Not what I expected at allÂ… a VERY nice festival indeed

GuilFest is now approaching its 20th year of existence and it has to be said, for a festival that is held in the outskirts of a Surrey town in a park that backs onto my sister's old school, there is very little to fault it.

Following a sedate, pub back garden style of party in the festival campsite marquee the previous night (where the DJ seemed only to have 4 cds to choose from!), waking up to rain free skies, our gang was raring to go on the Friday and see what delights we could find on the main site.

After some rather overzealous bag searches we were in and decided to have a good old nose about the site before any music was sampled. Despite the festival being contained in reasonably small area it was still quite easy to get lost and it took sometime to locate the bar! Slight panic for a minute when it did not appear there was real ale to be found only to be told it was at the far end of the 150 foot bar. Phew!

Settling down at The Main Stage for the day, the first band enjoyed was Redwood, a band who supported Feeder in the past (which was pretty obvious). I was given a flyer informing about Macavity's Cat, a local hillbilly skiffle band, duly watched and it's not often you see wash boards used for percussion on main stages. Good fun in the sun. Elmor followed, the programme stating 'surely the hottest new indie band around'... sounded a lot like Feeder again to be honest. The South were ex Beautiful South sans Paul Heaton and were worth a listen and a sing along in the sun and it was good to hear some tunes not heard in a long time.

The Funky End Dance Tent and the legendary Tall Paul now beckoned from the bottom of the site. It was like stepping into that episode from Spaced! A brilliant mix of young and not so young all dancing away to some awesome classic house (raised eyebrows and dubious looks from those born in the '90s watching those born in the '70s throwing shapes that would no doubt be considered 'old school'). Huge smiles all around though and a lot of exhausted 30 plusses all complimenting each other and wishing the old days back!

This 30+ year old managed to scoot as quickly as she could back to the Main Stage in time to be blown away by 65daysofstatic. 4 lads with drums, guitars and electronic machinery doing exactly what the programme description said, 'music that no-oneÂ’s really invented words for'. Absolutely incredible performance, at one point all switching from guitars to the drum boxes mid tune and ending with a 10 minute piece that rivalled the Friday evening headliners! Most certainly a band to be keeping an eye onÂ…forget Delphic, follow these guys!

A swift decamp and group split ensued with most heading to ever present Dreadzone the rest to Sub Focus. Sub Focus in the Funky End Dance Tent was the unsurprising teenage sweat box of drum and bass I was expecting but great fun all the same.

And then the re-group for the Hartnoll Brothers. Less than 4 weeks since their mind blowing performance at Glastonbury, alas with no lasers at Guilfest, Orbital performed the same stunning set to yet another highly appreciative audience of grateful old fans and astounded new fans who had never got to see them before. It is funny how one and a half hours can seem so much longer when you are in such an awesome crowd and atmosphere.

Halcyon with additional samples of Opus IIIÂ’s 'Fine Day' seemed to last forever. The two new tracks 'Don't Stop Me' and 'The Gun is Good' had everyone bouncing around embracing the new sounds the Hartnolls can still produce. And to end, although this time without a certain Matt Smith to introduce, the inevitable final track of the show 'Doctor?' went down an absolute storm and looking back up the hill at thousands of happy faces, all I can say is it is SO good to have the Hartnolls back in our lives once again.

The party wasn't even over though. The festival has a 1am licence which meant a number of stages became party venues. We chose to swing by Farmer Giles Barn Dance, music by the fantastic MoonDance. With bales to sit on and hay on the floor of the Surrey Advertiser Tent, a good few hundred people dosi-doed into the wee hours to a lovely mix of traditional and world music and a lot of left feet and laughter. A great way to end a brilliant first day of GuilFest 2010.

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