Off the Tracks 2024 - The Review

Off The Tracks in Derbyshire was first established in 1988, making it one of the longest running events in the independent festival scene. The weather forecast for 2024 was a mixed bag, with warnings of high winds for Saturday and rain on Sunday. Fortunately, neither materialised in a really bad way. Not that it would have mattered too much, all stages here have either a solid or marquee roof, but congregating in the sheltered yard for a natter with friends is just so much nicer when it's not raining. 

As we arrived Friday afternoon, the Donington Park Farm House campsite was pretty full and buzzing already – turns out the real ale aspect of the festival starts on Thursday evening these days and one can arrive a day early. That's great – as long as there is enough ale. We still found a good spot to pitch, the site is big (although tents seem to be getting larger and campervans more numerous each year). Part of the joy of arriving here is knowing and greeting so many of the regulars, it is a really chilled crowd, equally welcoming to old festival stalwarts, young families, newcomers, and that little sausage dog that made its way on site was super well behaved too. 

Seas of Mirth are Friday's joyous openers - their 4th OTT gig, they say, followed by The Beat featuring Ranking Jnr. I am not an expert of the ska-scene, but after Ranking Roger's untimely death (at 56!) it seems their line up doesn't feature any of the original members. The current line up delivers the material very well, though, they have been touring together for some time and Ranking Jnr. has stepped up as an impressive new frontman who pays homage to his father's memory as well as establishing his own style. It's great that they have found a way to push things forward.

Then more ska from the Dub Pistols, seasoned professionals who are also regulars at OTT; although they can fill bigger headline slots and venues, they really seem to like this one. This becomes very clear when they slow down for a little speech about the importance of supporting smaller independent events in a general climate of adversity, followed by them thanking organisers Boz and Andy and everyone who contributes to making OTT happen every year. How right they are. My only complaint is that they overlap with Babal who are playing at the same time at the 2nd stage (Black Barn) and feature an impressive prog guitar sound. Would have liked to see the full set of both, really. 

Friday night also had a really good range of after midnight music choices: Dr Trippy at the Black Barn again, a great reggae set at the Threshing Barn by DJ Edgie and a Stackyard midnight session with Hard Rocking Amigos doing good covers. All this was really enjoyable but where was everyone? Seems lots of punters had turned in early that night, more's the pity. Could it have been the booze? Perhaps.

Boz's Brains, lightheaded & very hazy, was already sold out on Saturday morning! I can't believe I'm writing this, but yes, Boz has a beer named after him, and no, I did not make up its description on the real ale list (I took a pic of the beer list to prove it, just in case).  Farmer's Blonde was the other one to be gone by then. Ahem. Must be the names...  Now 2 out of nearly 70 ales and ciders doesn't seem much, but this was a sign of things to come - early Saturday evening, we, collectively, had drank the Real Ale Bar dry, a few struggling ciders aside (they were gone too a few hours later). That's what you get for opening the kegs on Thursday, dear organisers! We know ale doesn't keep and therefore should sell out, but there was still so much weekend left, we even managed to drink all the ale the separate hotel bar had in stock.

Otherwise, Saturday was wall to wall music for me, so I'll just pick a few highlights: 

At the small Dreams Stage, Phil Cudworth did a stint of rambling songs about life, politics, the universe and everything, with Boz on percussion. Nice to see one of the organisers getting stuck in.

Galdorcræft I'd never heard off - OTT is usually good at serving up a few new discoveries. This band would really be more suited for an evening slot with their hypnotic "dark neo folk" (the programme's description is a s good as anything I can come up with), but at least they got to play at the Black Barn Stage – always a bit gloomy in there. We're introduced to pagan themed lyrics and unusual olden style instruments: bowed Lyre, moraharpa, jaw harp, bullroarer (!), any minute I was expecting them to invoke a barrow-wight or some such mythical creature. Would love to see them late one night with a great log fire roaring somewhere nearby.... there is an eerie aura of doom and gloom to their tunes, but I couldn't get enough of it.  

The Karma Effect are for you if you like your rock n roll just so, grounded in its traditions but upgraded for the present, they are touring a good new album, The Promised Land. The Peatbog Faeries had to collide with Banco de Gaia, so I saw only half a set of each, but what I sampled was very good and the contrast was entertaining, going from stage to stage. Then the witching hour found me at the Black Barn listening to Keepers Brew. Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble - but this brew featured just the right mix of psychedelic guitar and synths; what is this, trance prog rock with metal tinges? Whatever. I loved it.

Sunday opened with String Beats, three musicians from Leicester. "You must have had two heavy nights", one of them sagely observes, surveying the still bleary eyed and mostly seated audience. Then he assures us that they will treat us gently with a modernised set of classical Indian music and some pop tunes, featuring sitar, sarangi and tabla. Perfect choice for an opener, they soothed my foggy thoughts but were just lively enough to get me ready for dancing to Grupo Lokito who were next to take the stage, presenting a musical merger of Cuban and Congolese styles - Salsa meets Rumba and a few other rhythms and if you are confused, don't worry, the two front men show you how to dance to it. Which got most of us just in the right mood for another regular, The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican, lots of silliness, now featuring more banjo. The Leylines delivered an appropriately rousing finale of folk-rock, followed by an emotional speech by the organisers who thank audience, artists and staff. 

As we were packing up, I realised that, again, I had hardly spent any time in the energy orchard where all the wellness activities take place - no wonder my energy levels were now somewhat low. But there was so much good music and all that catching up with people I rarely see elsewhere just took priority. I am a bit weary at the end of the festival season (5 this summer), although at OTT the campsite location makes attending a festival miles more convenient than the usual tents-in-a-field-with-compost-loos experience. 

Donington Park Farmhouse Hotel & their site have won winners of the Green Footprints Award (2013) and "greenest business in North West Leicestershire" – somehow that's a little ironic considering that they sit right next to the Donington Park Circuit racetrack (yes, we could hear it), and East Midlands airport (could hear that too). But every year we arrive and find more proof of their determination to be as sustainable as they can be – this year's is a set of new solar panels at the fringes of the campsite. That's on top of most food on offer being locally sourced  (the vegetarian options have much improved over the years,)  recyclable cutlery and drinking vessels, their own reed bed wastewater treatment system and ... one day they might even get most of their punter to use the bins according to their labels! But beer-googles make all bins look equally attractive, it seems.

Never mind the wind on Saturday, there's a metaphorical chill wind blowing over many smaller festivals and it seems that some will not survive changes in politics and rises in costs that impact them. But OTT has a unique atmosphere that keeps regulars coming back, often with new friends and family in tow. Mind the Dub Pistols: it is up to us who are enjoying this scene to support it. Once gone, it's hard to get anything like it back.

OTT 2025 is already pencilled in for 29th to 31st August (early bird tickets will go on sale soon, in November). Book us something old and something new again, music wise, and roll out the barrels - perhaps a few more, next time?

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