The Ruckus went to Blissfields Festival

A summer of festivals for the London Ruckus girls and I headed over to Bradley Farm in Hampshire to take in Blissfields Festival. If you saw my initial previews you’d have known I was a bit excited for the weekend. Side note: the weather turned out to be perfect, I got a little sunburnt and it only rained a little at night so that worked extremely well. I’m going to break down the logistics (portaloos, for example) and the music for you. This is why you should go to Blissfields.

The logistics:
The first thing I want to point out is how lovely everyone is at Blissfields; within minutes of arriving on the campsite, someone had offered me a cup of tea. The camping itself is always the least favourite part of a festival for me, but it was pretty quiet at night in comparison to other festival camp sites I’ve stayed on – there were parties all over the festival site for those who did want to stay up and party throughout the night. As Blissfields is a weekend festival, I was pleasantly surprised to see a couple of festival showers, but the downside were the portaloos (isn’t that the case for everyone?). Very early on Friday they got clogged up but then they did get emptied throughout the weekend so that’s a plus. It’s not that easy to get to Blissfields without a car, I have to say. It’s easy enough to get to Basingstoke station (simple 50 min journey from London Waterloo) but then it’s a 20 min taxi ride to the festival site (I was charged £14, a friend was charged £7 and another friend was charged £21 for our individual taxi journies – so make of that what you will). However on the return journey, a friend I met over the weekend gave me a lift to the station, so that does prove the nature of Blissfields’ friendly reputation.

The festival site is so compact and I LOVED that. I’ve been to some huge festivals and losing people with lack of phone battery is a nightmare (I once spent the whole of a Saturday night at Reading Festival on my lonesome). As I’d gone on my own but knew I had friends at the festival, I was extremely happy that I ran into them at various points and got to know my way around the site really easily.

Having not seen the band perform live for a few months, I was pleased to see the lovely Spencer Cullum back from a long tour in the US with another band and back on pedal steel. In fact, Spencer had literally been back in the country for 48 hours and you wouldn’t even know it, the band performed tracks from their upcoming EP, ‘Emily’ and for an opening slot on the mainstage, seemed to have no nerves. In fact they had quite the following; the first few front rows were shouting requests at Ryan on stage. Ryan’s Irish vocals mixed with piano, bass, drums and pedal steel show the world that you don’t always need a banjo to produce sublime folk numbers.

Did anyone see the AMAZING Bubble Bus? I went and saw Micky from Bloody Awful Poetry spin some tunes. We’re big fans of the BAP boys and love their London DJ sets as they play such a mixture of music, anything from 50s to ‘Gangster’s Paradise’. I have to say the Bubble Bus was a delight, cocktails on the bottom deck, a grassy area for some dancing, 2 decks available to party on (including a bed on the bottom deck) and an amazing jacuzzi on the top deck. DJ sets throughout the whole weekend provided me with an area to get my dance on with my friends.

Oh a total surprise for me, I caught the Kill it Kid set on the main stage and really enjoyed it. The Bath based band are signed to record label One Little Indian and a young band they may be, they knew how to rock the stage. Their alt folk/Americana, aided by big keys melodies and violin provided rousing 3 part harmonies. I like them, a lot, I think the violin well and truly won me over. Check out their MySpace for upcoming gigs, I think they’re going to be successful and I’m interviewing them next week. Following them, I saw Imperial Leisure bring their ska rock to the main stage, whipping the crowd into a frenzy.

On a similar theme, Dub Pistols carried on whipping the crowd into a frenzy with punk ska tunes. By the time they were finished, I’d say the crowd were more than ready for those Ou Est Le Swimming Pool boys. As you’ll know if you’re a long time Ruckus leader, you’ll know we love to support Ou Est, so I’m going to let the pictures do the talking here. (I’ve never seen anyone crowd surf to Ou Est before, so mad props to both the fans and the boys for getting them up there).

Subgiant were more than up to the task of carrying on the party on the Main Stage. Their unique blend of decks and live band got me in the crowd dancing with some friends, I let my hair down and embraced the music. As did the cutest 6 or 7 year old kid’s, they had glow sticks and all. It almost summed up Blissfields for me, kids with their parents raving late into the night.

Heading over to the Second Stage to see the ever hilarious Beans on Toast perform his little ditties to a packed tent. I think only Beans on Toast can get away with stopping his songs half way and have the tent occupants shouting along. I always like his song that he meant to write about politics and then decided that he wanted to write one about drugs, instead.

My Saturday was spent exploring the Hidden Hedge and chilling on the Bubble Bus (who had the jacuzzi up and running!) I did catch the beautiful Jessie Rose Trip for a few songs – I’m mega excited to see them at our next festival which is Secret Garden Party.

They work pop and soul with guitar and I hate to compare them but Jessie’s vocals are reminiscent of Amy Winehouse mixed with The Noisettes. Without the Amy drunken ramblings, however. The single, ‘You Won’t Forget Me Boy’ is incredibly catchy. I felt like I’d heard it before.

Peggy Sue took to the stage in the midst of a very hot and sticky afternoon, you could tell the festival crowd was kind of wavering in the drink fueled heat. There were a collection of Peggy Sue fans at the front of the stage who danced throughout the set and the band thanked them for attempting to dance to their music because ‘it’s not easy to dance to’. It may not be easy to dance to but it’s kind of awesome folk. This is what I love about live music, I can listen to a band and be indifferent and then I’ll see them live and a light switches and I’m sucked in. Peggy Sue did this for me, the way Rosa and Katy bounce their vocals off each other and switch between instruments cemented my belief that they are fantastic. You wouldn’t know that these folkies have just completed a headline tour of the UK and the US. I think I need the album in my life.

The skinny:
Blissfields is a ridiculously successful festival, in my eyes. It had to rival with the uber folk Hop Farm Festival, on the same weekend and yet Bliss sold out. And everything about it seemed to work, it’s small, I mean it’s fairly tiny in comparison to the likes of Glasto and Bestival but it works really well. It manages to showcase signed and unsigned artists of all genres and the two stages, acoustic acts and bubble bus meant that there was always something to watch. Personal touches like free daytime yoga classes, tractor rides and a kid’s craft area made it even better for all different ages. It may be a small festival but it really managed to pull a range of ages; anything from three months to 70 years old. And I think that’s a testament to a festival that had to follow on from an incredibly successful 2009 – Laura Marling and Mumford and Sons both played last year.

We at London HQ, have such a range of favourite music and Blissfields managed to cater for that, I’ll definitely be going back. Happy 10th Birthday, Blissfields.

All photo credits to The Ruckus.