Saturday review

Like Axel said, every rose has it's thorn, and alas no long lie-in is possible on Saturday this weekend as taking place just the other side of the fence from my tent at Donington park is the British Superbike Championship. It makes it's high-octane (and high volume) presence felt early on, and remains a loud neighbour for the duration. Still, it means plenty of time for breakfast and things like gaffa-taping up the rips in my tent from the previous year, and for once, I'm in front of the mainstage when the opening act strikes up and drowns out the motorbikes.

Acoustic folkies Kerfuffle are a fresh-faced treat and have a maturity that belies their years, they're followed by equally talented young folk artist Ruth Notman. Warming up nicely to the vibe and the sunshine some faster paced ska from Los Albertos would have gone down well but it wasn't to be - for some malreason they never showed, and so John Redfern stepped in and supplied some Neil Young-esque guitar/harmonica tunes.



The tempo picks up somewhat with a visit indoors to watch East of Ealing on the barn stage, who, as the name suggests, are an eclectic mix of musical styles from all over, delivered with deft poltical lyricry. Outside on the mainstage Achanak are pure eastern high-tempo banghra and they finally get the swollen saturday crowd jumping around as the evening twilight descends, and the mood is well set for the saturday night headliners.



Appearing for the second time in recent years, Transglobal Underground waste no time maintaining the pace and then crank it up a notch into a trance-inspiring whirl of dhol drum, sparkling sitar and layers of dancy synth and bass, it's impossible to stand still and the set flies by - in what seems like no time at all the band are taking a bow after an encore and the outdoor entertainment is all over for the day.



The beats however continue into the night, indoors with Banco de Gaia (Toby Marks), back for another of his individual sets blending a mix of world and dance influences to get the feet moving on the dance floor and visual projections if (like me) you only have the energy left for watching from the sidelines.

Friday review >>
Sunday review >>

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