A festival in the sun with periods of rain. Long, long, periods of rain

So it is the August Bank Holiday and it's a big one of the festival season. I have Leeds or Reading to choose from, and a Facebook Quiz even tells me that Creamfields would be my ideal festival. Even with 3 big players on, the weekend is full of plenty of small and medium affairs, but I choose my annual pilgrimage to Solfest in Cumbria.

So with my 17 year old daughter in tow we make our way from Manchester, up through the gorgeous Lake District, to the site of the festival. The site is situated on the edge of the Lakes and a couple of miles from the Solway Firth and across the water in the distance can be seen the hills of Dumfries and Galloway.

Getting to the site was a mission due to a scheduled road closure close to the site, but it just added to the fun. Once on site camping is a breeze as Solfest allows camping with your vehicle, a thing which would seem a Health and Safety nightmare but works incredibly well. I attend a few festivals over the year and camping with your car is a rare sight to behold. But you have to take the rough with the smooth at Solfest, whilst you can camp with your car expect also that you may be blocked in all weekend. It may look scenic when you arrive on site and have gone to bed happy, but you will wake in the morning to a sea of tents and guy ropes.

The festival does provide a car park near the main gate for those that need to be on and off site without hindrance. The campsites have the usual noisy, quiet and family areas, as well as a very scenic overspill site overlooking a tarn. Even with what seems a sprawling site the furthest anyone had to walk to the main entrance was around 1000 yards. The main campsites are well supplied with toilets and water points, but the overspill sites less so. The main arena has all of the usual attributes with a main sage, dance area, acoustic area, healing fields and kids area etc. Unusually for a festival of this size (8,000 ticket sales), there is a lot included in the entertainment on the field from walkabouts to bars to Egyptian dancers, far more for me to cover without missing something, so I will briefly describe my weekend instead.

As we had arrived on the Tuesday we put ourselves to work helping get people on site, but unfortunately as well we also saw that the weather conditions were to be a tad wet. The weather forecast for the festival was to be sunny with periods of rain. Long, long, periods of rain. The festival itself was not to start until the Friday but the gates to the camping were opened on the Thursday afternoon to let on eager punters. Thankfully the torrential rain in the evening did not dampen anyone's spirits.

Friday, the festival starts and I get to the gates at around 9am and the rest of the next 2 days became a little bit of a blur. I went to find some friends at the main gate and walk through the main entrance to be met by a sea of day glow jackets. There are stewards and security aplenty, as well as a high police presence. I was shocked to see a few vans, but this dwindled after the afternoon to just a few PCSO and police walking around. The security also made big efforts to blend into the background, but one has to admit it is hard wearing a day glow jacket. I found them to be very friendly, approachable and non intrusive but most of all left me feeling that they where there for my safety. That is a hard thing to accomplish at a festival but both they and the police made a fine effort. Through the mass of yellow I saw a few punters eager to get into the arena, but the organisers are just putting the finishing touches to the mud swept arena.

At this moment I had real plans on what I was going to do for the weekend, but Solfest has a way of taking plans and sending them into another dimension. My group rallied at the Bar Stage in the afternoon, to be met by ale and scrumpy at £2.60 a pint. The food as well was very well priced around the site, and had a fine range from falafels to burgers. I have only 2 grumbles about the food the first been the queues involved, and secondly late at night near the Dance tent I got chips for £2.50 after a 30 minute wait, and I felt I had been mugged as there were only enough chips to give a mouse for lunch. I should have gone to the stall selling them for £1.50.

The plan was to go see Adrian Edmondson & The Bad Shepherds on the Drystone Stage in the evening followed by the Buzzcocks on the Main Stage. Instead I ended up in the back of a van with a group of Scotsmen for a chat and a drink. After some time I moved off and made my way through the campsites to find my son and daughter. My son was in the noisy camping, which is vibrant to say the least, and along the way I could hear the Buzzcocks playing in the background, but once I was at his camp it was drowned out by the Dance Tent some 50 yards away, time for a dance with fantastic fusion set by DJAbsorb. I was a little shocked when the place was closed down after what seemed to be a brief moment in time to find it was 4:30am. Slightly lost I spent until well past dawn in Dogs in Space (aka the Chill Out Tent).

After a couple of hours rest I realised it was Saturday, and unfortunately the obligatory 'Fancy Dress Day'. I may sound a bit of a bore but every festival has a 'Fancy Dress Day' and I find it slightly tedious, and I am certain that I will do something illegal to the next two '118 men' I see at a festival. So in a happy mood I made my way over to the Kids Field. The kid's area at Solfest is compact but they cram a lot into it.

