Beautiful Days really is a gem of a festival

Beautiful Days really is a gem of a festival, held in the rolling hills of Devon, and this year it opened early to give festival goers an extra day to settle in before the weekend of music started, and it was surprising how many arrived early of all ages to take advantage of this.

Tickets had sold sold out a month before for the event run by the Levellers, and there was a new system in place to collect wristbands and park. The extra capacity meant additional parking and camping areas, and these new areas meant the family campsites were less crowded than they have been in the past. Although a new entrance for ticket holders, resulted in some confusion with me trying to find friends who were "stood by the entrance!" The whole weekend was a relaxed one, with anything you wanted to see, eat, drink, or do, never far away.

The weekend was a feast of the senses, great music for the ears, a site full of colour, with flags and colourful installations everywhere for the eyes. It even smelt good with food smells, incense, clean loos, and the fresh air to enjoy. The site really looked magnificent. The music was top notch, and the whole festival shone over the weekend in sunshine, apart from a little blip on Saturday morning, which gave us all us late night revellers who enjoyed the silent disco a chance to catch up on sleep before two late nights.

There's a massive children's area with loads of stuff for kids to do all weekend, and so there's a lot of families about, at times perhaps the extra numbers made the Big Top area too crowded, and this year you couldn't hear what was happening inside the Big top whilst sat outside with push chairs. Some bigger speakers or more of the sides open would be a bonus next year.

The joy of Beautiful Days has always been the fact it's not been too crowded and you've been able to see your mates come passed in the crowd, and listen to the acts, neither was very easy this year at times. But that's a small gripe, and as long as the festival doesn't expand futher without providing some additional arena it's not really a major problem.

On the plus side, this year's line-up was stronger than ever, with even the Bimble Inn enjoying a strong line-up of quality acts you'd expect to see on bigger stages like Mad Dog Mcrea, and Ferocious Dog. The original Big Audio Dynamitewere the main billing, but fell a bit flat in the middle of their muso captivating set. The biggest crowd I've ever seen at Escot assembled for gypsy-punks Gogol Bordello on the first night, and Carter USM made Beautiful Days their first festival appearance in 14 years and only UK festival appearance this year, with some seriously bright lights.

But for me it was another old school act Pop Will Eat Itself, and Afro Celt Sound System that most impressed me, along with the usual terrirfic sing along to festival founders Levellers who brought the celebrations to a close on Sunday with an airring of 'Levelling The Land' and a few rare B-sides, and rounded off the festival with a great fireworks display.

There was a wealth of other quality 'festival' music on offer across the five stages, as well as comedy, theatre, a healing area, and numerous licensed real ale bars from Otter Brewery and various lush real ciders, all priced around £3.50.

Perhaps having gone to a few festivals already this year that offers a surprise or too up their sleeve, it was a surprise not to have come across a random happening or two this year. It all felt a bit too programmed and a bit less spontaneous. There were a few bands playing between the main acts, and the random busking of Skinny Lister, and a jam band called Weasel Dust alleviated this.

As well as the late night Dance Tent most bars had decent soundsystems in and I even got to hear the brand new just mastered album from local band Melosa playing in one, the band also drew a decent crowd including lots of youngsters dancing at the front in the Bimble Inn.

The moving of Dirty Davey's bandstand to a new location in the camping fields was a great idea, and it meant no noise bleed from nearby stages and provided a chance to listen to the Q&A Sessions as well as Greek Odysseys and catch a few live performances, including Hobo Jones & The Junkyard Dogs record breaking show, they are the only band to have played on every proper stage at this festival.

The food on offer was great and averagely priced for festival fare. There was a decent selection of food on offer, but not many new caterers to try this year, although queues were never long and everything was served rapidly. The Thai Kitchen, and Kenniford Farm proved to be my personal favourites.

I actually wasn't all that well over the weekend, so what a blessing to find the village shop selling cough sweets, alongside homemade cakes, and other tasty treats. I wondered if I'd still be able to enjoy the festival whilst feeling fatigued, and in fact it wasn't a problem. I could just lie in the grass andnjoy the festival at my own pace, even the late night revelry, or early morning excited kids failed to disturb my sleep thanks to ear plugs provided by a friendly Oxfam steward.

Talking of which despite the usual visible police presence of around four officers I saw no trouble. The stewards, loo cleaners, and litter pickers were all brilliant, and deserve recognition. Especially the latter, who had to deal with a lot more rubbish this year, perhaps it's time for Beautiful Days to adopt the cup deposit policy that works so well reducing litter at other festivals, walking back to the tent through the main arena after the enjoying the dance tent, it was covered in discarded plastic cups.

Sunday's 'Spots & Polka Dots' theme really made for a memorable weekend with some amazing costumes, and everyone getting in the spirit of the event. I wonder what the 10th anniversary next year theme will be? After this weekend it's going to be amazing for them to put on something 'special' to beat this year's glorious weekend of summer fun in the sun.

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