As the sun rised in the land of dreams the field began to swell with new arrivals and Thursdays sore heads. Friday saw a line up of music that was a real challenge for the musically intrepid. Three stages.
The Village, a psychedelic interactive festival village with Sheesha’s from Happy Hookah’s, top Tibetan grub from Outer Regions Café, sock puppetry and beat boxing workshops from Autumn Shift and a world wide array of arts and crafts workshops from the beautiful Families In Focus team.
Highlights from The Village came in the form of Mathew Kilford’s soulful grooves, Lamp Fall’s truly rejoicing Senegalese afro beat and stage invasion dance offs and the wonderful late night skank fest of Killamojambo. The warm vibes lasting well into the night.
The Barnicle, a full aquarium of UV jelly fish, bass booming crustaceans had a line up that will struggle to be ever beaten. The Age Concerns 50s rock n roll brought the fish bowl to an early frenzy with twist and shaking a plenty. OST played to a packed and beautifully vocal crowd. Tall Ships ripped it up with their loop laden epic mathy spikey indie. And just when the fancy dressed punters thought it couldn’t get any more epic London Afrobeat Collective brought the warm grooves of Nigerian afro beat to the tropical waters of Little Somerford. Then Bristols very own Dub Mafia drowned the place in dirty dub dnb and a small volcanic eruption took place.
Meanwhile on the main stage as beautiful jelly fish bobbed up and down on Fieldview’s calm seas, the audience were treated to some of the finest underground acoustic artist’s England has to offer. Martha Tilston brought Celtic and traditional folk influences to a seated and truly relaxed crowd.
The ultimate highlight of the Friday and maybe the whole weekend was man of the moment Ben Howard. Who brought a whole host of marine animals to the stage to swim in the calm seas of his surf friendly love laden anthems. A gang of girls stared starry eyed at a musician who sounds as beautiful as he looks. Being Zane Lowe’s record of the week meant there hasnever been such anticipation over a Fieldview headliner before. Hits like ‘Old Pine’ and ‘Wolves’ were greated with choral sing alongs and an epic encore of ‘Move Like You Want To.’ Ben Howard is destined for greatness, in the sense that the music he makes at such a young age is already so timeless and so perfect.
Fancy dress highlights included The Prawn Lady, The Titanic, The beautiful Jelly Fish and Poseidon God of the Sea. To those who made cakes for the Bake Off THANKYOU! Everyone was a winner, the camper van cake deserves a special mention! The fire work FVF cake which was removed before tasting could take place was also a hit.
Words By James Cameron
