if we were in the right place, to be told a whole 15 mins later "Oh you can park on the day car park if you're press". So off we went again, my poor white car now brown with sludge, to the day car park this time, which luckily for us was just across the way from the stage.

We got to the gate, explained we were press and we were greeted with "the press area isn't open for another two hours so you'll have to stay there or wait around". Not very professional really is it? After two bouts of torrential rain, with thousands of pounds worth of cameras getting soggy and taking refuge under the ticket gate, we finally got our passes. The joy of festivals eh!

Then came argument number one "You can't come in here with those black wristbands on". What? We can't get to the press tent using the bands and press passes we have been given? How utterly stupid! After telling security on the gate that we had been told to ask for a certain person and they would escort us to the press area, we were let through. When we finally got to the gate that led to the press area we had argument number two, "You shouldn't be here with those black wristbands". To top it all off, two members of GOGO staff decided to have a heated debate about whether they should let us in that way.

Usually press areas are well kitted out - electric points, tables, chairs, coffee/tea on tap, sometimes refreshments, and somewhere where you can shelter your camera from the rain. The press tent had no electric! How on earth are you supposed to charge your camera batteries up and power your laptop to transfer the thousands of images you have taken? Also, as time went by, makeup artists and some of the acts stole our chairs until we had nothing but a muddy sofa to sit on. This would never happen at any of the other festivals. (It would, some festivals don't even have a press area - Ed).

It sounds like I'm being a right moaner here (possibly), but when you've been press at Isle of Wight Festival, V Festival, Hop Farm Festival and Rewind Festival for years you get used to a certain level of treatment.

ENOUGH MOANING I hear you say, but please just let me carry on! Next up, the weather. The weather had been forecast earlier in the week as rather sunny and warm, but when we got to the weekend it was rather vile welly weather. There were intermittent showers all weekend with Sunday getting rather bad showers at times. Certainly didn't help to lift the mood at all and loads of people didn't even bother to turn up.

The audience numbers were a bit low to say the least, perhaps the weather contributed. GOGO had sold 2,500 tickets, but in actual fact on the Saturday and most part of the Sunday (until Jill Jackson came on). There were massive gulfs between people, from 12 until 6pm there was comedy and workshops under cover, so elsewhere it may have felt busier. The only time it got busy on the Saturday was when BETTY the headliners were on (BETTY headlined both nights due to Uh Huh Her cancelling their appearance). I think most people sheltered in their tents!

What was there to do aside from the music / comedy acts? The answer I feel is not a hell of a lot. There was a climbing wall, a few stalls with refreshments and stalls selling jewellery and other ehhhemmmm items (cant mention these lol). There was also a fun fair, which on Saturday was deserted. Oh and we mustn't forget wing walking if you had a spare few hundred quid in your wallet!

Saturday's line-up was much weaker than Sunday's, and the line-up, on paper, looked lackadaisical, but actually there were some pretty decent bands if you took the time to stop and listen.

Pink Hearse kicked off the festival (nothing really to report there). The next band Hooker was absolutely astounding - kick ass- with stonking tunes that I loved. I've already listened to tracks like 'Dance to the Beat of a Lonely Heart' and 'Alligator' since then and still love the sound.

The other complete gems on Saturday included Chicago based indie rock/alternative threesome The Locals. With rhythmic guitars provided by Vocalist Yvonne Doll, Bassist Chrissy Nunes and bashing drums provided by Kirk Snedeker, they didn't disappoint. It was well worth their trip across the pond to Blighty to show us what they can do. A 30-minute set including tracks from their current EP 'Salt' blew us away. I'm looking forward to seeing them again if ever they decide to take the plunge and come back to the UK.

London based Joan Ov Arc (finalists at Live and Unsigned 2010) gave us a treat with tracks from their new album 'Beneath the Sky'. They play anthemic rock, with a lead guitarist to put Mr Sambora to shame. Whatever you do you must catch this band live.

In my opinion, the amazing Neon Choir was one of the complete diamonds from Saturday's line-up. Fronted by ballsey Amy Sutton, with a cracking voice that cut through the chitter-chatter and captured my attention, this band should be much better known. They have a couple of amazing EP's under their belts 'Animal' and 'To Build and Fall Apart'. I was that gob smacked at how good they were I quickly snapped up their back catalogue whilst I was there and it takes pride of place on my iPod.

Award for craziest band goes to Vinyl Black Stilettos, the electro-punk band hailing from London had the wildest lead singer I’ve ever seen. Miss Laura D wore the sexiest outfit ever, a black leotard covered in steel buckles that glinted in the sun as she sang her heart out, this topped off with boots covered in aluminium foil and way out make up. Songs like 'You Want Her You Love Her', 'The Game', 'The Hook-Up Song' and 'You Like Her Coz She's Sweet', made up the consistency of the set. Jumping about like a frog on acid and having other outlandish band members added to the ensemble. This band were worth seeing, if only for the crazy antics of the lead vocalist. Totally off the wall and mad as a hatter.

Last couple of gems of the day - Manchester's Midas Fall (who have featured on Glasgow based lesbian series Lip Service), which is fronted by Elizabeth Heaton. They have been compared to Massive Attack and have big press followers such as Rock Sound and NME Radio. Their set was mesmerising, and they showcased material from their album 'Eleven, Return and Revert'. I lapped up every ounce of their sound and the sun actually came out whilst they were on stage. Hurrah!

Lastly the manic Heads Hearts, whose music is described as "Electronic Soul", but it just sounded like electro-pop to me. But, anyways, they were bloody awesome, again fronted by another ballsy woman named Amber Taylor-Groves; boy can she give the vocals some clout! We were treated to an upbeat set of 20 minutes where they showcased their latest EP and tracks such as 'Dance Girls Dance', 'Drive Me Home' and 'Get Yourself Another’.

One of the funniest things of the day was a band called Red n Pink, who hail from London. They arrived on stage with an entourage, all dressed up to the nines, only to end up stripping off and pumping and grinding. It was a tad embarrassing at times, especially when both vocalists were practically touching each other up. Not nice!

What with the rain, and mud we didn't venture to the big top that housed a folk/acoustic stage. From a distance it seemed like it got busy when it chucked it down!

The final act we stayed for was Terry Poison, one of Israel's biggest exports. What an odd bunch! The audience certainly got their monies worth whilst they were on stage though. Just their quirkiness and outlandish dress sense was entertaining enough! A bit Goldfrappy in style (okay maybe that's an exaggeration as the vocals weren't that strong) but the music made up for that. A complete bonus was when the lead singer’s boobs kept dropping out of her outfit. What a spectacle!

After having been up since 5am it was just about all we could stomach and BETTY were on again tomorrow anyway. Besides that, batteries were running low and we needed to upload photos from the day to free up space on our digicards! Never been so glad to see a Travelodge in all my life. Thank God we weren't camping!

To say that we were deflated after day one was an understatement. 'The Event of 2011' it wasn't and it didn't measure up to any of our expectations at all, but as you can read the acts were enertaining.

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