Glade festival returns in style

Friday afternoon and walking through the the entrance gates into the camping area there's a feeling of gladness to see the festival before me (and not just because I'd got through the security without having my carefully packed gear undone and searched as seemed to be happening to most people) - the Glade is back and in full swing after a disappointing cancellation in 2010 and last minute venue changes the festival has finally re-emerged at it's new home at Houghton Hall in Norfolk. It's a short lived frission of pleasure though as it suddenly starts raining hard and the job of finding a nice spot and erecting the tent turns into a losing race to avoid getting soaked.

A couple of hours and a change of trousers later the rain ceases and it's time to get out and explore the new site. Taking a first proper look at the camping area it's spacious and very flat and this being Norfolk so is the whole site, so no nice views of the site from my tent like at Glade's former residence at Wasing, but no waking up at the bottom of the tent either.

Walking into the music area first impressions are that it's very spread out with large areas of open ground in between the various music venues and stalls lining the edges of two linked fields, but exploring more the feeling of space belies the amount of site art, signage, flags, covered seating areas and fire pits dotted around the site - a lot of attention to detail has gone in, though it's clearly on a smaller scale than former Glades.

Familiar stage names are soon identified, 'the Glade' main stage, the Overkill stage, the Origin stage of course and the chilled IDSpiral area with adjoining (EarthHeart) cafe as well as several micro-venues pumping out the beats. Friday evening turned into chilly night but the typically exuberant Glade audience danced all the harder and the happy vibe is infectious and warming - clearly everyone is glad to be back. Before I know it it's 3am and I've enjoyed a dozen different artists without knowing who any of them are and it's time for some sleep. In my tent pounding beats still emenate from the site but I don't need ear plugs to sleep tonight....

Waking late on Saturday an immediate lift comes from the realisation that the sun has got his hat on and hence all is well in festival-land. It's not baking hot but compared to the sound of rain on the tent it'll most certainly do. A good part of the afternoon is spent chilling in the sunshine at the IDSpiral as the site slowly wakes up from the previous nights revelry (though many loook like they never made it into bed) and refuelling for another day of fun in a field.

Some of which comes in the form of the very popular 'Dance-off Town Hall' - consisting of a boxing-style ring in which plucky 'volunteers' are made to dance at their very funkiest for the edification, and judgement, of the onlooking crowd, it's basically what can be seen at every stage at Glade but with a competitive element. The Origin stage is the usual psy-trance stomp and high spirits as a naked guy gets chased around by security Benny Hill style.

Day becomes evening and gets steadily busier as throbbing mash of sound washes over the site but the spacious layout ensures sound-bleed is never an issue and the sound is excellent on all the stages - even the 'run what you brung' Juke box sounds good. In the middle of the first field is a white pyramid which the night before had been the screen for amazing visual projections but now it's the centre of a large roped-off area which can only mean one thing - fire show! Sure enough as darkness descends a small army of fire jugglers and twirlers begins and a large crowd soon forms to watch.

Word goes round that they're gonna burn the pyramid and sure enough the sparks begin to cascade out of the pyramid as an impressive fireworks display commences to the oohs and aaahs of the audience and the pyramid is consumed by fire. Awesome and the night time party mood steps up a gear and becomes a blur of walking around from venue to venue soaking up varied dance beats and visual eye-candy of lighting projected onto the various structures and the sheer up for it-ness of the glade audience. The techno feel to the acts on The Glade main stage finishes at 2am in good style with a great set from Adam Bayer but the beats continue around the site for another two hours and the time just flys by and the approach of dawn signals my return to the campsite.

Sunday is a non-entity as I have to leave early and the rain is back and doesn't look like stopping putting a dampener on my mood, so after several coffees at the earth heart cafe and a last bit of music from Hybrid on the main stage it's time to pack up my sodden tent in the rain and head for the car parks.

Considering this was new venue where and teething problems are to be expected there's very little to criticise, the Glade team obviously know there audience just as their audience knows them and I think it's fair to say everyone amply got what they came for. Welcome back Glade.

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