Livestock Festival

Friday 31st July - 

Sunday 2nd August

We may well have been the only people to make the journey from London to Tewksbury for the inaugural Livestock Festival.  We were lured there by the opportunity to see some new bands that we have a social media relationship with; Under a Banner, Penny for the Workhouse, Prism and knew that we were guaranteed a good time from the three headliners The Feeling, Scouting for Girls and The Hoosiers. 


So, we booked a room in a pub, in a town, in the vicinity (Did I ever tell you the story of Janie threatening EXTREME violence to me, in a cold damp tent, at the dead of night at a festival?) and set off down the M4 in our festival car Delilah.  




We talked a taxi into taking us to the festival, largely by pretending that we were seriously into farming (it is a strange name for a music festival - was it to hoodwink the planning officers and local community?)  and on a glorious Friday evening we drove down into Manor farm, offsetting the taxi driver's grumbles about his chassis with the incredible view below us.



Manor Farm is a glorious site for a festival.  Lush and green and spacious, very, very, VERY spacious.  On Friday night the festival was quiet in a way that only Bjork truly understands. 

However, it had obvious potential.  There were places to eat, a large bar (crowd free) and a main stage that was covered; small but perfectly formed.  Hay bales provided the perfect spot to hang out and drink a cocktail, YES A COCKTAIL or two.  It was like seeing a festival ultrascan, undeniably a perfectly formed festival but somewhat embryonic, with a few grey areas.

The Friday night bands were really playing the graveyard shift, although the crowd, such as it was, flocked to The Feeling at 10pm  and the atmosphere in the mosh pit was amazing!  I certainly left with ringing ears and throbbing feet and a warm fuzzy feeling towards livestock.  The blue moon hanging high above the Livestock sign added to the romance of the whole occasion.

Saturday had an entirely different feel, the glorious weather and possibly the best known of the Headline acts, brought curious locals flocking, see what I did there, to Livestock.  Pony rides, activity tents and the big red comedy bus appeared to be doing a roaring trade and families possibly outnumbered the 'first-festival' teens of the night before.  

Janie and I managed to spend much of our time mooching in the VIP area - which almost works.  It really is more of a backstage pass as there is no view of the stage from VIP, but hey ho - I'm a sucker for a flushing toilet and a sofa.  It's also a great place to chat with bands and pick up gossip.  There were a number of rumours floating around about Livestock, many asserting, for example,  that Livestock had been running for a number of years in different guises and different locations, but whilst we were told that we were welcome to interview Ben Leeke, our genial host "Although no comparisons to Michael Eavis please" he was unsurprisingly a pretty busy man this weekend.  

Saturday was almost perfect, although11am-11pm is a long day for a festival and a few more stalls and activities,  there are only so many hats a dance happy girl can buy, would have helped to break the day up a little.  But there was an unashamedly good time vibe which was infectious, aided and abetted by some remarkably good unsigned bands (but more of them later)  Scouting for Girls finished off Saturday night in their own endearingly rowdy way.  Talking of scouting, Ben took to the stage at the end of the night, looking for all the world like a benevolent scout master himself, letting us know that we could watch a movie before bed. Janie and I didn't hang around - we managed to hitch a lift back to Upton as the cab firm were now refusing to come down and pick us up.  Upton Cabs don't give it to you - as Bruno Mars almost said.     

We were in two minds about returning to the festival on Sunday     It is not really designed for people who don't camp yet come to all three days, there was nowhere to retreat to for a snooze and we had already eaten every type of food at least once, but lured we were by the Hoosiers and our seemingly insatiable curiosity.  Sunday was all mellowness and pretty quiet and low key. Rumour had it that the silent disco of the night before, was anything but :) and I feel that there was a sense of fragility amongst many of the revellers.   We didn't arrive until after 6pm having lost ourselves in the view of the Severn and the Sunday papers.  So we actually missed most of the unsigned live acts which really are the strength of Livestock.

However we were present when lightening struck the ground a mile away from the festival site and Ben, in full on mother hen, gathered us to him.  Hay bales, blankets and picnic chairs were hauled into the safety of the main stage, it was a charmingly British, cosy way to end the festival.

The Hoosiers, came on to 'Take me to Church' presumably a nod to anyone who thought they had come to see Hozier, and closed the festival in a riot of glitter and enthusiasm. 

We enjoyed Livestock, there was a naivety about the whole festival which meant that your bags weren't searched on the way in, although my smuggling peaked at a packed of chocolate buttons and a diet coke and similarly it attracted a crowd of first time festival goers declaring that they would NEVER remove their bands.  

The range of bands were truly impressive, and we found a few real diamonds.  The food was good and local and well priced.  The site was kept impeccably clean and it felt all fresh and shiny and new

I began by saying that the festival was somewhat embryonic - I stand by it, but I think that we may well just have been at the birth of something special.