An inspirational festival in breathtaking surroundings. Psychedelic indie-folk line up, with the added bonus of glorious sunshine for most part of the weekend and a perfect pitch between the majestic trees of Glanusk Park.

Back in March King Arthur Pendragon and Arch Druid Rollo Maughfling took advantage of the Spring Equinox to dispense some Druidic blessings and ensured the Green Man festival site much needed sunshine. I think we all should say a big thank you to them as for most of the weekend Green Man festival was greeted with sunshine. The usual rainy Brecon Beacons were wonderfully sunny, especially for the lucky Holiday tickets holders. Holiday ticket owners were lucky enough to have a sun filled week, and made the most of Crickhowell and its local pub the Bridge End Inn, paddling in the river and sampling the local ales. In comparison to last year, where some unfortunate families had to leave due to leaky faulty or insufficient tents in a rain sodden field, you couldn’t have asked for a better start to the festival.

Green Man festival has been running for 7 years, this being its 4^th at Glanusk Park, along with the support from the locals we hope that it will be returning to Crickhowell next year. Glanusk Park is a stunning location for a festival and we have to say that this is probably the best festival site in the UK. With the majestic backdrop of Sugar Loaf mountain, century old trees standing guard to the site, soft and level camping pitches, acres of open space to pitch in and Green Man festival with all of its delights to entertain you. If you were lucky enough to book a holiday ticket, allowing you to camp at the festival site for an extra 3 days, the local area is open to you to explore. Crickhowell itself is a beautiful little town with plenty of butchers, green grocers and local stores for you to stock up on supplies. We arrived early and stayed at The Bear Hotel the night before wanting to explore the town. The staff at The Bear made our stay really comfortable and were pleased with the business that the festival brings in to the town. Throughout the town we heard nothing but support of the festival and a hope that it will return year after year. If you fancy spoiling yourself next year book a night at The Bear Hotel, the food there is delicious.

We also stocked up on supplies before heading down to the festival site and managed to pick up some local Brecon Gin, from the Penderyn Distillery. If you had need any camping or cookery equipment there are a couple of really useful stores that are worth a visit, Webbs of Crickhowell is like an Aladdin’s cave of products and Crickhowell Adventure has all that you could need for walking the Brecon Beacons and keeping yourself warm and dry.

On arriving at Green Man festival you are given the option of hiring a trolley to cart your camping gear to the main camping fields. These were available from Mr Trolley Hire and cost £5 for 30 minutes but there was a £50 deposit to be paid. Considering that most of the trolleys we saw in use kept loosing their wheels I think you’d be best to purchase your own in advance to save any hassle. It is a fair walk from the car park to the campsite and the ground path is not an easy one. Once we pitched our tent, in one of the most beautiful locations we have camped at any festival, we cracked open the cider and took to exploring.

Green Man festival is positioned within the walls of the Glanusk Park Estate and creates a natural amphitheatre for the main stage. Some of the highlights of the weekend took place on this stage, such as Bon Iver, Jarvis Cocker, Wilco, British Sea Power and Gang Gang Dance. Bon Iver stole the show with a truly uplifting set, with the crowd singing along to their finale ‘Wolves’. Jarvis Cocker was a surprise favourite and provided no end of entertainment with his comical banter with bizarre quips such as ‘isn’t it good how there are all these people here unsupervised and nobody … dies?’ and ‘Get your gums around my plums’. British Sea Power pleased the crowds and continued to prove themselves to be a solid festival favourite.

Further up through the site is the Far Out Stage, a welcome shelter in the rain and the stage for psychedelic rock moments like Amorphous Androgynous, The Yellow Moon Band, and Beyond the Wizards Sleeve. The six hour DJ set curated by Amorphous Androgynous was a genius marathon trippy melt down of rock grooves, with their performance pleasing many Future Sound of London Fans as well as gaining them some new fans. She Keeps Bees, the stripped down rock n roll duo , played an outstanding set on the Green Man Pub stage and are definitely one to look out for at other festivals.

The Green Man festival may not be the biggest of festival sites but there is still more than enough to keep you busy. Einstein’s Garden, a place to exchange ideas whether musical, humorous or environmental was made all the more special by the addition of the solar milk float stage. There are numerous bars, cafes, stalls and traders to keep you well fed and watered as well as satisfying the shopper in us all. Moussa a morroccan themed stall glows nightly with hundreds of lanterns for sale, and charcoal burners to keep you warm at night. One of our favourite places at Green man festival had to be Chai Wallahs, grab a cup of Brandy Chai, listen to some music and smoke a Shisha. The perfect Sunday afternoon.

Green Man festival came full circle with the closing of the weekend being marked by a procession of Druids holding flaming torches and leading the crowds to the giant Green Man effigy, to set it on fire and watch the final night fireworks. The whole campsite was silent as the night sky lit up and everyone contemplated the perfect festival.

www.greenmanfestival.co.uk

 

www.webbscrickhowell.com

 

www.bearhotel.co.uk