Festivals come in all different shapes and sizes these days and there's no real shortage of them either. If you're feeling like an adventurous festival goer you can pack your case and jet across europe to get crunk on an island and listen to some dubstep or head down to spain and get your festival fix at Sonar or Benicassim.
However you don't necessarily have to take flight and travel miles and miles to find a sick festival. There's plenty in England and I think there's a lot to be said for ditching the stress and impersonal atmosphere you so often find at the big festivals and swapping it for one of the UK's smaller festivals.
Nozstock near Worcester in the south west is one of a number of very young independent festivals that have been popping up over the last decade or so. Forget the gargantuan Glastonbury and the Commercial neon filled tents of Creamfields, Nozstock takes it back to the roots where the whole music festival concept began in the sixties with Woodstock, Isle of Wight and Glastonbury. It even references the first festival in its name.
Hosted on a farm and its surrounding paddocks Nozstock grew over the last decade from a regular summer BBQ into an annual party drawing a few more people each year until it grew into a fully fledged multi stage festival. Nozstock's family/community vibes have not got lost in the growing process and even though there are some kids running around. You don't need to worry that the atmosphere is too family to get smashed in because it definitely isn't.
The lineup this year covered all sorts of acts across a wide spectrum of genres. Pretty much what you'd expect at a festival haha. Highlights for our team included a sick little ska band called tin roots who brightened up our slightly hungover saturday afternoon and also the veteran Blockheads whose playing prowess definitely reflected their experience. Sadly they now play minus the deceased Ian Dury however his space has been amply filled by Phil Jupitus and their set definitely drew the biggest crowd of the weekend.
From the dubstep and DnB end of the spectrum we checked out Caspa, High Contrast and Sub Focus. Admittedly not very much underground talent there but they certainly brought a party feel to the aptly named "Rave Yard". My own personal enjoyment of High Contrast was marred slightly by my completely sober trip over a monitor resulting in me falling flat on my face in front of the whole room. Shit happens though ey.
Outside the Rave yard and away from the main stage theres a number of smaller stages tucked into corners around the site. With some amazing small bands and musicians playing. You know the sort of hidden gems that make you stop in your tracks as you wander aimlessly through festivals and take a moment to actually appreciate a guy who can really play guitar but sadly due to the nature of capitalism probably dont have a record deal.
When you get bored of all the music in your ears. You can roam around the trademark festival stalls. Those ones where you can buy an indian head-dress of a 60 year old psytrance guy wearing boots from star wars and zebra pattern leggings or maybe buy a wooden carving of a dragon of a guy who looks like Dumbledore and lives in a caravan made out of old bicycles.
Theres also a stand up tent which turns into a burlesque tent at night. Which means you just cant lose really its either eye wateringly funny or full of birds not wearing very much. My personal highlight was a woman painted to look like a moth jumping up and down on a pile of broken glass generally the sort of stuff you only really see in fields at half three in the morning.
No review of a festival is really of any use unless it tells you about the toilets and trust the toilets at Nozstock are the cleanest festival toilets i have ever seen. So bear that in mind when you're buying your ticket to Nozstock '11 you shouldn't have any difficulty queueing nor shud there be any risk of catching dyssentry. So all in all if you're looking for an intimate chilled festival to add to your festival calendar Nozstock is definitely one worth considering for next year.
ARKIST EP - SUBDEPTH 
Comments