Thoughts on summer festivals 2024

It’s Sep­tem­ber and sum­mer is retreat­ing fast. This is what End of the Road fes­ti­val in Dorset is all about – offer­ing one final chance to prance about in a field, choose food from a won­der­ful array of ven­dors, chat to just about any­one, and queue up for the toi­let with a cup of sawdust.…

Read More

Green Man 2021 review: frolics in the Brecon Beacons

Imag­ine all the ele­ments that make Green Man fes­ti­val so spe­cial, mul­ti­ply that sev­er­al times over and you’ll get the gen­er­al idea of the sheer plea­sure and excite­ment of this year‘s extrav­a­gan­za in the Bre­con Bea­cons.  The Green Man team did every­thing they could in order to go ahead this year and it was all…

Read More

Green Man festival 2017 review

This year was the 15th anniver­sary of Green Man, the bucol­ic fes­ti­val set in the Bre­con Bea­cons. It is – since the demise of Big Chill – my favourite fes­ti­val venue, with its lush moun­tain­ous set­ting and main stage framed dra­mat­i­cal­ly by the Black Moun­tains. For those short of stature (like myself), you’ll always have…

Read More

Green Man 2016 review: indie and lots of weather

Fore­casts were for gales, thun­der and tor­ren­tial rain. What we actu­al­ly got were tan­ta­lis­ing peeks of sun, and show­ers which float­ed down with clock­work reg­u­lar­i­ty like a sprin­kler sys­tem. If you’ve ever want­ed a qui­et word with the Met Office when they get things wrong, by for­tu­nate coin­ci­dence there they were, at Ein­stein’s Gar­den, Green Man’s science /…

Read More

Green and pleasant: the ultimate festival guide 2016

If you’re a fes­ti­val fan, by now you’re dream­ing of a green field, ban­ners wav­ing in the breeze, the sound of a band on the main stage… yes, fes­ti­val sea­son is near­ly upon us again, and here is my Ulti­mate Fes­ti­val Guide. Most have been per­son­al­ly tried and test­ed, some on a year­ly basis – plus there’s…

Read More

Green Man 2012

Into this post-Olympic, rain-drenched mid sum­mer, the tenth Green Man fes­ti­val burst into life. Nes­tled in the Black Moun­tains of mid Wales, Green Man’s are­na on Fri­day is a won­der to behold; still at this point a green and pleas­ant land with its beau­ti­ful­ly posi­tioned main Moun­tain Stage – a nat­ur­al amphithe­atre, with a con­ve­nient steep…

Read More