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Green Man Festival 2009

My first Green Man, weather was great - which always makes a big difference to how you appreciate a festival imo, beautiful location and not too big, in fact just about the right size (ten thousand people). The last Big Chill I went to years ago didn't feel that 'chilled' since they decided to ramp up the capacity and pretty much swore me off large festivals for good. I liked how the Green Man was very child friendly although I don't have kids myself, they all seemed to be having loads of fun.

My main problem in my advanced years of relative sobriety, is much like when at home, one 'big' night is all I can cope with in terms of drinking and what not - so after spending all day Friday enjoying the beverages from about midday until about 3am with a couple of *cough* extra additions, that was my peak and I was pretty much in a state of recovery for the rest of the festival! My hangover didn't dissipate until the middle of Saturday and I was rather dehydrated. A rather sorry state of affairs I admit, I was in bed by midnight on Saturday whilst others in our camp managed to see out the night with a dawn patrol which ruined them for Sunday evening!

Music wasn't really my cup of tea but I kinda suspected that before I went but it was more of a case of enjoying a weekend away with a load of friends and that I did. We hired a minibus to get down there from London which was a reet laff and worked out at £40pp including fuel, pretty good I reckon. I do like my non-electronic music but the only artist who I was really familiar with there was Peter Broderick as I bought his album Home, after hearing the track It's Alright being played all over BBC 6Music by the likes of Tom Robinson and others.

I really enjoyed his set in the Far Out tent, he's a really talented multi-instrumentalist. Too much of the other music, it seemed to me, just semmed to sound like the Fleet Foxes, with the a lot of the singers obviously aping the sound. Don't get me wrong, I like my folk music just that the material that's really connecting with me at the moment is from the late 60s and 70s, like David Crosby and the rest of the West Coast folk movement + others like Fairport Convention; a lot of the contemporary material that I hear just doesn't sound as strong. I also think that could've got more acts to err, rock out and get everyone going in the slots later in the evening, a little on the mellow side for too long.

First festival for a few years and I had an excellent time with some great friends and would still consider going again next year. I really, really hope that they don't go after more $$$$ and keep the festival the size it is as that is definitely one of it's strengths.
 
Did you notice the lead singer of the Aliens get escorted off site as soon as they'd finished their set? Apparently he threw a table at a small child. The guy has had mental health problems - the funniest bit though was my mate saw him standing in a field later on wearing a disguise! My mate said to him 'ah you got back in then!' and he went mad asking how the hell he could see through his brilliant disguise :D

We then saw him the next day wearing a different disguise :D :D
 
Only saw the start of the Aliens set but it clashed with something else at Far Out I think. I didn't see anything remotely approaching trouble all weekend, very fluffy; then again, I missed the whole courtyard 'incident'!
 
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