The Green Man festival kicks off tomorrow, in the luscious surroundings of Glanusk Park in the Brecon Beacons, South Wales. Expect fields full of colourful circus tents, men with an aversion to shaving and girls dripping with more colours than a collapsed rainbow. Arguably one of the most peaceful, friendly festivals to hit these shores you can rest assured that no scallies will be rifling through your tent for stray cans whilst you take in the music, literature and comedy. The folk here are more likely to replenish dwindling supplies than see you go without, as long as you give them a dimpled smile in return.
Unfortunately, and of no surprise to those who have been here before, the tickets have sold out. But true to the spirit of the event, the website has set up a useful forum for those who can’t make it to sell their tickets. They’ve also put in place legislation to stop toe-rags from buying and selling at inflated prices on eBay. There is other useful information on the forum as well, such as car shares and word games to get everyone in the mood. LeftLion was fortunate enough to get two tickets and so they’ve sent me down with one pair of clean pants, two books, three cans of beans (value-own) and a dictophone to record proceedings.
With over 100 acts playing a range of indie, psychedelia, americana and folk across five stages as well as DJ’s keeping proceedings going on well past the midnight hour, it is hard to pick out a particular highlight, although British Sea Power, Grizzly Bear and Bon Ivor (fresh from last weekend’s Summer Sundae in Leicester) will be up there on my hit list. That is of course unless they clash with the comedy and literature tent, which is what this particular journo is eager to sink his teeth into.
Everyone’s favourite Mr Nice Guy Howard Marks will be holding court and charming us with his various hedonistic tales. After interviewing a lot of mainstream authors this year I am intrigued to see what a man with over 43 aliases and a 25-year prison sentence under his belt has to say about life, the universe and everything. Marks is a well loved antihero who has proved that you can live life as you please as long as you are prepared to take the consequences. This perhaps has more resonance now than at any other point given the ever decreasing freedoms of a modern liberal society, but if this old hat has taught audiences anything, it is his ability to adapt and survive. With this in mind, I am wondering what his adoring followers will have to say about his Mr Nice His ‘N‘ Hers eau de toilette he is selling at £30 a pop on his website. Well if Jade Goody can get away with it, why not…
Another rebel with a cause is Jon Savage who has written about anarchy and the punk movement in England’s Dreaming and more recently Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875-1945, which originally started out as a pilot TV series based on Dick Hebdige’s seminal text Subculture: The Meaning of Style. Unfortunately it was never shown but it was whilst working as a researcher at Granada that he met Manchester’s favourite rebel Tony Wilson and began a life-long career in television. Needless to say he will have more than one or two anecdotes to share about the television and music industry and if he doesn’t, Jah Wobble (PIL), David Thomas (Pere Ubu), Stephen Machet, Will Hodgkinson and legendary producer Joe Boyd will.
Last but not least on the wordy front is Jeremy Dyson (The League of Gentleman) whose recent television series Funland (co-created with Simon Ashdown) was highlighted by BBC Commissioning Editor Kate Rowland at the recent ScreenLit festival as perfect scriptwriting. Hopefully he will be sharing some inspirational tips on how to write for radio and TV for all of those at the festival who can’t wait to get back to their tents and start penning epics by candlelight. He will also hopefully be reading from his latest book The Cranes That Built the Cranes. I would love to tell you about the art installations, the film tents, the Welsh poetry, the theatre, ceilidhs, Einstein’s Garden, lovely Josie Long (opp) and the rational and irrational ranting at the dusk till dawn bonfire but there is no time. In the spirit of this earnest festival I will be hitching down, proving that thumbs can be used for worthier causes than Tekkon on the PlayStation. So if you see a scruffy journo with a face of hair on the M5 reading the biography of a lovable rogue, pull over...
For more information see The Green Man Festival website
Green Man Festival 21-23rd August 2009
Write Commentby Samyouwell Aug 21, 2009, 11:57:53 amI went to this festival once and I have never been to such an overly controled festival in my life. The security on the arena gates searched everyone so much for booze that you spent literally hours of your day waiting to go into the arena. Also the fire was cordened off so you couldnt get within about 6 meters of it and a bloke put it out with water and sand at 4am. I did see some great music however but the hassle of drug obsessed security breathing down your neck every time you lit a role up was tooooo much.
by Jared Aug 21, 2009, 02:25:44 pmI did see some great music however but the hassle of drug obsessed security breathing down your neck every time you lit a role up was tooooo much.
Kind of amusing that Howard Marks is playing this year then.
by Bookasaurus Aug 25, 2009, 09:55:10 amThey were really chilled this year Sam. People were blatantly walking through the gates with cans etc and they didn't seem to mind. I have heard some stories from the Forest Fields crew that the police were checking buses etc for drugs, which is a little worrying as this doesn't happen at other festivals. But I'd say this was more a case of the police targeting those they deem to be alternative and by implication �troublesome protesters�, than anything to do with the Green Man. Having said that, these were random incidents. A lot of people went through with no problems.
There were a few fire security guys wandering around checking the fires, but I felt as if people were more or less left to their own devices. Overall, I felt the whole vibe was very relaxed and I certainly never got any sense of bureaucratic oafs breathing down my neck but my experience of festivals is limited and so I perhaps don�t have enough experience to compare it with.
by Mahatma Aug 25, 2009, 11:06:44 amThis's something for me next year.. I have zero experience of UK festivals.
