Larmer Tree Festival Review. 2019. part 1
I was hoping for a deep immersion back into the UK festival scene, and that’s exactly what I got, in the heart of the West Country, over a delightfully sunny weekend in July.
We intend to create a podcast episode for this festival too but, in the meantime, a little bit of word work while the memories are fresh…
This is a family-friendly festival, but that doesn’t mean there is no late night naughtiness to be found or created, once the nippers are tucked up in tent.
The line-up has something for everyone. If you’re a toddler, you can tootle around in the woods or attend the Teddy Bear’s Picnic. If you’re a stroppy seven year old, you can release your energy through some natural woodworking or campfire cooking. Then for the remaining teenage-to-octagenarian strata, there’s most every conceivable type of live and electronic music from lunchtime to the witching hour.
There’s also a huge amount of diversions – the first of which is ale and cider. Oh my! What a joy it is to be at a festival brimming with locally-produced alcohol, fresh, full of flavour and filling you not only with the warm fuzz of afternoon boozing, but knowing you’re supporting small local enterprises in traditional industries.
In addition to the kids stuff above, there was a good selection of comics including Nish Kumar (very ‘on trend’ darling!), cinema screenings of classics like Butch Cassidy or Ghostbusters, and sessions offering Laughter Yoga, Calligraphy, Samba Drumming etc etc etc. And as you can see from the cover photo, a lucky few of us got to see the Queen wielding a rolling pin, guarded by a pair of Beefeaters.
And what about the music? In order of appearance, we want to talk about the Circus Brothers, Cymande, Gypsy Jukebox, GoGo Penguin, Dizraeli, Kate Tempest, Funke & the Two Tone Baby, Tidelines, Tank & the Bangas, Ezra Collective, KT Tunstall and, lastly, Iris Gold.
Well, that’s going to make for an awfully long article isn’t it? You can pick up the music reviews in the subsequent articles that we will be releasing in the coming days…
