Levellers get the get the crowd going on first day of Wizard

A record-breaking five thousand fans turned out for the third annual Wizard Festival, which every year it seems to get better and better. This year the organisers bagged festival favourites Levellers, punk legends Buzzcocks, The Charlatans, Scottish indie idols Idlewild and two tone ska masters The Beat among many others.
There were four stages, with more than 60 acts taking part, including DJs, solo artists, traditional and acoustic music, and local up and coming talent. I’m trying to think of a pun about there being some sort of magic in the air around this festival but I think the phrase I am looking for is punching above its weight.

Location first though (apparently it's all about location location location). The Wizard festival site is in New Deer, a tiny wee village north west of Ellon, which is a tiny town north west of Aberdeen, a city that, well you don't get many cities much further north or east than Aberdeen. Having said that, Aberdeen itself is really easy to get to with good rail, road and air links. It has a lively and vibrant music scene with some great venues including the Lemon Tree (which sponsored the Banshee stage at the Wizard.

New Deer is in rural farming land – the festival itself takes place in the agricultural showground, the main stage just yards away from the main ring, more used to hosting cows and sheep than rock 'n' roll bands. The site is relatively small but never really felt crowded. I like little festivals, I like the fact that it is easy to walk around, that you bump into people again and again, that if you sit still all the site eventually comes to you.

The weather forecast for the weekend was 30 mile per hour winds and rain but I was determined nothing would dampen my spirits as we headed up the road in our hopefully-watertight new van. The further north we got though, the windier it got, and half an hour away from the site the heavens opened as they say in cliché-land and we were driving through a torrential downpour and gusts of up to 50 miles per hour. This is why I don't do tents.

Campervan and caravan space sold out this year, as did the main festival campsite, and some slightly overzealous and jobsworthy security guards and a totally exaggerated one way system meant that it took us an hour to get into the site on arrival and get our wristbands, which was slightly frustrating. Then the high winds meant that entry to the arena was delayed by a few hours as the organisers battled the gales to ensure public safety and to put right the chaos wreaked by the gusts and rain, shovelling bark and straw on all the muddy bits (of which there were many). Still, it gave us time to catch up with friends around the campsite, so it was nearly all good - although I had been looking forward to seeing Aberdeen psychobilly band King Voodoo again but their set was bumped off the running order.

So it was the Red Hot Chilli Pipers that kicked things off on the main stage. By then the crowd was well up for it, and to be fair to the Pipers they seemed to perform better than on previous occasions that I have seen them. My kids love 'em for their rendition of 'Flower of Scotland' if nothing else.

Next up was The Beat, which, along with the Voodoo and the Levellers, was one of my must-sees of the day, and they did not disappoint. Their fusion of ska, punk, rock, reggae, soul and poptastic tunes just makes me dance and makes me happy; and there were several hundred other dancing happy people in what was a pretty packed out main tent. One of the reasons I love festivals is that it is so good to see young kids givin' it laldy to great bands playing great music, and the reaction to The Beat both from my own boys and other bouncy happy children kinda reaffirms my faith in the future.

It was main tent all the way for us on Friday with Idlewild on next. I was determined to give this band another chance after having been completely unimpressed by them at Belladrum a couple of years ago, and while they were better than that they still just don't float my boat. I did get a chance to try out the first aid facilities however, having shut my own finger in my own van door earlier in the day.

Opening night headliners Levellers are always going to get the crowd going and their Wizard performance was absolutely no exception. I have to confess to not remembering the whole set – I missed the first half of it parking my sleeping baby's buggy backstage, but my older son who was right up the front with my friend Alex, proudly showing his Levellers T-shirt off to guitarist Simon (and anyone else who would look) assures me that they played '15 Years', 'The Road', and the ever-popular 'Beautiful Day'. I also know that they played 'One Way' cos I spoke to didgeridoo player Stephen just before he went on stage, 'A Life Less Ordinary' cos it's one of my favourites from the newish album, 'Carry Me', cos we had been laughing all day about how that was Sleeping Baby’s song, 'Liberty' and 'Riverflow', cos fiddle player Jon said he’d play it for the eFestivals photographer Carol.

All too soon it was all over and it was back to the van to crack open the beer and set the world to rights with our fellow campers. Unfortunately it was raining increasingly hard so those of us that could retired to the inside of our vans. It rained pretty much all night, putting paid to any sort of campsite scene.

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