By the millennium, music festivals had become transformed
from an expression of the counter-culture to a mainstream leisure activity. In
the UK, and worldwide, the number and range of festivals grew exponentially.
Prior to 2020, when the coronavirus silenced live music, there was a festival
to suit practically any taste. In this article, rather than attempt to describe
the huge range of events that make up the contemporary music festival scene, I
will offer a picture essay, using photographs from my own experiences as an
avid festival attendee over the past twenty years.
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Welcoming sign at Beautiful Days 2013
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As I related in my previous article, festivals ‘grew up’
during the 1990s. Legislation and changing expectations helped to civilise what
had previously been an edgy, carnivalesque experience. People who would not
previously have considered it now wanted to go to a festival, and the age range
of festival-goers expanded as the pioneer generation grew older. In 2005, 649
festivals took place in the UK, nearly half of which had been established since
2000. Around 30% were outdoor events and a quarter were folk festivals. While
some festivals fall by the wayside, and the music press periodically speculates
that the festival market has become saturated, there is no sign of festivals
disappearing. In 2019, over 1,000 events were listed on efestivals.com. It has
been stated that festivals bring £1.76bn in value to the British economy each
year, supporting 85,000 jobs. A few years ago, an academic with nothing better
to do attempted a typology of music festivals, coming up with seventeen types,
and he would probably have to add a few more to his list today.
During the first few years of the new century, my
festival-going was limited to my annual pilgrimage to Fairport Convention’s
Cropredy festival, but as soon as our kids were old enough to look after
themselves, my wife and I became festival obsessives. We have been to at least
one festival every year since 2005, and often two or three. For us, the music
comes first, and we choose festivals on the basis of their genres and line-ups.
We have our favourites, all straddling the boundary of folk and rock. Cropredy
remains a stalwart, along with festivals organised by other folk-rock bands:
Beautiful Days, run by the Levellers and the Big Session, by Oysterband.
Wickham festival in Hampshire taps into the same market and we have been there
several times. Others we have been to include Wallingford Bunkfest, Shrewsbury
Folk festival, Bearded Theory (at Catton Hall, Derbyshire), Solfest (Silloth in
Cumbria) and Glasgow’s Celtic Connections. And in 2013 we returned to
Glastonbury for the first time since 1986, with our children, now grown up, and
their partners as well.
My enjoyment of a festival is a function of four factors:
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The line-up (first and foremost)
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The weather (for ‘greenfield’ festivals)
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The organisation (parking, camping or accommodation,
toilets and showers, food and drink, rules and regulations, etc)
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The ambience (the sum of the first three
factors, along with how the audience responds to the festival).
In the remainder of this article, I will attempt to capture
the ambience of some of the festivals I have attended over the past twenty
years. I hope that the following collection of photographs and comments will
help you to get a flavour of music festivals as I have experienced them.
SETTINGS
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Part of the massive site at Glastonbury 2013, when around 175,000 people attended. The festival takes up a considerable area of Michael Eavis's Somerest dairy farm
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Beautiful Days, run by the Levellers at Escott Park, near Exeter, also takes place on a rural "greenfield" site, but with a more modest capacity of 17,500
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A view of the village of Cropredy during the annual Fairport's Cropredy Convention festival. While a greenfield festival, the site is adjacent to the village, and many villagers are involved in the festival
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There is a strange symbiotic relationship between music festivals and country estates, dating back to the Beaulieu Jazz festival in the 1950s. Several festivals (including Beautiful Days) are set in the grounds of country houses. Here, Arley Hall in Cheshire hosts a small festival in 2008
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Greenfield festivals often seek to create a 'village fete' atmosphere. The Big Session festival of 2009 (run by Oysterband) was a good example. However, not all was as it seemed: this village fete was actually in the heart of the city of Leicester, in the grounds of the de Montfort Hall.
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STAGES
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The famous Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2013. On stage is Elvis Costello, whom I saw headline Glastonbury 1984
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Stages can be hired for all purposes. This is the main stage at Bearded Theory 2015, at Catton Hall, Derbyshire
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The one and only stage at Cropredy 2017. In deference to the increasing age of the audience, the arena becomes filled with neat rows of camping chairs
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Many festivals take place partly or wholly in marquees. An interesting setting is "Dogs in Space", an informal stage-cum-chill-out area at Solfest (Silloth, Cumbria) in 2013
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AMENITIES
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One of only two shower blocks at Glastonbury 2013, a total of 24 shower heads for the entire audience. I have fond memories of the same shower block in the 1980s, when it was both unisex and open-plan
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Many festivals cater for families and children. Beautiful Days has a very family-friendly reputation
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Festval toilets have improved markedly since the early days. While Glastonbury retains some 'long-drop' toilets, most festivals feature ranks of portaloos. Or one could try the straw-bale urinals at Solfest, with added views of the Southern Upland hills.
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The Healing field at Glastonbury caters for all kinds of need
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In a sanitised echo of the New Age Travelers' use of old buses and vans to travel from festival to festival, a teas shop in a Routemaster bus plies the festival circuit, seen here at Wickham 2012
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PERFORMERS
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Most large festivals have big screens to enable artists to be seen easily. Here, Liam Gallagher opens Glastonbury 2013 on the 'Other Stage'
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Alternatively, a small festival enables fans to get closer to their heroes, in this case John Jones of Oysterband
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The professional security staff at Beautiful Days 2012 are singularly unimpressed by the antics of Bellowhead's Benji Kirkpatrick
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Achieving audience participation from a large festival crowd is not easy, but Gerry Colvin manages it with aplomb at Cropredy 2009
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Musical legends: Simon Nicholl and Richard Thompson at Cropredy 2017...
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...Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull at Beautiful Days 2012...
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...and on the big screen at Cropredy, Robert Plant (2008)...
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...Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens: 2009)...
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...Petula Clarke (2017)...
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...and Brian Wilson and Al Jardine (once of the Beach Boys: 2018)
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If it's your festival, you'd better turn up. Ian Telfer of Oysterband makes it onto the stage at the Big Session 2010, despite having a leg in a cast
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Folk festivals are often plagued with Morris dancers. Wallingford Bunkfest, 2005
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While many of the artists playing at the festivals I attend are "pale stale males", there are exceptions. Salsa Celtica at Wickham festival, 2010...
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...and at the same festival, Kid Creole and the Coconuts...
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...Eliza Carthy at Wickham 2017...
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...while Sweden's Goat brought an exotic look to the West Holt stage at Glastonbury 2013
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AUDIENCES
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An appreciative crowd at Beautiful Days 2010
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Festivals can be an opportunity to get together with family and friends. Beautiful Days 2013
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There are few more stoical than British greenfield festival attendees, who often suffer from summer weather. This gentleman at Cropredy 2008 is well-prepared for keeping his valuables dry
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Romance is often in the air. Beautiful Days 2012...
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...and again...
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...and love by the security fence, Glastonbury 2013
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Attending Leeds or Reading festival has become a teenage rite of passage. A seventeen-year-old sets off for Leeds in 2010 - most of of supplies pressed on her by her solicitous parents were either lost or returned unused. Note the Cropredy 1993 sweat shirt
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THE FUTURE OF FESTIVALS?
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Salsa Celtica play at Celtic Connections in Glasgow in February 2020, just weeks before the coronavirus put an end to festivals for the year. As I write, Britain is at the peak of the 'second wave' of the virus, with no hint of when festivals may resume. Like many other areas of the economy, festivals have been battered by the virus, and it remains to be seen how many will survive to welcome returning audiences.
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