FESTIVALS – GREEN MAN 2008
by Tommy Wide
Pictured: Laura Marling. Photo: Tommy Wide
The Green Man Festival – Glanusk Park
Artists: Super Furry Animals, Noah and the Whale, Laura Marling, Spiritualized, Pentangle, The National, Los Campesinos!
‘And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.’
Weather of biblical proportions hit the Green Man Festival this year. Perhaps angry at the increasing number of festivals spreading like a plague of locusts across England, God hit the small Welsh village of Crickhowell hard. Starting on Friday night, the rain did not let up for three days turning the campsite into a quagmire and weakening the resolve of the hardiest folksters; we Brits like nothing more than three days in a muddy field to bring out the Dunkirk spirit in us all, but at least there were boats at Dunkirk.
And yet. And yet. The festival somehow managed to survive with its honour intact, due mainly to the quality of the music set across three stages in the loveliest of all festival settings. Broadening out from its humble folk beginnings, without ever losing sight of its roots, it offered excellent undiscovered gems, Next Big Things, and old favourites, without any of the O2-sponsored-BlackberryDevice-recharging-facilities and spend-a-night-in-a-Maharajah-tent-with-a-walk-in wardrobe-and-free-pair-of-Hunter-wellies that is becoming more and more common at British festivals.
As the weather deteriorated, the music steadily improved, with many of the weekend’s highlights to be found on Sunday afternoon and evening- a shame for many of the punters who had already left on Sunday morning worn down by the unrelenting showers. Spiritualized headlined Friday night to a rather mute reception- Jason Pierce hid behind walls of fuzz that made one feel damp rather than euphoric. On Saturday the Bowerbirds offered up a quirky take on American pastoralism that chimed with the rural setting and in the evening the Junior Boys got the crowd waving their umbrellas to tight electro-tinged pop. Later on the main stage Richard Thompson was a big hit with a typically energetic solo performance. However, the real highlights were to be found on Sunday: Mumford and Sons raised the roof of the Folky-Dokey tent with a big warm sound beyond their years, Los Campesinos brought sunshine and smiles to complement their stellar year on the rise, and Laura Marling hushed the crowd and the storms with a performance that seemed intimate despite the main-stage setting. A specially-reformed Pentangle brought the festival to a fitting close with a golden oldies set to an adoring crowd who momentarily forgot the flood around them. Nevertheless, we thanked God that it was over as we trudged back to our tents, two by two. Hurrah. Hurrah.
