Festival Friday! Secret Garden Party

I'm finally back, it's finally Friday, both of which mean it's Festival Friday! This weeks Festival Friday is Secret Garden Party.

Based in Huntingdon, Secret Garden Party first opened it's gates to 1000 punters with one stage back in 2004. It opened as an alternative to the more mainstream music festivals. Now it has grown massively and has over 15 stages, as well as more than 26,000 punters flood through it's gates every year. However it has never lost that alternative or independent feel. 

One of the great things about SGP is the amount of care, time and thought that goes in to the site. Everywhere you look there is cool things to see and do, art work to admire, a hidden stage to find, a lake to swim in, and so much more. Each year there is a new theme, this year it was 'Childish Things', last year its was 'Beyond the Yellow Brick Road', the year before that it was 'Superstition', you get the picture. The themes are always well thought out and the site decorated accordingly. The punters take the themes very seriously as well, dressing up to the 9's and are so imaginative with their costumes. There is a huge variety of music at SGP, I would say pretty much every genre of music is covered. The line up is usually full of up and coming bands and artist, with some classics and big names thrown in. Previous headliners have included Gorillaz,  Blondie, Fat Freddy's Drop and Javis Cocker. 

Secret Garden Party supports lots of charities, but one that stood out for me was C.A.L.M. (Campaign Against Living Miserably). It's aim is to prevent male suicide in the UK, as it is the single biggest cause of death for men aged 20-45 in the UK. Personally I think many people don't realise how bad the situation is and don't fully understand depression and anxiety is not something you can just 'get over'. SGP had The CALMzone tent, where you could sit and chill on big sofas, take a load off and enjoy a good, free cup of tea. The CALM crew were there to chat to about the charity as well as anything and everything else you wanted to talk about. Follow C.A.L.M. on Twitter @theCALMzone, you can also use the hashtag #CALMSGP to find out more about C.A.L.M.'s work at Secret Garden Party.

Now for this year, Thursday 23rd - Sunday 26th July 2015

Headliners: Jungle, The Cat Empire, Caravan Palace

Other artist include: Will and the People, Jack Garratt, Public Broadcasting Service, Lianne La Havas, Kate Tempest, Gentlemen's Dub Club, Natty, Honne, Temples, Roots Manuva, Kawehi, Darwin Deez, Beans on Toast, Rhodes, The Rumble, Ian Siegal, CC Smugglers, The Urban Voodoo Machine, Fleetmac wood, Chainska Brassica, Nizlopi, Rum Buffalo, Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate, Temple Funk Collective, Dizraeli, 

Links

SGP Website

What to Pack

C.A.L.M. Website

Secret Garden Party 2015!

Sorry about the long break on posts, I have been super busy and catching up on sleep. However today is a new day and a new week, so I decided to get my act together and finally post my (rather short) review of Secret Garden Party. 

Secret Garden Party was first and foremost, very muddy and wet. This, working long shifts and not having enough sleep put me off venturing out into the festival as much as I normally would. So unfortunately my review for SGP will be a bit shorter than my usual festival reviews. 

I did manage to venture out on the Thursday and Friday before things got too muddy. However this was mostly to see arena its self.  What makes SGP different is that they take a lot of pride in the small things. The theme this year was childhood things, and as always there was artwork and installations all over the site to do with the theme. What made it extra special for me this year, was that one of my friends, Jess Grimsdale, an Illustration Student at Falmouth Uni, had her artwork up all over the festival. She had created SGP's Secret Alphabet. So there were 26 Letters dotted around the festival. Each had a word that was associated with that letter and SGP. For example, T was for Tomfoolery. That one was my favourite and is now on my wall at home. 

I didn't see anyone I had planned to see, because I was working and the mud meant it took twice as long to get anywhere. Hopefully I will catch them at later festivals. I did however come across Honne, who I hadn't heard of before, this English duo have a sort of futuristic soul sound and were great when I came across them on the main stage at SGP. They are playing at Electric Picnic, a festival I'm going to in September, so hopefully I will manage to catch their whole set there. 

Although the rain and mud prevented me from seeing many acts, I did have a really good time at Secret Garden Party. The arena its self this year was awesome, so well decorated and there was always something new to see. SGP always has brilliant acts that are always up for getting/ keeping the party going. Last year for example, they had Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, which was just incredible (one of my favourite performances I have ever seen). This year was no different, I just didn't manage to make it through the mud to see all the incredible acts.

If you managed to survive the mud and dress up to the 9s all weekend, let me know! I would love to hear from you. Let me know who you saw as well, it's always great to hear who you loved seeing.