Cast your mind back 3-4 business years, and you might find yourself at Bearded Theory Festival. We joke, of course it was this year! (Look, the writer of these blogs has been way-laid slightly when they awoke one day to discover they had been transformed into a giant cockroach. Cockroaches have no time for blogs. No time!).
We think to describe Bearded Theory as eclectic would fall a little short - like aiming for the moon and hitting Pluto, kinda short.
Having never attended before we drove past some tents, and some more tents, then a few more tents, then a field (you guessed it, more tents), and then a couple more field of tents… By the third field there was a definite shared look of - Gee Whizz, Batman and golly gosh. This is a big festival.
We had the run of the grounds - and what a grounds it was!
There was the main stage for the likes of Iggy Pop, Manic Street Preachers, Mary Whaloppers. There was a stage for reggae etc, one for punk (lots of girls on bass!), one for some weird stuff we aren’t sure how to class (we went in and there were dinner ladies signing in there??), the tea tent for all your folkie ‘hippies are actually communist pig-dogs, when you think about it’ stuff and the Woodlands Stage where we saw the likes of Beans - On - Toast and The Sugar Hill Gang.
There were fake wooden beards, an array of all things tie dye, people dressed as bananas, Yoda’s, Kings (or pimps… Interesting how the two uniforms overlap), glow sticks of every colour and variety and a large wicker man where a DJ sat in his mouth all night, surrounded by people of varying ages in various stages of gurning and regret.
We must thank our entourage - Jude, the driver of the tour bus and number 1 fan. Absolutely could not have done it without you Jude - for a start we don’t own a tent… And to Ash and Maddie - it’s a sad state of affairs, we realise, when you have to bus in your own fans, but you gotta get the crowds going some how!
We are sorry that it has taken so long to write this blog (demetamorphasis is just never talked about these days) as it was a brilliant gig and weekend. The whole vibe was incredible - from kids in face paints to men in leopard print banana hammocks handing out jelly shots.
Photo by Chris Pindar
Was having a bad time at such an amazing festival ever an option? Absolute not. How about sleep at 3am? Also, no. What a time to be alive (and very much awake).
We had such a smashing audience and want to say a huge thanks to everyone that came and spoke to us after, took a sticker, bought some merch etc. An even bigger thank you to Gail that runs the Something Else Tea Tent - what a job that is to organise all that! Great fresh bakes and great fresh coffee! Just what we needed Sunday morning, to be totally honest.
The proof is in the pudding, or the photo. We are so far past rock and/or roll that we literally just curled up wherever we could for a good ol’ nanna nap. Yeah boi. That’s the good stuff.
We are hoping we get invited back (we won’t look out of place as cockroaches and we might win the fancy dress competition!
Love, Harmonies Cwtch,
Kootch
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