Festival in Focus: Secret Garden Party
Taking place in late July in the sort of East Anglia countryside that would make Keats and Shelley pen a Tolstoy-an brood of odes, Secret Garden Party has come a commendably long way since its conception in 2004. Back then, 1,000 charmed revellers got to experience the single handbuilt stage being manned by a technician who stayed naked for the full three days of the festival, and were invited to take a dawn dip in the site's lake with the organisers.
Now it's back for the seventh year, accommodating 17,000 people and having played host in the interim to acts ranging from Jarvis Cocker, Super Furry Animals and Lily Allen to things like 'The Suicide Olympics' (consisting of people jumping into 6 ft high pianos) and 'Radio Q103' - a night of madness that came about when a group of revellers converted a derelict teepee they found on site into a fully working dance tent.
Certainly the festival encourages as much participation from punters as they're willing to give, and then some. Away from the main stage there are art tents, parades, theatre workshops and performances, swimming, treasure hunts and many more things that sound like far too much fun. There are also three smaller stages - 'Where the Wild Things Are', 'The Living Room', and 'Small World' - in an area dubbed 'The Forest', as well as the intensely amazing sounding 'Bands in Trees' which one thinks should be pretty self-explanatory. If you need to take a break from all this cool stuff, there are massage parlours, cocktail lounges and ale tents, and a "Bellboy-served boutique camp ground". Oh, and did I mention that you have the option of travelling around the site ON A MOTHERF**KING TRAIN?
The first wave of bands have been announced, and it is looking very, very tasty to say the least. The first headliner has been revealed as the Gorillaz Sound System, an audio-visual extravaganza featuring the group's Murdoc Niccols presiding over live visuals and percussion while he mans the decks for a megamix of the band's back catalogue. This alone would be enough to bring your good author through sleet and snow to the festival, and that's even before one considers that the bill also boasts Mercury Rev, Marina and the Diamonds, The Whip and The Skatalites, with many more to be added over the coming months.
In addition to all this, every Secret Garden Party has a theme. This year, it is 'Fact and Fiction'. In the words of the organisers;
"In 2010 the Secret Garden Party will be prizing open the chinks in man’s most carefully constructed edifice; Reality. The Garden will be exploring the theories, fantasies, mysteries, legends, visions and illusions that have created a rich world between Fact and Fiction.
For artists they take inspiration from Heath Robinson, Escher and Dali; from authors and poets they look to H G Wells, Lewis Carroll and Coleridge; for inventors and scientists, figures such Da Vinci, the Wright Brothers and pioneering astrophysicists.
From the past, the focus will be on the beliefs, which now seem like pure fiction, but in their day were ‘proven fact’ … the edge of a flat world and the riches of alchemy. For impossibilities of our own world the festival will be exploring urban legends, magic and illusion, geographical twilight zones, conspiracies and mysteries; areas of our culture which defy explanation.
The Secret Garden Party has always been a place where fantastical happenings take place. Join us this summer as we venture beyond the boundaries of reality more than ever."
It is right that the festival has required a reputation for being one of the most welcoming, enjoyable and eye-opening around. For one weekend in East Anglia, 7,000 forward-thinking and innovative people can shed the trappings of modern life, re-define their existence and experience an infinitely enjoyable parallel way of living, at once paying gracious homage to a peaceful past and stepping boldly forward. Bring your dancing shoes as well as your Pimms, this is going to be one hell of a Garden Party.
Key Details:
Dates: July 22nd-25th 2010
Price: standard adult ticket = £142; campervan ticket = £187; 13-17 year old ticket = £115; under 13s get in free, but will still require a ticket - available to purchase from www.secretgardenparty.com
Acts: (more to be confirmed) Gorillaz Sound System; Mercury Rev; Marina and the Diamonds; The Skatalites; The Jessie Road Trip; The Whip; Kate Walsh; David Rodigan; Crystal Fighters; Example Soundsystem with DJ Wire; Bellaruche; Golden Filter; Apples; Kid Bombardos; Charli XCX; Freestylers Soundsystem + Tenor Fly and MC Sirreal; Death Metal Disco; Jakwob; Doorly; Pearl and the Puppets; The Crookes; Panda Su
Location: Secret! Obviously!
Website: www.secretgardenparty.com