an enjoyable day of music is offered as GuilFest begins

Having last been to Guilfest in 1996 I was intrigued to see if had evolved in the last 14 years. Arriving early on the Thursday we were directed to the disabled camping area where we were pleasantly surprised to find (because we were in disabled camping) we could camp with our car for the weekend making setting up very easy.

As the Main arena did not open until the Friday afternoon, food, entertainment and liquid refreshments were supplied via a tent in the the main camping area. Settling down with a cider, it was good to see the mixture of young and old all singing along to ska and Amy Whinehouse in mild evening drizzle that had descended.

The first day of a festival is always one of seeking out and getting your bearings and today was no different. The arena is well laid out for food and festival shopping, with food ranging from gourmet stalls selling kangaroo and ostrich burgers, the River cottage team supplying divine wood cooked mackerel fillet's in a bun, to the less adventurous fare of chips and burgers. Walking over to the Good Time Guide Stage Keith Donnelly warmed the crowd up with a humorous guitar set before falling back into his role of stage compare for the weekend.

A short walk through the site where we sat down at the main stage for what turned out a very enjoyable day. Ruarri Joseph started the main stage entertainment with acoustic guitar based songs, sounding a little like Jack Johnson, whilst Redwood fought back the rain with a surprisingly sprightly set from the veteran band for so early in the day. The main stage area is in an ideal location, sitting at the bottom of a gentle slope giving everybody, no matter how far back a good view. Being where we were gave us great access to the toilet facilities to the left of stage. However it was evident from and early stage that a few more toilets would not have gone a miss. However they were clean and emptied all weekend even during the day.

UK rock band Draven were up next and did not disappoint bringing in a few more people, however, given it was Friday afternoon it still felt a little deserted. Macavity's Cat blasted through a likeable bluegrass/country and western style set which gave me the sense the bill was not going to be restricted to one genre or another.

Local Indie group Elmor followed, playing to a few fans who had come to see them just before The South took to the stage. Being formed of the majority of the members of the Beautiful South It was not unfair to expect a slick performance and this was the case. Playing late afternoon benefited the people who had arrived straight from work or after picking the children from school as the audience grew quickly. The crowd joined into the vast catalogue of songs they have up their sleeves like Rotterdam, and Perfect 10 before asking the crowd which version of the song Don't Marry Her to play, of course the explicit version got played, resulting in a labelling of "Potty mouth GuilFest" by singer Alison Wheeler.

65daysofstatic are a experimental instrumental rock band from Sheffield who rely heavily on drums and solid rhythm to drive their sound across to the audience. For me this was the find of the weekend, their set was unashamed in both its complex sound and the length of the tracks. By the end of their 40 minuet set I was hooked and wished it would have gone on for longer. Time for a bimble. The site tries very hard to cater for all. There is everything here from hippy stalls selling embroidered tops and dream catchers to a golf shop selling golfing equipment. The bar selling Brothers Cider at £4 a pint is offset by a real ale section selling festival ale's. There is a fully stocked Spa bus for those wanting a little pampering to a Pimms bus selling the drink with ice and lumps of fruit. It did seem to me to be a mix and match of stalls and vendors aimed at everybody, however for me it worked.

Over at the Good time Stage Dreadzone, the festival favourites were setting up for a short set before the headliners came on. As usual they played a crowd lifting set with many of the tracks from the new Album including the cracking Gangsters finishing with Little Britain.

Orbital delivered their set finishing with Dr Who, just in time for the 11pm curfew for the two outdoor stages. So what to do now? Well whilst the eFestivals sponsored tent was dishing out comedy the Surrey Advertiser Live club tent was hosting Barn dancing. There was a rock disco after party in the rock tent and the 70's disco was in full swing. However it was off to the Barn Dance for us, where line dancing meets festival types in a happy atmosphere of cider and beer. I suspect the majority of the dancers would have trouble following the instructions on a sober day let alone at midnight on the first day of a festival, and as such it descended into a full blown hoe down of self expression with legs and arms going all over the shop. When at last the day did draw to a close I was expecting the camp sites to be loud and busy but it was surprising that they where not.

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