The Green Man Festival 2007

By Mark on Monday 20 August 2007 at 14:30

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Got back yesterday night from the Green Man - here's my account, in an NME Festival Diary stylee. There's a lot of it, so here goes:

Thursday

Arrive at about 6 and walk to camping area through beautiful grounds. While setting up, meet Matt and Lucy (who are having a fairly intense shouting match about who should be holding what where) and another Lucy, who has apparently never put up a tent before in her life. After helping them untangle themselves, walk to Green Man Café.

Spend twenty minutes at the bar being taught how to hug properly by a very drunk girl named Jo. Sit down at a random table for a smoke and end up chatting to a load of people from Dublin, and a guy called Pete who runs a music magazine and recommends me a load of bands.

Roughly 7 ciders later realise that it's 1am and I'm still wearing shorts. Start shivering a lot. Realise I don't exactly know where I camped. Highly visible fluorescent scarecrow dangling off tent next to mine eventually rings a bell. End of memory.

Friday

Wake up at about 10 in miniature sauna due to blazing sun outside. Matt and Lucy still arguing about tent. Wander over to the stages and take a few photos. Get pie, mash and gravy from superbly-named Pie Minister.

See Gilbert, who are Weird (note capital W) but really good. Lie around in the sun for a bit drinking cider and listening to Rachel Unthank & The Winterset, who are funny and have amazing voices. Check out Daimh, a traditional Irish/Scottish folk band, and Euros Childs (one of whose songs is called 'Look At My Fridge').

After some more food watch Stephen Duffy, who is playing with The Lilac Time for the first time in 10 years and seems nervy. He has seven guitars. Light rain starts. Stock up on cans of cider from the can bar and meet Holly and Debbie from Hereford. Heavy rain starts. Head for the Green Man Café – Debbie's bloke is the sound engineer at the cafe stage. Torrential rain starts.

Huddle under a (small) umbrella left out by one of the stalls with the two girls and four blokes from Luton. Rain eases. Watch Gareth Pearson, a Welsh acoustic guitarist who is pretty much the best guitarist any of us have ever seen. Go to camp fire and have in depth discussion about Stephen Duffy with a Welsh couple until face begins to melt from intense heat. All of us head down to see Joanna Newsom.

As she starts, phrase 'It's a bit weird, isn't it?' overheard several times among crowd. 10 minutes later entire field is listening with rapt attention as gorgeous harp and voice echoes through the valley. Have long debate with Martin from Luton about epic-length songs. More cider. End of memory.

Saturday

Torrential rain starts again. Wake up at about 12 with face in pool of water. Guy rope has 'gone missing' in the night. Hair reaching epic proportions. So hungover I couldn't give a toss about any of this.

Rain eases. Stumble over to main stage area and get a Moroccan lamb kebab and two strong coffees. Pie Minister queue now in the hundreds. Lie on floor for a couple hours watching a variety of bands (Monkey Swallows The Universe, Lisa Knapp, PG Six, Clinic). Go to get some cider to ease the pain. Barmaid tells me I should probably get two pints at once to save queuing. Agree that that is a good idea.

Broken Family Band are first band I can manage to stand up for. They are brilliant. Go and watch James Yorkston for a bit. For one song he gets a random guy called Jason out of the crowd to make drum sounds with his mouth. Apparently Jason has done this for the past three festivals.

Sit on wall with Aussie girl named Tracy laughing about how unprepared she was for the weather. Spot girl wearing full chicken outfit. Decide that Tracy's outfit is comparatively quite practical. Go and watch Fridge. Last song is just one note all the way through. Still somehow amazing.

Meet guy called Clive from London. Clive has bought loads of weed but can't skin up because he's too wasted. Cue me. Have lengthy conversation about space and science while watching candle-powered hot air balloons rise into sky. Eventually make slowest walk in history over to see Battles. Drummer is fucking awesome. Drunken, stoned dancing in mud evidently quite tricky. Oooh, cider would be nice. End of memory.

Sunday

Sun comes out. Wake up still fully clothed in waterproofs and caked in mud. Hair now threatening to take over Wales. One end of tent full of water.

Take a very, very weary walk into the main arena. BBQ chicken for breakfast. Drink several coffees watching a very talented singer-songwriter on the open mic stage in the Green Field. Watch first three bands on the main stage. Connan And The Mockasins are weirdest band I have seen by a wide margin. Go back and take tent down while it's (relatively) dry.

No-one else I really want to see on now so decide to leave at about 5pm before it gets too muddy to get out. Turns out to be very good decision. Slide (yes, slide) car down extremely hairy mud slope through car park, almost crashing into several parked vehicles. 4 cars stuck across exit in huge pit of mud. Just manage to get out by moving a fence and using bits of branch to add grip.

Severn Bridge. Services. Motorway. Home. Best. Shower. Ever. Sleeeeeeeeeep.


What a festival. Roll on next year!

10 comments:

On Monday 20 August 2007 at 17:29, Matt said:

“Hair reaching epic proportions."

Yep, I can believe that. Sounds like it was worth it though.

On Monday 20 August 2007 at 21:37, Oriel said:

My favourite bit was

"...using bits of branch to add grip."

Cool.

On Monday 20 August 2007 at 21:44, Keely said:

Sounds awesome!

On Monday 20 August 2007 at 22:01, Mark said:

It was Grin

On Monday 20 August 2007 at 23:03, The Masked Avenger said:

How can you enjoy that level of drinking ? I just don't get it.

On Tuesday 21 August 2007 at 11:01, Mark said:

Ironically, I probably drank less than I did at your house the weekend before. And I even went to sleep occasionally.

On Tuesday 21 August 2007 at 11:20, carly said:

Sounds like you had fun! If it was me, the story would be different!

Thursday, arrived. Got Paul from Birmingham to put up my tent. Too scared to walk around on my own. Found rum, passed out.

Friday, didn't sleep, feel terrible. James from Newport and Sally from Portsmouth were dancing and making to much noise! Walked around tried to find the Busted tent! The rain got me wet, lost the tent and my clothes. Went home early!

You are very brave doing that!

On Tuesday 21 August 2007 at 14:50, The Masked Avenger said:

Crime never sleeps. Always vigilant, always ready. You never know when we the city will need us again (I can only assume the civic centre will use a silhouette of a vodka bottle to light up the sky).

On Tuesday 21 August 2007 at 19:00, Pablo said:

Looks like a good laugh, shame about the rain. On an entirely differant note, does anybody want a fridge freezer? low mileage, 3 careful owners, answers to the name Mestopheles.. Free to a good home

On Tuesday 28 August 2007 at 16:14, Tom said:

Wow just listening to Connan and the Mockasins, their really good, i think, Thanks Mark!

Uh yeah, Pabs baby, i'll take that fridge off your hands, i'm moving in with some aryan this weekend, i'm worried if i'm racially pure enough to share his . . . oh , er . . . NOTHING!!!

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