The Secret Garden Party festival review
- Jul 30, 2010
It may no longer be much of a secret but it hasn’t seemed to stop the Secret Garden Party from pulling off the festival of the summer. This year, as numbers swelled to over 17,000, attending ‘gardeners’ were treated to some of the brightest up-and-coming talents on offer, not to mention the staggering amount of events and activities around, which helped to make it a festival unlike any other once more.
This year’s theme of ‘Fact or Fiction’ was slightly harder to pin point than last year’s ‘Eden and Babylon’ but thousands still took up the challenge dressing as audaciously as possible in all manner of outfits including superheroes, badgers, wizards and even someone as the Scottish Widow. Thursday saw most people warming into the experience they were about to undertake as the queues to get in and limited amount of music on offer allowed people to get a grip on their surroundings, and take in just how much there was to see, as the newly extended areas presented more adventures than ever.
Brighton act The Half Sisters gave the spectators at the Where The Wild Things Are stage on Friday lunch an enjoyable start to the weekend, with their cutesy and tranquil harmony-led tracks, before folkie turned 60’s rocker Fionn Regan graced the Main Stage playing a surprisingly early but none-the-less brilliant set as he chronologically performed material from his two records with the quality we’ve come to expect of him. Showing everyone what earned him his Mercury award nomination for ‘The End of History’ the first few numbers were gentle and melodic, played solo but with far more confidence than when he first appeared on the scene a few years ago. Before long though the accompanying band were on stage as the Irishman tore into the greatest tracks of this yt ear’s ‘The Shadow of an Empire’ with his hard-hitting, fast paced Dylan-esque rock. As evening started setting in The Jessie Rose Trip – the first act to sign on to The Secret Garden Party’s music label – took to the stage giving the crowd of on-lookers a thoroughly entertaining set, showing just why the ‘Head Gardeners’ put so much faith in them. Marina and the Diamonds followed Jessie Rose as the Main Stage’s headline act and put in a performance worthy of the critical acclaim they’ve been receiving over the past year.
As night time sets in and the stages begin to close another world opens up as the tents that tended to take a back seat during the day came out in dominance, overflowing with people and filled with music that could be heard from all over. Entertainers took to the pathways entrancing and distracting passers-by throughout the night as the carnival-like atmosphere hit its peak. The Ferris Wheel would roll day and night giving a spectacular view of the grounds and the different worlds to see and the campsites had a never ending atmosphere as you started to get the impression that no two people at The Secret Garden Party were on the same time zone.
The live music continued on into Saturday, as Rough Trade records’ highly rated newcomer Joe Worricker played an intimate set to a large crowd on the sunny banks by the Tree Stage. I Blame Coco gave an energetic performance to a packed out Main Stage on Saturday afternoon as she played a collection of her most recent songs which were greatly received, but the main event of the day that everyone was eagerly awaiting was just a few hours away...
Once more the floating stage on the lake attracted thousands; in place of last year’s ‘Tower of Babel’ was ‘Kronos 101’ – a huge blimp alleged to possess the powers of time travel but which would have a disappointingly short lifespan. There was a band performing on a raft travelling around the lake and the swimming section was once again opened, though it was still hard to tell if people were dirtier getting in or out of the cloudy water.
As Saturday night arrived the banks of the main stage were absolutely rammed with people as everyone crowded in to get a view of the Blimp going up in flames (a traditional act), which was accompanied by a spectacular firework display – far greater than previous years – even on the other side of the lake the crowd of spectators went back by some fifty feet. Following this impressive spectacle The Gorrilaz Sound System (the music behind the group) performed to what has to be a record breaking audience for The Secret Garden Party (so record breaking in fact that I couldn’t even get within a hundred yards of it) which went down well.
Sunday morning saw Callum Read (of Callum Read and The Books) get the proceedings underway at Where The Wild Things Are, playing an very enjoyable and rare solo acoustic set to a large and enthusiastic audience – particularly impressive, given the eventfulness of the previous night. The afternoon and evening was dominated by musical legends over at the Main Stage as the Jamaican reggae musician Horace Andy and his band played some of his greatest songs from his forty year career to a packed out, euphoric audience. Following this would be a difficult task for most acts but not for fellow Jamaicans The Skatalites who – despite most of their original members no longer being with us – pulled off a fantastic set, as thousands of viewers came together to celebrate a performance in a way that only ska music manages to do.
The last headline act of the festival, Mercury Rev, played the Main Stage to a huge audience but the real party was some 100-feet from that where Johnny Cage and the Voodoogroove put in one of the performances of the weekend at the Feast of Fools stage, fully accompanied by an 1850’s-style Western Cabaret show which helped end the night in true Secret Garden Party fashion.
The music finished early on Sunday night, as usual, and most people slowly prepared themselves for the winding-down of the adventure and an incredible weekend as they got ready to re-emerge in the real world once more. Some can accept it easier than others, however, and come Monday morning – as you can imagine – there were still plenty of people carrying on the party and arranging hopelessly optimistic events such as boat races in the lake, but for most of us reality took a hold once more and, for another year at least, the adventure was over.
Tom Sowerby
