| Beatherder Festival |
 I first heard of Beatherder about 6 years ago when a colleague was muttering drunkenly in the pub about a festival gathering in some woods that some mates of hers were putting on. For some ridiculous reason I couldn’t make it that year, and never got around to going any other year either. Until now, when one week after Glastonbury, I dragged my wellies and air mattress back out into a field full of nutters and noise for 3 more days of silliness.
There are a few Beatherder traditions which - well make Beatherder Beatherder really. The first I was introduced to was Grandad’s tunnel, starting in the middle of the woodland Toiltrees soundsystem as a fake launderette (formerly Grandad’s front room). You’re then dared to crawl through a 3 foot high tunnel which takes you out to the New Field, complete with massage and pizza tents. (These are separate tents I should add, there’s no tomato-smearing fetish as far as I could tell). It’s probably more exciting if it’s 3am and you’re mashed off your face, but we tried it at 3pm and it kinda lacked something. Like fairy lights. Lots of people raved about how amazing it was though, so I can only assume they did it at 3am. The second cornerstone of Beatherder is fancy dress day. Yes I know other festivals encourage dressing up too, but Beatherder’s been doing it just as long as they have, and well, I liked the costumes. This year’s theme was “something beginning with B”, and while I was disappointed not to see any Bob Holnesses or neon hexagon grids, I was impressed with the Beastie Boys and the smattering of bishops who came out of the woodwork, not to mention the beekeeper who went round trapping festival goers in bumblebee costumes in his big beekeeper’s net. Now that’s initiative! Photos: Adam Birch But onto the music, and there’s much more than the electrohouse, funk & DnB that Beatherder is famous for, although of course you can happily construct boxes the entire weekend at the Toiltrees (picturesque wooded clearing for carefree open air raving) and Stumblefunk (from Manchester lad) soundsystems - I’d have given it some myself if I’m honest but my friends all prefer their music guitarry and their dancing moshy. As I like both (indeed all) kinds of dancing and tunes, I consoled myself at missing most of the Utah Saints’ Sugarbeat club DJs with some old-skool rock and ska punk in the Beatherder and District Working Mans Social Club tent, lovingly decorated with puritanical anti-rave notices and photos of Bruce Forsyth. Photos: Adam Birch The working mans tent was home for the weekend to “proper working class bands”, and actually most of them did have a bit of a social message, not least Random Hand with their anti-nazi anthems and Beatherder’s Got Talent runners up Poeticat with their commercial-lifestyle-eschewing entry. The super-stringed and folky Foxes Faux (seriously, I don’t even know what some of their instruments were called) even crowd-surfed to the bar for a can of red stripe during their set, and I don’t think you can get much more grass roots rock & roll than that. Drum n Bass DJ supremo Andy C’s Saturday night set made it impossible to get anywhere near the Stumblefunk tent, but that was fine by me, as I went to see Alt Track rip up the eclectic New (aka Random) Tent, who despite having a malfunctioning keyboard managed to set the crowd on fire with their haunting melodies contrasting with huge crescendos and massive beats. Oh and they’ve got a conscience as well, their lyrics actually mean stuff. Completely electric. Lovingly curated stages like this are what make Beatherder - the Smoky Tentacles Shisha bar stage had jazzy ska, rootsy folk, and dubby beats all weekend from the likes of Undercover Hippy and The Bison-esque King Porter Stomp, creating a hazy, happy, chillout atmosphere overlooking the stone circle. Across the way, Trailer Trash with its Wild West hedonistic theme and 10 foot tall metal monsters guarding it was complemented nicely by the Recovery Room opposite, who did a very nice sandwich thanks very much, along with creative workshops and soul and fusion DJs. Photos: Adam Birch The fabulous and independently run stalls are worth a mention too - I was really impressed with the quality of the food (amazing halloumi from Johnny Baghdad) and in fact the cleanliness of the loos - some even had bog roll in! My favourite had to the Happy Slap tent where they will paint and glitterify your face (boys as well) in a tent decorated with lace and pink stuff and a mini soundsystem manned by superstar cow and lion DJs generally running around having fun while spinning 20s inspired funk from Orkestra del Sol and Caravan Palace. But there was of course a Main Stage, mixing big names and local favourites, not to mention the breathtaking Jack B, beatboxing winner of the Beatherder’s Got Talent event, (5 samples at once? Using just his voice? No problem..); Mr Motivator (yes, really), and The Lancashire Hotpots who led the singalong and conga on Saturday afternoon (much to the distress of the domestic extremists who were trying to tidy up the crowd), but for me the highlights were King Charles (two drummers are always a winner in my book) with his dancerockactualsongjoy, and Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip who don’t pull any punches and got stuck right in there with not one, but two songs about suicide. You can’t go wrong when your words are that powerful though. Beatherder loves you Mr Pip, and we love Beatherder. Words: Elly Oracle |
