With the usual shops and eating places, spread over the site and not concentrated together in one block as in Glastonbury, even though the latter were lacking in diversity of choice beyond vegetarian or should I say the mainly vegan offerings.
All this in the beautiful landscape of south Somerset near Yeovil. Glorious weather throughout however the nights at the beginning were particularly cold and I was thankful for hauling my cumbersome but extremely comfortable padded hippy coat. So the stage was set out for one of the most pleasant festivals I can remember enjoying in recent years.

We arrived on Thursday by car… A double-decker bus shuttle service had been provided from Yeovil station for the pedestrians. For some strange reason the designers of the site had placed the campsite and car park astride the main festival site, necessitating an exhausting walk in the sun drenched afternoon, while the sky above our heads was a clear and dazzling blue, without any ominous clouds in the distance.
So a horse and cart service busied itself moving the new arrivals and their cumbersome gear across the wide expanse of fields that lay ahead of us, as we held on hoping not to fall off over the bumps and gashes on the ground.

The horses sweated in the heat. Added to this was an excruciating background aroma of a muck-spreading facility near by. What a pong indeed! And up went a village of tents over following days as Sunrise geared into action.
As the first night came to a close, we learnt that the festival hadn’t sold out. To be honest this whole expanse of countryside looked like being designed for more than the projected 5000 paying guests. Subsequently, we were informed that 8000 had been estimated to be there by Saturday, but there were only 3000 who had actually paid to attend.
This was discovered, to the gasps and groans of some of afore mentioned guests seeing the statement sign-posted above the bar at ID Spiral. I must add here that in general we all sympathised with the plight of the festival organisers.

The worst was that they had admitted to a deficit of £40.000. And had thus declared themselves bankrupt as of the Saturday…donations were apparently requested, to the obvious annoyance of many present, and I’m sure that their idea of a whip-round fell mostly on death ears to compound matters even further!
In fact by the Monday evening, I learnt in the crew area, that the un-paid security team had left the site; that the loos had ceased to be emptied and cleaned, which caused unpleasantness indeed to all; Yes sir!
Fears were growing also in the rumour factory on site that a load of acts, scheduled for the Solstice night, would fail to appear as billed especially “Eat static”.
But that aside it didn’t stop the festy and Eatstatic performed in their usual “full-throttle” show; where prog-rock meets intelligent techno, with a soupcons of psy-trance creeping in to new treatments of old classics and in their new material as well.

For me the highlight of the festival was definitely Dreadzone on Saturday night. The best performance of this band I have witnessed in the past five years and I see them every year. Mc Spee informed a delighted crowd that they would feature on a forthcoming live album being recorded that night. Unfortunately their set was cut short by poor organisation, which overran the schedule. It was dreadful considering it affected the headline act. But I’m biased!
I have to also mention here Banco de Gaia’s set, which he delivered at a high-octane level. Really pumping! With some dark and dirty mixes, that curled the hairs on the back of my neck. Fantastic. He never disappoints because he always takes his audience into uncharted musical territory. You cannot predict what comes next apart from “Last train to Lhassa” which is regularly includes in his set. From time to time it is performed with the use of live acoustic instruments, sorry but I cannot recall details.

Before him Gaudi had serenaded us to a fine set: well banging out reggae, dub and trance styles mixing into an absorbing cocktail of uplifting music that had most of us jigging along as you just couldn’t stop dancing.
All sorts of facilities (too many to mention here) were on offer. The sauna was particularly popular as an effective means of de-crusting the old layers of dirt and sweat and there were also some paying showers for the festy lightweights! A children’s environment, was equipped with small-scale toilets, tables and chairs surrounded by and supplied with various entertainments for the little horrors.
And it was a pleasure to watch and experience them, free of constraints, running around the site to their heart’s content. I was impressed too by their brightly coloured hippy clothes and funky styles.

They were blowing up a full-scale bouncy-castle church as you entered the main site from the car park and it was busy with alternative weddings and sharing of vows during the weekend; hilarious as the spire persistently insisted on staying horizontal to the amusement of all. It’s those little things that always make it for me. The quirky stuff is the food of memories. There was also a section by the entrance for the campaigns and protest groups which I didn’t visit as I only discovered it on the last day on a rare visit to the car park so I cannot report on it and wasn’t aware that any of my friends had either.

ID Spiral provided the main chill-out area on the vast expanse of green that formed the middle of the site with all the marquees, stage areas and themed areas bordering its edge all around. Le Mufti been strangely confused from day into night or vice versa, inventing his way around, which led to many pleasant discoveries and new adventures each day. ID Spiral’s main feature was a geodesic dome where the DJ section was located and it served up an eclectic mix of chilled grooves ranging from the Beatles to worldly grooves, light trance and electronica amongst its many varied styles.

Whirl-Y-Gig provided the night time party, on the opening day and on the Solstice night; finishing with the usual undulating parachute sit-down to Monkey Pilot’s gliding musical mixes. Their crew did a grand job on a marquee that really wasn’t big enough I felt, to accommodate all those present. But with thirteen environments to choose from it managed to work.
Amongst these was this beautiful marquee in Indian Rajah-style, whose red and green-stripped interior laid host to acoustic and chill DJ sets and provided a friendly chill-out space with a small bar during the day.
The Small World and the Galactic stages both located inside marquees were other special places where we listened to poetry, speakers on various spiritual based subjects and acoustic sets. There was a place that had, as it’s central feature, an exquisite Vedantic carving of exceptional quality.

Its base was adorned with enormous quarts crystals that lay in a circle around it. You could sit alongside them and experience their beauty. This tent was a wonderful place indeed. It was busy with healers and the odd sleeping casualty!
Finally, I must make an observation about the loos that were scattered around the festival site. Special wooden loo blocks with sawdust had been erected. Sections of bales had been provided for the men to pee on.
These more ecological alternatives were by far more comfortable than the grim “portaloos”, even though I admit that I experienced the latter when they were clean and unblocked… well that’s at least until Tuesday came around!

In hindsight what made this festie so successful, was the overall and collective vibe shared by all the people in this extended hippy tribe; without any of the external influences or pissed- heads to mar the proceedings.
Hardly any theft was reported, apart from a few break-ins in the car park but nothing major. A wonderful spirit of generosity transcended these halcyon days in Somerset and I hope that the bankruptcy will not stop this happening again next year, as I will be amongst the first to get a ticket.

©Le Mufti

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