Saturday

We are awoken early by some revellers in the campsite and kept awake all night by some noisy neighbours, so we get some milk from the supplies shop for coffee and cereal as it’s so early before heading into the arena. It’s cloudy and the breeze is a bit chilly and the Shisha Lounge has two big yurts, coffee and breakfast so we recharge in there, watching the kids gather in the kids field. The festival is well attended by families and there’s a lot of children about all smiling and having fun.

The DD Stage has opened with a Moshing Workshop with optional Stage Diving lessons and provides much amusement. Although the stage diving has to be cancelled as there aren’t enough there to ensure no accidents. Beside us a group of boys carrying an electric guitar and mini amp entertain with Jimmy Hendrix solos played on each others’ shoulders. First up on the main, JC Stage are Toupe. The trio of two bass players and a drummer welcome the growing crowd with ‘Good Morning’ and play a wonderfully vibrant set despite not being in costume they’re still entertaining.

Tarantism return from the night before to remind a few of us where we were in the small hours. They start off slowly not surprisingly before sparking into a rhythmic excess of Celtic beats to get the front of the crowd up and dancing.

Nuala and the Alchemy Set are from Australia or at least Nuala is. They open with a rather lively cover of Puretones ‘Addicted to Base’ before playing a set to sooth the hungover and get people dancing. Her voice, someone accurately described as being very similar to The Throwing Muses and they’re definitely a good daytime band with their upbeat funky sweet folkesque tunes and banter.

Over on the DD Stage Stabilisers are entertaining a crowd with some rather infectious grooves too as I pass it to the kids field to oversee the construction of a Peg Doll, a ride or two on the swingboats, check out the glo stick emporium of all things ultra violet and grab a quick snack at the kids’ café while watching some circus skills.

I wander up to the chilled out healing area set amongst the trees where kids are making clay masks and wander through the peaceful tipi area back past the mellow sounds emanating from the DD Stage to the main stage again for a bit of Sterenko whose shirtless bearded frontman leaps about the stage like a man possessed and doesn’t let up until the end. It’s bouncy, big and clever and fun to boot.

Chickenshed Zeppelin sound a powered up folk band but the sound is mixed in with the bar’s PA and we are practically sat on the dancefloor as the afternoon DJs start playing old school disco mixed with dance beats. This means I miss most of Chickenshed’s set and have no idea whether or not they played folked up Zeppelin tracks.

There was only one thing for it, move nearer the stage to see and hear Cracked Actors, skanking punk reggae to get your boots moving! They go down a storm and suddenly there’s a stage invasion of luscious CanCan girls - Red Hot Frilly Kickers showing off their lingerie and it turns into a right old knees up.

The crowd are all warmed up by the time psychobillies The Highliners kick start their high powered set, so are my daughter and me, we race around the crowd to ‘Benny Hill Boogie’ and sing along to ‘Henry The Wasp’ and have a great mosh about throughout their set. Loads of fun!

Los Albertos are another great addition to this weekend’s entertainment, music to swing your pants to, with grooves aplenty and a liberal dose of saxophones, horns and loads of energy, they’re fun too and their ska leaves us with grins on our faces.

Smiles are the order of the day in the Wildcat Tent on my first visit to it all day, why? Well Toretz are raisin’ the roof with their theme tune Carry On and ska flavoured jazz, drum and bass. Yup hard to pigeon hole but hugely entertaining to watch , although the swearing from the guys in the crowd around me is incredible! At the same time near the kids field there’s a Flamenco fashion show going on.

Abdoujaparov are mispronounced by the bearded bloke who introduces them, who’s actually pretty funny, getting us all to show our appreciation by “Ooooo Arrrring” and telling us he remembers when all this was fields. Anyway it’s not surprising he says it wrong, it’s not an easy band name. It’s okay though the ex-Carter USM frontman Lee has a song ready to get us all singing the name correctly. He has lots of songs he and The Fades, standing in for his usual band, present to us, most of them about beer and getting really drunk and are anthems for blokes like me. As I nip to the bar for another beer (well it’s songs about the stuff!) I can see up to the DD Stage that is packed for the spectacular Far Cue and I can see the crowd all leaping about. I’ve seen them before and know how good they are but decide it’s good to see guys like Lee Carter as he’s a legend man!

There’s a growing number of cowboy hats in the crowd when I return from getting a rather fabulous curry with a naan bread too. The reason for the cowboy hats is Hayseed Dixie are up next. They play to their usual high standard, doing the same set I’ve seen at three other festivals this year, so I should be bored rigid, right? Heck no, they’re great to singalong to and dance about with, and the vibe is full of peace and love, beer and smokes! While over in the DD Stage tent Switchblade are also keeping the crowd dancing with their boogie rockabilly although I happen to wander over and be mesmerised by their rather gorgeous leather/rubber clad bass player. She looks lovely!

Heading back around the site I notice numerous town criers, could it be they’re being used as security, manning the perimeters with their bells, ready to raise the alarm if anything untoward happens, we’re all much too happy and much too in the middle of nowhere for that to be likely to happen.

Ian Cognito is splitting sides in a busy comedy tent and The Beat are up next on the outdoor stage and start off a bit subdued for a change. Rankin Junior’s still on mic duties but Rankin Senior seems to be giving a less vibrant performance, the music’s still great regardless. Halfway through Rankin Senior tells us there’s a new album in the works. Then The Beat play their own version of the Joe Strummer inspired ‘Rock the Casbah’ Suddenly, he calls out for a trumpeter, who’s been playing his own thing from the crowd fusing it with The Beat to join him on stage.

The trumpeter does and it seems to spark the frontman more into life he says he loves the spontaneity as they launch into ‘Hands Off She’s Mine’ before crashing to a halt as there’s a fight. The two pauses lose the audience and the energy from the biggest crowd of the weekend. Shame, if they’d been on fire like they had the last time I saw them earlier this year, they’d have been unstoppable.

Now at most festivals open-air main stages would finish at midnight. But not EID, here things just get started. Eat Static are on for three hours, starting at midnight. They outdo themselves, with Joey and Merv taking us to outer inner space and beyond to a banging techno beat. Dropping into our heads for a quick groove around before a blazin’ set of visuals projected onto the three screens!

At one point I think, it’s a bit too dance techno and head off for a breather at the other stage with The Ukranians, no such luck the mad buggers are all going mental in there dancing about to Russian folk at breakneck speed, yeee hah! I dive back out 10 minutes later, knackered and have a smoke listening to them while watching the light explosions of the main stage. Next thing I’m back in the throngs under the lights dancing to the duo’s techno acid groove thing. It ends all too soon and we wander back to the tent, to get an early night as we have to go off site in the morning. Most of the crowd head off to the dance tents for more of the same prescription.

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