overview

One of the most perfect family friendly festivals we’ve been to, Out There - Bracknell Festival 2004 was a perfect follow up to recharge after the mudfest of Glastonbury the week before. A well organised site which includes an Art Centre and various indoor and outdoor stages, it’s set up so that we could happily leave our eight year old playing and know it would be easy to find her in this well laid out circular site.

Out There thrilled us over three days with a brilliant line-up of international music that included the explosive Ozomatli, plus Lemon Jelly and Nitin Sawhney as headliners. Added to this was an excellent programme of circus, theatre, multimedia, street theatre and site-specific installations all set in South Hill Park’s stunning 18th century mansion and grounds. All that may sound sprawling but amazingly it was all within a stone’s throw of the entrance.



Having been hailed as the ‘future of music’ by Carlos Santana, Ozomatli brought their booming multi-cultural block party from the streets of LA to the stately surroundings of South Hill Park on the Friday and it was a wonderful end to the first day and with their trademark procession through the crowd they ended the first day on a high.



Taking over on Saturday night were BRIT award nominees Lemon Jelly with their playful brand of dance music, backdrop visuals and a few new tunes. Though they had to apologise for keeping the kids up before playing Nice Weather For Ducks and they had the biggest crowd of the weekend.

After a heavy downpour the sun returned for one of only two confirmed live summer dates for Nitin Sawhney, headliner on the final day of the festival. Many people left after the rain and missed a wonderfully intimate performance to close the tree fringed main stage. It was a glorious set with a host of special guests and a wonderful close to a lovely weekend.



Other music highlights included DJ sets from Gilles Peterson and Jerry Dammers, contemporary soul from Detroit native Amp Fiddler, Grand Central Records answer to Beth Orton Kate Rogers, plus the superb Quantic Soul Orchestra, Ninja Tune’s refreshing down tempo artist Bonobo in a packed Cellar Bar and the magpie punk funk of label mates Pest which attracted a crowd of happy revellers to dance through the rain.

Music was only a small part of the festival experience at Out There where an equally exciting programme of circus, theatre, multimedia, street theatre and cool installations were on throughout the weekend. Where else could you see a band like Lemon Jelly finish and then be amongst the wondrous 4 metre high inflated characters of Quidams’ Rêve d’Herbert? One of the highlights of the weekend for us, the giant inflatable characters really wowed the audience and delighted the kids who were still chattering about the “snowmen” the next day. A collision between Bantu culture and contemporary performance, Nzi Dada’s Ritual Imaginaire combined live music and powerful physical ritual with atmospheric lighting, sampled sound and sculpture. We may not have known what was happening but it was great to watch!



Inspired performances were provided by Mimbre with their wonderfully acrobatic new show Trip-tic, the extraordinary life-size puppets of Moving People, and highly acclaimed companies such as Ridiculusmus, Avanti Display, 16 piece Columbian circus troupe Circo para Todos and the Gogmagogs plus cabaret programmes from Circus Space and Continental Drifts cabaret.

On the closing day of the festival acclaimed street theatre company The Strangelings took over the grounds by staging a Baker’s Revolt! A tongue-in-cheek performance in which modern politics was replaced by a new order based purely on bread, with bakers traversing a high wire over the crowds spreading the message “bake your own bread”.

In addition to the standard festival site art of flags and sculptures there was a meandering trail through painted trees and a fire path at dusk. The mansion has a maze garden and this was wonderfully lit with Chinese lanterns at night. Moving around site was a breeze with plenty of seating, a wonderfully manicured lawn and sail like sculptures to rest under.



Out There catered brilliantly for families; Jan’s van for the kids to paint, a Troy maze, Circus Space’s circus skills workshops, Puppet Shows and Clowns, craft activities from Reasons2Bcheerful, tiny tots play area and on Sunday afternoon a Children’s Parade complete with Chinese dragon. All this plus a bubble making taxi and the on site playground!

The grounds themselves featured an ornamental lake with swans and cygnets, an Italian garden and landscaped wooded areas. A short walk away was the free camping area, which was friendly and secure. In addition to enjoying the festival artists, Out There provided a few food stalls (although a bit limited they were delicious) plus the chance to chill out with some alternative therapies such as Indian head massage, reflexology and crystal healing. There were numerous bars with reasonably priced beers (£2.20) and lagers (£2.60) plus jugs of Pimms. Purple Turtle Beer Company provided one of the bars complete with a small stage offering fantastic live music and the Vodka Lemon Jellies were a treat. The Cellar Bar although small also hosted some great live acts as did the Wilde Theatre and kids were welcome in to enjoy the performances.

The whole weekend was wonderful with many more people coming on Saturday and Sunday, as Day Tickets were also available. A heavy downpour on the Sunday reduced numbers for Nitin Sawnhey’s set although it was a wonderfully intimate performance to close the tree fringed main stage. With a weekend ticket costing £55 the whole festival is well worth going to if you have kids with or without the family.

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