Not sure what edition of this festival this is but I think it the 4th time I have come and I have become more active in the community that surrounds the festival and did a lot of volunteering earlier in the year until my elbow became to bad to do the labour.
Anyway, festival was sold out (250 tickets), approx. 100 for the public and there were about 150 volunteers this year, wow.. Opening ceremony was at 18 and not that many people had arrived, maybe 80 people and same amount of kids. Mad, one of the main organizers, gave a very heartfelt and fun speech and then encouraged every one to gather in the pot (center of the forest stage area) in groups based on what they did as volunteers or artists, etc.. nice way to bring it all together..
Nawty Pharmas started things off. The band is a trio of acoustic guitar, stand up bass, hand drums. Kev, the bass player also played harmonica and banjo. He and the guitar player shared lead vocals. It was all originals as far as I could tell and fun songs with clever lyrics. Some anti-war and very positive messages and some funny one. People enjoyed the set.
O Portugûes Ningûem (Portuguese Nobody) is local talented guitar looper and vocalist, Lúis Oliveira. He played last year just after Doctors of Space to about 6 people so this was a big step up as there were about 20-30 people sitting around and some standing and dancing. He spoke a bit in English but sang all his songs in Portuguese. Nice music, mostly on acoustic guitar. He did mostly originals plus one or two covers.
Carlos Geometri, local DJ from Brighton, UK, played very funky stuff which was a mix of African music, reggae, hip hop, 80s pop but thankfully mostly focused on ethnic grooves this set. He usually plays more 80s pop mixed with hip hop, and disco and I am not really a fan but the people love it and dance like hell at his sets. He is clever and it was great to see him have a turntable and do some scratching. I had never seen him do that before. He was great..
DJ DC was up next on the main stage and then after that they have a small DJ booth over by the bar where DJ Acetate and DJ Bernas would take the party til 3am.. I left about an hr into Carlos. It was a really nice first day and met lots of friends. Pizzas were great as well.
Day 2
I picked up my friend Tom (he is from Belgium) and the bus was 30mins late so we had to rush to get there in time to see the my band mate, Martin and Lunch Club. We missed Boris Nunes (from the band dUASsEMIcOLCHEIASiNVERTIDAS ), Rick Lemon I was told was very cool, playing basoki along to some chilled out beats.
Lunch Club play their version of classic folk rock tracks with acoustic guitar, lead guitar, bass, mandolin and African drums percussion. Male and female vocals. They were a bit nervous but settled in after a 20min late start. They were very well received and played a nice set. Andy Manson (famous guitar builder) on lead guitar was lost in his own world sometimes and noodling away but it was fun.. Martin, was awesome on the bass.. Very cool groove. A beautiful afternoon for this kind of music in the forest.
Some guy named Jay with an acoustic guitar was next and he was quite funny as he did not see to have it very together or planned and was maybe a bit stoned. Anyway, he played for about 30mins I guess to a small crowd..
While Diva and the Teaboy were getting ready, two guys came up and did some rapping. I was eating so I did not see how they were. Diva and the Teaboy were a duo of acoustic guitar (He played electric on one song) doing mostly original material, I think. She had a great voice but as this was a very new band, only 2 weeks old, the guitar player had to read all the music and had no stage presence at all. She had to drive the whole show, so it was hard work to keep the audience interested.. Great voice…
Day 3
Fucking hot today! Up to 38C… Damn.. Doctors of Space are on at 2015 so I could not be out there in that heat all day. We did missed Chiara, Seb Wilson, Songs for the Soul (Mila), all singer songwriter stuff.
We arrived just in time to catch almost all of the Até Jazz Trio, which featured Dinis (guitar and bass), Larry Lush- Keys (Both from Idioteque) and French multi-instrumentalist, Philippe Valdes (drums, etc…). It was perfect late afternoon in the forest jazzy improv stuff. They apparently only met once for 3hrs before doing this gig. Good stuff… DJ Gato Quente, did an hour set of reggae like stuff with a lead singer-rapper guy on some of the tracks. The kids were really into it and they had fun..
DJ Good Morning Eye Ball, played more uptempo electronic stuff from his laptop.. smooth and a good intro before Doctors of Space. We set up during his set so it did not take long before we could start when he was finished. The sun was just setting so it was a beautiful setting. It was still really hot though… It slowly got dark as we finished our set of 5 tracks, lasted about 65mins. We had a very good response from the crowd. Martin totally smashed it on the drum machines. Wow… I was a bit all over the place but I had fun and found some really wicked sounds from the Octave CAT.. It was fun..
The last live act was Hedge Children, lead by Wodan, a local singer songwriter who recorded some great songs in my studio. He how had a 6 piece band with drums, lead guitar, bass, melodica-sax, digeridoo, … Sadly, Sue really wanted to go home so we only saw the first 2 songs. Pity as the sound and the vibe of this very organic all original rock much was so good and people were happy and dancing.. DJ AFEK was the closer.
What a wonderful small festival. Well run, beautiful site, happy people, amazing sound and lights (Merci Phillipe and Leon for the lights). Highly recommended… Thanks to the organizers for inviting me to play for a 3rd time with Doctors of Space. See you next year....
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