Labrinth pulls off a crowd pleasing set to headline day two of Strawberry Fields Festival

Entering the arena again on Saturday I take a moment to ponder the incongruity of a stone circle with a garish bouncy castle right next to it before taking in a couple of songs from The Breakdowns in the Strawberry Jam tent to blow the cobwebs out.

Music is also eminating from the flea-market tent which turns out to be home to the quaint 'Vintage Acoustic Stage' with acoustic acts playing throughout the day alongside the racks of clothing and bric-a-brac. The main outdoor stage is up and running now and Leicester band I Am In Love are lively entertainment, working hard to get the sparce recumbent crowd involved with drumming forays into the field. Leicester ska outfit The Paradimes features members who've played with The Specials and are their usual excellent selves in the Strawberry Jam Tent, but again the audience is small - oh well plenty of room to dance.

Over on the Vintage Acoustic Stage I happen upon a group called 'Red n Pink' filling in for an absent act with an unplugged show and decide they're a must-see later for the full monty. Through the afternoon the site gets slowly busier but never crowded and the feel of the main stage field is one of sparseness until the bigger evening acts start to draw a reasonable crowd. As The Cuban Brothers take to the mainstage the first decent crowd builds up to watch their unique and hilarious part-comedy/part-great music/part-dancing show, all delivered with lashings of inappropriateness that they've built their reputation on. As usual they go down a storm, though doubtless some unsuspecting parents with young children in the audience were caught out by the, ahem, 'fruitiness' of it all.

The Twang draw a healthy cowd too but it's just a photo-op for me and then I keep my appointment with Red n Pink on the Strawberry Jam Stage for some sassy electro-pop/punk with attitude and tales of ex-boyfriends...



Back on the mainstage Jaguar Skills is a monster mash-up of big beats and classic tunes tightly woven at a frantic pace and the crowd is jumping-mad for it - riotous fun! Another of the many local bands in attendance, reggae outfit By The Rivers close the Strawberry Jam Stage (after performing at the One Love festival earlier in the day) and for a change the tent is busy and deservedly so for this young but quality act.

Mainstage headliner Labrinth is mostly unknown to me and I'm expecting hip-hop (wrongly) which isn't always my thing but I'm surprised and won over by Timothy McKenzie who can put on a show - not bad at all and clearly a favourite with the younger crowd who are out in force and lapping it up. The live bands all done for the day, the action becomes centred on the dance village which continues until 2am, the sound-system and DJs in the Raveology tent proving especially good and impossible to stand still to. Slipmatt is last up in the Flashback tent and I pay a brief homage but tired legs win out, and I'm done for the night.

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