there was a whole lot of love going around on Sunday at Beautiful Days

Beautiful Days 2012 review

By Sandra Pitt | Published: Thu 23rd Aug 2012

Beautiful Days 2012

Friday 17th to Sunday 19th August 2012
Escot Park, near Fairmile, Devon, EX11 1LU, England MAP
£120 for adult weekend tickets - SOLD OUT

Daily capacity: 13,500

Fancy dress day, this year's theme was hearts so there was a whole lot of love going on at BD. I absolutely love BD for the fun and anything-goes factor: go mad, wear a wig, wear a dress, or a mankini (the horror Ed) if you feel like it; everyone is there for the fun. The costumes were amazing, lots of playing cards, Queen Of Hearts, heart surgeons, fab rockabilly dresses, and the weather was so nice a lucky lady got to air her heart nipple tassels.

Our friends set off early to catch The Fabulous Good Time Party Boys who for all ten years have done their themed review show, this year it's 'hearts' with a little help from Mark Chadwick and other guests, including the "Jazz Control" Security Guard doing a great version of Bohemian Rhapsody. We made it to the Bandstand again and sat in the sun to listen to Ellie Williams. Her voice was beautiful and her songs were so personal, about life's ups and downs and finishing with a song about how everything is just blooming marvellous.

We had to go and do some more drumming at the Kids Area. More plastic barrels, buckets and pots were laid out and everyone could come along and have a bash, and the Samba band came along and showed us how it should really be done. The mud was much drier so pushing a buggy around was much easier, particularly into the main arena, and there we stayed for the rest of the day, enjoying the sunshine and music, watching all the costumes go by. Dub Pistols woke everyone up in the mid afternoon and were awesome, but where was 'Mucky Weekend' from their new album wed been waiting for? If ever a song was appropriate for a festival, so we were left slightly disappointed. Over in the Big Top Manchester's The Travelling Band put on a terrific performance with both Set Lakeman and brother Sean also seen tapping their feet along to their set.

Looking round the shops in the main arena, the glow shop right at the back seemed to be a big favourite with all the children stocking up on glowing things to keep them entertained when it got dark. The angle of the shops (pointing down the hill) and the slippery mud made browsing a little precarious though.

The crowd seems to have become a little more mainstream each year and this year there was even a Daily Mail reader (although they may have been a wandering performer), and local bike gangs in their colours! The unwritten rule about the placing of chairs in the main arena from the sound desk back was ignored, with people electing to sit only yards from the front barrier, causing chaos for those trying to dance to their favourite acts. There were also a lot more people who had decided to make this their first festival, including large middle aged groups, and the campervan fields seemed more populated then ever. This made the festival feel slightly less crazy then previous years, but with everyone getting in the spirit it was still as vibrant as ever, with anti-social behaviour kept to a minimum (apart from a fracas in front of the main stage on Saturday), and the roving police having little to do, to the extent that by all accounts they took to cautioning those people who had dumped piles of trash around their tents one morning, threatening to charge them with littering if they didn't clean their campsites up a bit.

Alabama 3 played a superb set; I havent seen them for a few years and was really looking forward to it. I was entranced as they played all my favourites, and barely noticed the short showers of rain. RSVP Acoustic were playing on the Band Stand stage and friends of ours rushed over to for some banghra dancing, screwing some light bulbs and picking up tenners. The last day went far too quickly though; and before we knew it, The Waterboys had sung their 'Fisherman's Blues', the sun had gone down (helped in the Little Big Top by Solarference doing their original folktronica), the stars had come out, the flames had been lit, and the arena was filled to bursting for the Levellers to finish the festival.

As always, the Levellers played an amazing set, including festival favourite 'Beautiful Day', alongside classic track after classic track, with a spattering of songs from their recent album, 'Static on the Airwaves', and Seth Lakeman joined them on stage for a fiddle hoe-down!

The festival closed with the best firework display so far; DMF and the Levellers have really surpassed themselves this year and their 10th festival ended with a bloody big bang.

Goodbye to another Beautiful Days and see you again next year!

review by: Sandra Pitt

photos by: Karen Williams / Andy Pitt