Glastonbudget 2006
Turn Post Farm in Wymeswold, Leicestershire hosted the Glastonbudget festival last weekend. Still in its infancy, it looks set to become an important date in the East Midlands’ calendar. This can only be good for the local music scene and provides an excuse for the rest of us to tune in, turn on and drop out for a weekend in May.
The local festival saw revellers from as far away as Liverpool, Gloucester and even north of the border. The event celebrated its triumphant return with style. Following on from last year, the idea of homage was at the forefront with top-quality tribute acts providing the sights and sounds of everyone’s favourites.
A second stage was commissioned this year. The New Acts Stage; where unsigned bands played their hearts out to audiences who wanted a little authenticity.
Jeremey Lampard, 18, who helped organize the New Acts Stage, explained that he’d been working on it since September last year, interviewing over 300 auditioning bands and deciding which were good enough to draw a crowd.
“Loughborough and Leicester have an amazing music scene. It’s just such a shame that we haven’t got the venues. This festival cost about £200,000 to put on. We’re not losing any money but we’re not making it. It’s about other people”
Drizzle had left the fields of green a little muddy just in time for the festival to begin, but come Saturday afternoon, the Antarctic Monkeys managed to bring out the sunshine, near enough the rest of the weekend. So in the end, we had wellies for the mud and shades for the sun. Looking cool down the farm.
If music be the food of love, what was everyone going to drink?
The answer was provided by Baz Parish, of The Parish Brewery from Burrow on the Hill, near Melton Mowbray, “Last year wasn’t as good as we were hoping. Only about 1400 people turned up, but I reckon we’ve probably got in excess of 3,000 this year.”
The festival prides itself on the provision of the authentic taste of the real ale, as Baz explained, “A lot of women are trying it and liking it and in general younger people than you’d expect are developing a taste for real ale. Real ale it’s making a comeback.”
“People tend to go for the strong beers but there’s no ‘Baz’s Bonce Blower’, as I didn’t know how people would react to it, being so strong (12%). We tried the cider this year but we ran out in the first two hours! We got another and that went just as quick.”
With all that live music and real ale surely things were too good to be true? Peter Williams, Service Manager for the British Red Cross commented, “It’s been excellent, we’ve only seen 25 people who needed our help. Of those only five have had to go to casualty. Nothing too serious; trips and falls, excessive alcohol. The usual.”
With the best seats in the house, the traders who supplied the revellers with everything they could need, saw the best of both stages… and they call it work?
Merchandise stall holder, Angus Joyce, 37, from Leicester, working with his son commented, “Families are made to feel so welcome, there’s no trouble whatsoever, no crime like. Glastonbudget says it all. Everything from admission to merchandise are sensibly priced. The beer’s cheap, the bands are good, the weather’s fine. Everyone’s a winner.”
Gazing out from her tent, Michelle Axe, 39, from Somerset, said “It’s good to be in at the beginning, to watch it all grow and develop. I think this will get bigger every year.”
Maybe as she was reading runes and offering a glimpse of the future, I have no reason to doubt her on that.
In the words of U2 tribute band, US4, this festival may be, “even better than the real thing.”
