Secret Garden Party – Huntington, Cambridgeshire – 22-25/7/10
4/5
Don’t you just love a happy ending? When the characters, after much trouble and strife, all laugh and joke and fall into each others’ arms, singing merrily in perfect harmony with the birds as the sun sets on the most gorgeous pastoral setting? Of course you do, we all do. However, have you ever wondered what the world is like when the curtain falls on that perfect scene? Surely, as we are told, they live happily ever after. And if that is the case, I having a sneaking suspicion their lives would look a bit like the Secret Garden Party.
It is impossible to put into words the simple feeling of euphoria that you get just walking around the festival site (which, at 17,000 capacity, is the perfect size – you never find yourself more than twenty minutes away from anywhere you want to be). At every turn you’re confronted by some new delight, be it mud-wrestling primary school children, a jungle-tent-cum-ball-pit, or a giant game of Twister. Participation is the key, and the more one gave over the weekend the more one got out of it - I assume the gentlemen who were dressed up as babies and instructed to hit each other with space hoppers while suspended from zip-wires had an even richer experience than those of us who saw the spectacle on the floor (though, in our defence, we all had a go a minute later). The atmosphere throughout the weekend was electric, with everyone united in the knowledge that they were part of something very special and were doing their utmost to keep it that way.
The Secret Garden Party is one of those brilliant sorts of festival where you can have the weekend of your life without ever even bumping into the main stage, as the smaller joys more than compensate for the lack of an extensive list of big names. However, all the acts we took in, big or small, were clearly absolutely delighted to be sharing in such an exuberant and welcoming atmosphere.
The Destroyers (aka The Best Festival Band In The World™) tore apart first the Village Hall and then the Gaia stages throughout the wee small hours of Saturday with their rambunctious, theatrical gypsy-punk; Othello Woolf charmed the following afternoon with his wonky soul-pop; The Lovely Eggs brought a smile to the faces of all present with punk ditties about fighting scorpions and feeding mice; hell, even Darwin Deez managed to disguise the fact that every single one of his songs sounds the same by putting on a terrific show of bad dancing and impromptu games of ‘Spin the Bottle’ with the audience.
Saturday evening, it goes without saying, was a feast for the eyes, with Gorillaz Sound System sparking off a night of madness under blistering fireworks and the remains of the ship that had stood in the middle of the festival’s own (perfectly fine for swimming) lake winking off into the Cambridgeshire night. The large reggae presence on all stages was done justice by the Skatalites’ Sunday set even despite technical difficulties and the fact that leader Lester Sterling seems to have slightly lost his marbles (there are only so many repetitions of “we gon’ play the ‘itside, no flipside!” before you start to question if he knows where he is). And I can’t go through with this without mentioning the Village Hall House Band with their superb selection of swing covers ranging from Beyonce to Bat for Lashes.
It must be said, the best fun was to be had away from the bright lights and tech hitches of the main stage. The already mentioned Village Hall was an absolute delight, with vicars on hand for impromptu weddings (and to shout at you for being a “stupid c*nt!”) throughout the day and proper knees-ups until the early hours. Just opposite this a shisha bar was to be found doing cracking toasties until 1AM for reasonable prices and soothing any of your ills with incense and chilled-out hip-hop. The Where the Wild Things Are stage combined excellent acts with a touch of picture-book magic, and the ‘Forest’ at the very tip of the site held all wonders of (mainly badger-based) delights. If you were so inclined, you could sample various theatre companies doing their things and then nip over to the nearby tank-turned-soundsystem to shake out any pins and needles you may have acquired while watching the performance. The main dance area of the site was a pagoda that jutted out into the middle of the lake - I mean, what else did we expect really? - and the ‘Collo-silly-um’ expertly mixed some of the funkiest beats on site with the mud-wrestling and baby-fighting outlined earlier. Those were the days, boys.
The festival is still in its teething stages, and there are some creases that certainly need ironing out - the queue to get in, for instance, was ridiculous, and by the fourth hour of standing in line some were getting mutinous. But this will all come with time, and the minor gripes should not at all detract from what was without question one of the most lively, empowering and downright fun weekends of the year for every person there.
Keep an eye on this one, it’s got “national treasure” written all over it.
Artists in this article: Gorillaz, Darwin Deez, The Destroyers, Othello Woolf, The Lovely Eggs, The Skatalites, The Village Hall House Band
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