I was told by someone at the festival that children can have too much put on for them, but I felt that there was a good balance. As a father of 5, and taking them all in the past to a festival I know how fickle children can be. Here we had workshops, the usual face painting, a drama workshop, circus skills, a baby chill out tent for the under 5's, the list goes on. All this is set around a simple timber play area with swings and slides. Even in the rain it was a busy area and it was a joy to behold so many happy faces on the kids.

The day became a bimble around the campsites and a general walk around the site. I spent sometime in the Meditation Garden, and especially the 'Living Dome' made of willow, an amazing find to say the least. Essentially it is a dug out with the roof and sides made from growing willow woven together (although I did see the odd cable tie). It will be really interesting to see how it grows over the coming years. After this it was off to Weirdigans for a chilli hot chocolate and a slice of cake. Weirdigans is well known in some of the Northern festival circles, and is an absolute gem of a place. Open 24 hours of the day it has a carpeted floor to sit on (boots off!) and has a small acoustic tent next to it. Great for a chai before bed, it is a firm favourite of mine and I always make a point to go over when they are at a festival.

After playing 'Battle of the Somme' in the mud and rain I catch the end of the set by The Beat on the Main Stage, but for some reason the sound did not seem that good. Next, I had a hard choice of The Blockheads on the Main Stage or Far Too Loud in the Dance Tent. I caught the opening of The Blockheads set and I must say I was impressed. It takes a brave man to fill the boots of Ian Drury, but Derek the Draw was brilliant. I felt a little guilty as I walked off to the Dance Tent, as I wanted to catch the end of Far Too Loud, and, more importantly The Orb. I was then involved in my chip mugging incident and seeing as the Dance Tent was rammed (as well as there been people with chairs and buggies) I decided to pack it in for the night.

I have to admit I slept like a baby that night and I did not surface until mid day, but I felt ready to go. I was a man on a mission as it was the last night and I was determined to see some bands. Off I went with my list in hand, yet within 30 minutes I found myself sat around a fire, in the rain, in the Living Dome. I was hoping to go see the Weird Strings Band on the Drystone Stage. I have seen them a few times and they are fun to say the least, with three men playing a fiddle, a bass and a guitar, and play indescribable music (you have to be there).

I was a little disappointed to miss them, but good company cures all ills, and yet again I found myself diverted with a scrumpy in hand. But I was determined to actually see some of the final acts and hopefully take some photographs. My plan was actually in action and I managed to get in at the Main Stage. I felt sorry for the crowd as due to the ground conditions the barrier for the pit had been set quite some distance away from the stage. This however did not spoil the atmosphere of the last night as Seth Lakeman was playing. That man seems to have brought about a resurgence of folk music and he always at least has my foot tapping. His skilful swapping from the violin to the guitar, as well as his lyrics, had the cold and wet crowd warmed up for the next act Kula Shaker.

I was a little bemused that they were playing at Solfest especially as it is their only UK gig, but well done Solfest for getting them. They were the highlight of the weekend for me, and did a fabulous set although at times the crowd did not seem to appreciate it. The final act was to be The Charlatans a band which I didn't like the first time around, and this set did not particularly endear them to me this time. At times the band look tired and lacklustre, but however the important thing is that the crowd loved them and there was a lot of dancing. That does show that the average Solfester is there to enjoy the whole festival rather than just their favourite band.

So the Main Stage is closed and it is over to the Dance Tent until gone 4 for some Techno Hippy. At this stage I was hoping for bed, but the ground conditions were bad so I and others took to giving a hand to getting cars out of the mud to get people off site. It was only then that most people realised how much rain had come down over the weekend, and it was a great sight to see people running across the fields in the overspill area to help push out a fellow festie goer in distress.

When I arrived at Solfest I was in no mood for a festival, but I am glad I went. Solfest is not your Leeds or Reading, and it does not purport to be. There are no pretensions about this place, from the hand painted road signs to the general feel of the arena to the bemused looks on the faces of the stewards when their plan disappears. I think people do not go for major acts, in fact I feel that people attend for the atmosphere and to meet friends old and new alike.

At a time of major festival competition and recession it is clear to see that the organisers of Solfest are running the festival for the love of it, rather than as a profit making scheme. There are a number of festivals around the country that support the local community in a similar way to Solfest, and each of them has their own unique identity. I was asked what festival is like Solfest, and that is an impossible question to answer, but at a push I would say "Solfest is just Solfest". After the week I'd just had, I could have vowed never to return. However, as I got in the car for the drive back to Manchester someone gave me a hug and said "See you next year mate". With a wry grin I replied "Aye, I guess you will". That says it all really.

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