overview

Off the Tracks festival makes its 19th return to its regular site outside Donington in Leicestershire proving once again that good things come in small packages.

As usual the menu consists of a broad eclectic mixture of roots, folk and dance/fusion music acts served up in the marquee and old barns that form around the courtyard of the Park Barn Farm venue (a year round Hotel and camping/caravan site more usually frequented by visitors to the adjacent Donington park race circuit) with a side dish of real ale bar and small but colourful and friendly market area. Well established, it attracts a loyal crowd of regulars each year and along with the trippers who come to see their favourite acts it’s as varied a mix of people as the music on offer.

Friday starts slow as the campsite fills through the afternoon and into the evening as people arrive after work and there’s plenty of people preferring to shake the working week out by chilling out around their tents and campers as the sound of Mat Andasun opening the main stage drifts over from the stages in the evening twilight but there’s no rush – it can be a long night at OTT.

It’s well worth being stage-front for the second act – roots reggae band Golty Farabeau and the Red Earth – a new name to me but clearly a veteran reggae campaigner Farabeau (recently relocated from the Seychelles) and his UK band are a delight and get the tent jumping in true reggae style. Next up, Astralasia take us up to the midnight hour and from reggae we switch to ambient dance music which gradually moves up a gear into full-on psy-trance and the crowd stomps and raves along ... to think this was once purely a folk festival. Following on, across the courtyard in the new ‘chill out’ room, Temple Hedz maintain the high dance tempo for an appreciative audience, followed by DJ Matt spinning the discs into the night as the traditional jam session in the bar area provided a more chilled entertainment till the early hours, for those with the stamina.

Saturday dawns rudely with what sounds like high power cars driving permanantly sideways on a skidpan over at the race circuit - the screeching tyres impacting loudly on those camped nearest the track and impossible to sleep through without ear-plugs! No rest for the wicked as they say.

A full bill beckons today with acts from lunchtime onwards but it’s still a no-rush vibe and it’s a time for the singer-songwriters folk element of the festival to soothe the sore heads through the early afternoon. I catch some of the excellent Rory Mcleod’s strummings and musings (looking no worse for his late night jamming in the bar the previous night) and then try out the band in the chill out barn – Echo – who I soon give up on as they’re having equipment problems unfortunately. As evening approaches The Paul Rose band back in the main stage (a carpeted marquee attached to a barn) are a platform for Paul Rose to demonstrate his admirable talents on electric guitar playing blues with the occasional foray into classic rock upping the tempo.

Back in the chillout barn I can’t resist the chance to blow out the previous nights final remaining cobwebs by banging away on Djembe at the (now regular at OTT) Inter-Africa Drum workshop, followed by Emma & the Professor & Jonathon Draper who are a captivating mix of celtic and oriental influences delivered with fine acoustic instrumentation and haunting vocals from Emma Heath – mainstage next year please! A set of marimbas appearing on the mainstage signals the arrival of some african rhythms and a chance to get into a dancing mode with Harare (as the name suggests, from Zimbabwe – home of Jit) and they don’t disappoint with fabulously shiney jit music bringing the audience to their feet.

Headliners Aswad I have to say pass me by a bit – for some reason I can’t get into their brand of poppy reggae and after only two numbers (perhaps not a fair whack I’ll admit) I retreat to the courtyard where the beer is still flowing (and the smoke rising) to listen from a distance. After the mainstage closes many head back to the campsite to sleep or to party on outdoors, but the entertainments continue on into the night with AJ the DJ in the chill out barn spinning world grooves, and another jam session in the bar. Colourful drunken characters come and go and the babble of conversation and laughter continues till dawn (which doesn’t come early at this time of year).

Sunday has just what you might call a ‘hangover schedule’ with a short programme of acts on the mainstage from lunchtime closing at 4.30 and I nearly don’t bother this time, but I’m glad I do for Chris Jagger's Atcha! because this is finishing things with a bang, not a whimper, which is how it should be done in my humble opinion. It’s hard to pin down their style but I’m liking the terms ‘mumbo blues’ and ‘Zydo funk’ a lot! They bring a big grin to my face and even get a number of people on their feet and rocking along which after two nights of OTT is no mean achievement by any means – a real treat.

Hats off to the organisers for putting it all together and see you in the spring.

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