The Wytches

In my younger and more vulnerable years a hippie gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

"Whenever you feel you need the toilet at a festival," he told me, "just remember that the ones inside the arena get cleaned right after 11:30 so try your best to bake it until then."

And thus begins my memory of festivals: endless fields strewn with discarded baggies and cardboard cups. Herds of pink-coiffed punks and dreadlocked crusties impaled with a thousand miniature stainless steel objects, all bogling together outside a legal highs tent shaking in the wind. My own innumerable psychological breakdowns inside hot portaloos of a harrowing state, the image of which has been indelibly tattooed onto my consciousness. All this to the backdrop of countless bands whom I have varied recollection of actually seeing.  In this way, just as remembrance and the fiction consumed amalgamates into one shapeless blob, so do the festivals of my youth all fuse into one long, undying gestalt festival in my mind.

Continue reading: Visions Festival 2013 Review

Leeds Festival has been a not-to-miss date in our calendar for years. Over the past few years the UK has seen many boutique and independent festivals pop up and more people appear to be getting their festival fixes from these smaller events, but they're never going to be able to provide what Leeds Festival does so well. Consistency! Sometimes it is a case of 'you get what you pay for' and Leeds is a perfect example of that. Sure, Leeds perhaps isn't for the more mature gig attendee, but it never has been. It's a weekend of fun and partying that sees thousands of music fans partake in the festivities. 

Since its inception organiser Melvin Benn and the team at Festival Republic have known exactly who their audience is and catered for them, Leeds & Reading festivals now run as a well-oiled three day event that means everyone who's bought a ticket will have a great time. Even the toilets in the main arena are kept to a good level of cleanliness, far higher than most of our experiences at smaller festivals! 

Set in one of the most ideal festival grounds in the UK, Bramham Park, the festival has a well laid out site plan and features plenty of bars and activities outside of the main arena to keep people occupied all through the day and night.  

Continue reading: Leeds Festival 2013 - Preview