overall despite the weather wizard has a kind of magic

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Wizard Festival 2009

Friday 28th to Saturday 29th August 2009
New Deer, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland MAP
w/e £70 including camping & parking; £45 Saturday

Saturday morning dawned not that bright and quite windy again, although conditions got better during the day, with the sun coming out sometime during the afternoon – round about when I felt well enough to brave a cheeky glass of wine coincidentally.

First band of the day for the boys and me was the fantastic Bombskare, Edinburgh's self proclaimed original ska juggernaut. The ten-piece band put on the show of the afternoon, pulling the crowds into the Voodoo tent and out of the mud that was providing hours of endless fun for kids everywhere, and some adults too (you know who you are).

After a short soiree into the kiddies area, or Wee Wizard's arena, where my boys eschewed the drumming and DJ workshops for bouncy castles and big inflatable slides (tsk), it was back to the main stage to catch The Cuban Brothers. You need to see The Cuban Brothers at least once to fully appreciate their particular mash up of music, comedy, dance and er, sequined jock straps; nothing I could write would fully do their performance justice.

A quick tea saw me run out of pennies (no cash machine on site) and us miss Twisted Wheel. Then it was main tent again for the mighty Buzzcocks, who kept a whole bunch of older parents very happy while their kids either bounced along on their shoulders or slept at the back of the tent like mine did (luckily in some respects as it saved me having to explain 'Oh Shit'). The set was really tight and Steve Diggle in fine fettle, throwing his guitar across the stage at the end of the encore that included the classics 'Ever Fallen in Love' and 'Orgasm Addict'.

And then I must confess I had to crash out with my kids, so I missed The Charlatans. Sorry.

All in all, it was another very successful festival for the Wizard, and people I know who had such a good time last year that they vowed to come back every year were not disappointed. The crowd seemed to be a mix of die hard festival-going types, and local kids who couldn't quite seem to believe their luck. On the Saturday there were more families and day trippers – more folk just there for the afternoon with the kids than for the whole shebang – you could tell just by their slightly less mud-free clothes. There was a great atmosphere all weekend with no trouble; despite the somewhat heavy-handed security folk, the police presence was thankfully pretty unobtrusive. And all the kids there seemed to be having a truly magic time. We'll be going back next year.