music overview - Friday

We arrived slightly late, our own fault the sunny weather meant pretty pubs distracted us along the way and we followed a huge pink boat on a flatbed – which it turned out was going to the festival too.

Many bands play more than once but 3 Daft Monkeys only played the Johnny Cash Stage and we missed them! By all accounts they were great as usual.

However on the plus side we got there in time to see Irish fiddle with punk band Neck, some delicious fat reggae rhythms with Powersteppers, a powerful frenetic set that everyone was talking about with Magic Skool Bus on the Desmond Decker Stage and a surprisingly good time with Ed Tudor-Pole before those heroes of the hour Pronghorn and their furious cow-punk.

Then came the midnight clash! Do we watch Molara with more dub beats in the Wildcat tent or stay for the flamboyant Undertones on the main stage, or the mesmerising catchy, crazy rhythms of Tarantism on the Desmond Decker stage? I can’t decide so run between the three while keeping the sweat off with pints of Badger Breweries’ Tanglefoot handily provided at two bars.

Curfew, and with two of the stages now closed, there’s no more clash problems, merely the mighty rave of Subgiant and DJ Dave Hornby to carry us through to almost dawn. Before we giggle back to the tent while friendly wanderers and amusingly weird folk pad passed and laugh ‘til our cheeks get hard.

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