Overview

Shambala is a mythical, magical Place where peace and harmony can be found by any human, animal or plant which goes there.
‘Shambala!’ – festival people, a greeting, 1000 parties, a salute, a new word to chant. It was my first time at the Shambala Festival and I really hope it won’t be my last. I’ve not been to a festival like this in a long long time. For me last year’s Beautiful Days was a perfect little festival but Shambala this year made me realise how much was missing from that.

Before I expound at great lengths about how wonderful it was I’d like to get the only bad point out of the way. They just don’t have enough catering there. Not that I’m complaining Thali and Chai tents both provided wholesome food and the Jerk Chicken was lovely from the Unity stall, when they could get it together to supply you with it, an hour wait on Sunday really brought me down, and I blame them for the rain which followed. My advice is to take your own food and save yourself a lot of queuing.

There was actually another negative side, but this could hardly be directed at the organisers. Wasps invaded us; to the extent there were jokes plastered up about them. When I spoke to the medical tent they said the main thing they had dealt with were wasp stings. Everywhere you went the little blighters were there, invading beer cans, buzzing over food and creating mayhem as kids screamed and parents writhed to get away from them.

Okay so that’s the downside, but where do I start with the upside? It was a well organised site with a family campsite on the more peaceful hillside and main camping on the valley, merging into the main arena areas. The centrepiece of this being the teepee circle - a gloriously peaceful area in the middle of the action. Behind the main camping was the live in vehicle accommodation and it was all only a few steps from something happening.



And happening it was! Not only did the main stage provide a wealth of music to suit all tastes. From reggae and ska to a tribal dressed band from Zimbabwe to hip hop. And to top it all off Palookaville, a great rockabilly band, closed the main stage on Sunday night.

Just downfield from the Main Stage was the Parlour Deluxe Bar not only a cocktail bar but also the grooviest sets from various DJ’s to get you boogieing to the bar for a handful of Red Stripe or an exotic cocktail. And for those of us 24-hour dancing party people you could just dance, dance, dance all day long.



The Dome and the Dance Workshop Tent provided a day full of energising workshops in tai chi type exercises to work out those muscles as well as drumming workshops and dance classes before putting on some serious dance DJs to get the tent jumping.

More laid back was the Rebel Soul stage that played host to comedian Rob Newman on the opening night and on Sunday held a garden party to celebrate GM free Britain. At other times folk could be sampled as well as Opera lessons, how to Subvertise and was a great place to chill out for a while. In the evening Ilodica and the hilariously funny Cassette Boy were just two of an energetic line up.

Then there was the Bedouin Tent with its intimate atmosphere, which again played host to many diverse acts. Once the stage music had died away the Bedouin kept going all night long, with various musical factions drumming and singing and dancing until they eventually merged into one glorious surging beat to take you through the night until dawn.

During the day you could also relax in the Sacred Space healing fields with a massage, sample a few therapies, take an edible food woodland walk, try out yoga, learn juggling skills or just chill on the giant grass sofa or in the sculpture gardens. The whole place had a very mellow, relaxing atmosphere far more tranquil than any other healing field at any festival this year.

Beyond it was (if you were prepared to risk venturing through the ‘scary children’ maze on the Saturday night that was full of zombies and inanimate girls with their throats cut you’d escape into the circus field. Here during the day you could relax in the long grass and watch juggling and circus skills and at night get there early to find a good viewing point to watch the spectacular stage shows, with ambient music and big screens. With both the fire ritual on the Sunday and the Circus Theatre performance on Saturday packing out the surrounding fields.



But music and dance weren’t the only things on offer: a cinema kept kids, parents and the occasional party goer in need of Simpson’s sanity occupied with cartoons until lunch and played host to various films from Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 to frankly bizarre art house films projected to an audience of bemused tripped out adults at night.

Talking of kids, Shambala has loads for them to do, including a great idea of making site art (lanterns to light the circus field at night) as well as the usual dressing up for processions and a lot of workshops. With a host of things to do for the older teens and a few fortunetellers and a bizarre sprawling football match thrown in for good measure. Like Beautiful Days the kids’ zone is not fenced off and instead merged and part of the festival, which means adults and kids can relax far more and each can find the other with ease.



With a few stalls scattered about to sell the last minute fancy dress costume or accessory one of the biggest attractions of Shambala has to be the fancy dress. Everyone is in it. To be there for the first time and see crowds full of people – some of whom have created fantastic costumes are just a joy and bizarre conversations followed all night. The following day many still wore their costumes and it made the place more of a party, if that’s possible.

Why such a party? Well because wherever you went you were close to one. As our hosts would say each night after the last band on the stages would finish it’s our festival go find a party or make one. Well everyone sure did. When I spoke to the info people on the Saturday they said performers and artists just kept arriving to appear somewhere on site over the weekend and he’d lost track of how many there were!

There were makeshift stages, huddles of drummers, wandering guitarists, ravey stereos, dancing party people, designated fires to sit around (well placed I might add, with wood supplied by the organisers), mushroom tables and chairs to chill at, Chai wigwams, and even a back stage bar, which the organisers hid rather than actually putting it back stage, with a little stage, live tunes and real beer available into the wee hours.

The campsites were friendly, you made friends with you neighbours, people cared for people, there was instant community, strangers stopped to chat and you lost hours passing time, there were no big names you had to see, no timetables to follow, you just saw something going on from a workshop to a couple of hippies dancing and if you wanted to you just joined in.



I’m fairly sure some parts of the site never stopped, with people stumbling across a happening and joining in, eventually moving on to be replaced by others. This is the true festival spirit and to create it in a festival without sponsorship or advertising is a huge credit to the organisers. With a real festival vibe, a happy feeling and safety and security not an issue.

Of course this could have been down to the presence of two of Devon and Cornwall’s constabulary, well they may have been fancy dress – who knows and they joined in with taking photos and watching bands. Tents were left open, possessions put down to be retrieved hours later, still there. It’s from a bygone age, if any of you are fans of Russell comics I have done it, I have found the lost festival it’s called Shambala - but keep it secret, keep it safe!

Shambala!

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