overview

Thimbleberry has up to this point been a well kept secret. Most festival goers I suspect, would never have heard of it, while many of those that have are doubtless put off by the mammoth trek to get there, and tales of arctic conditions and polar bears.

The festival itself is located at a farm just outside Stanhope in County Durham. Heading out of the town, you drive up a hill like the North Face of the Eiger, and turn down a track leading to the farm where the festival is held. The site is divided into two main areas. Camping is located in a field on a hill as you drive in. Camping is mixed up with parking, which does away with the long trek with camping kit, but can occasionally feel a bit hairy as cars drive around at night.

Walking down the hill, you join up with a gravel track past an ancient caravan that acts as a security point and ticket office. Following this track on up the hill, you arrive on the site proper. The main area consists of a series of tents surrounding some ancient and slightly ramshackle farm buildings. Around the site are four main music areas, a main stage, a dance tent, another tent hosting everything from jazz, to funk, and finally a Psy Trance dance area held in a barn next to the farmhouse.

If you’d been to this festival last year, you’d notice some gaps this time around. The Dub tent was missing, as indeed were some of the more organized café tents, such as the Camel’s Arse that had provided great hot food at some pretty fair prices last year. Overall food was more limited this time, with a Caribbean food stall, and a couple of burger vans. Choice wasn’t fantastic, and if you were a vegetarian, it was chips or starve.

Another absentee from this years festival was the beer tent, or indeed anywhere on site to buy alcohol. For many this didn’t seem to be a hassle, and to be fair, Stanhope isn’t so far away if you needed additional supplies.

Friday night on the main stage was a bit of a mad old affair, with Wild P Hucker, and Space Ritual. It was a fine display of latterday beardyness, with some odd wooshing noises on top.

If Science Fiction wailing isn’t your thing, then you could head over to the other stage, which played an assortment of Jazz, in a really rather sedate environment. This tent actually did provide some really nice food, but only for that night, and I, like many others, woke up Saturday morning wishing that I’d had some.

But for many people, the real reason to come to Thimbleberry is the presence of some fantastic dance music. The main dance tent, run by the frankly fantastic Darlington outfit DisFUNKion. This tent was packed almost all the time, with DJ’s playing a selection of deep house that went on well into the wee small hours. It remains a mystery to me why DisFUNKion aren’t doing more festival work, as they remain among the best outfits I’ve seen at any festival over the past few years.

If trance is more your thing, then you are well served by the Psy Trance barn. Decorated extensively with UV displays, and with projectors running constantly, this became the den of choice for the seriously hardcore, playing seriously loud trance pretty much all through the night.

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