Sheep Music opens with many pick of the weekend acts

With the jet stream heading north for the weekend taking the doom and gloom of clouds and rain with it leaving only blue skies and the sun beating down, all signs were pointing towards a beautiful weekend, and Sheep Music in the picturesque marches town of Presteigne proved a fine venue to take full advantage of the first sunny weekend of the summer.



After a couple of years sabbatical Sheep Music was back and with a bang. With a weekend ticket priced at a recession busting £60 (£45 for an early bird), and children under the age of 14 granted free entry with a ticket holding adult, it was very obtainable to the many families that chose to attend.

We arrived late afternoon Friday and pitched out our tent no more than a stones throw away from the entrance to the main site, filled up the rucksack with provisions for the evening and went for a little wander around the compact but stunningly decorated main arena.

There are restrictions stopping you bringing food, drink, or glass into the arena, but that didn't stop it being the most welcoming festival I have ever experienced, and the music had not even started yet, after an hours wandering the weekend finally got into full swing.

Fight the Bear took to the Bar stage to kick-start the weekend off with a bang. They set the scene with a performance worthy of topping the festival, full of songs which take over your body - bone by bone, leaving you bouncing round the tent like a lunatic. These boys could go a long, long way, and provide the best possible way to start a weekend.

After having a very unsuccessful attempt at uni-cycling which no end of tuition and support could improve, I re-entered my comfort zone of the bar stage. Next to arrive on stage were the funk fuelled brass ensemble known as Monkey Chuckle they delivered a perfect groove filled funk sound track leaving people smiling, with the two main stages never overlapping, it meant that you never had to miss a band, unless of course you fancied lazing on the grass in the glorious sunshine.

I crossed over into the slightly larger main stage area to take a look at Middleman, who well and truly brought the balls to the party, with their mesmeric music seeming to be a perfect mix of the power of Rage Against The Machine, the energy of Chase & Status, and the lyrical content and delivery of The Streets,! Yet again another band very worthy of topping many a festival. These quartet of lads based in Leeds delivered easily the most powerful performance of the weekend, and I would pay to see them again any day of the week!

Back over to the bar tent where Alejandro Toledo and The Magic Tombolinos were bringing their Latin supercharged gypsy tango to Sheep Music leaving nothing but applause and a pile of exhausted bodies after their performance. Based in London for the last 4 years, I feel like I have missed out having not seen them before. I will certainly be looking for them again.

So to the headliner for the evening, Lazy Habits, one of the bands that came highly recommended to me before the festival, unfortunately I felt they came nowhere near the previous acts I had already seen that day. So after 4 tracks I decided to just sit outside and take in the atmosphere with a quiet pint, a stunning end to a beautiful day.

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