The Ruckus Went to Secret Garden Party

So as you know from my Eliza Doolittle interview, we went to Secret Garden Party, a beauty of a festival held in the Cambridgeshire countryside. As I said on Express FM, Secret Garden Party isn’t just a festival, it’s an experience. It surpassed all my expectations and more. I won’t bore you with every detail, though I would love to, so prepare for a brief run down with some beautiful photos.

I became a Gardener that weekend and loved every minute of it. Now that’s something I never thought I’d say.

The skinny:
SGP is ridiculously easy to get to, direct trains from London Kings Cross and a very organised taxi service from Huntingdon station serves you well. It’s a medium sized festival; not as small as Blissfields but not as huge as Glasto and arriving on site, it’s really easy to navigate your way around, though you’ll probably end up finding something else to do before you actually see what you set out to do. This festival 100% lives up to it’s name, there are these small hidden gems dotted around the site, from a guy biking round on a mini rave bicycle, to the S&M tent, the Village Hall stage complete with crazy Vicar & tea and cake to the pirate themed cocktail bar, the amazing ‘get your feet sucked clean’ by therapysucks.co.uk or the swaying bridge across the lake purposefully built for SGP. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of ‘secret’ surprise guests turning up all over the site, including the Mystery Jets secret show at The Crossroads stage. SGP had something for everyone including an extremely well stocked kids area, a Science area and even lectures, like I said, an experience, not a festival.

The atmosphere is very friendly and not at all hostile, I felt very safe when I had to walk around a bit at night on my own when my partner in crime, Sheena and I had to split up to see different artists. The toilets were overwhelming FINE. Almost always did they have toilet paper and handsanitizer and only once did I gag, camping was the usual standard (except for those with zero respect who play awful techno house the whole night pissing most of the South campsite off).

Non music highlights of the weekend:
- Organised sock wrestling, I loved it.
- Organised Mud wrestling, everyone said ‘make sure you keep a distance’
- The truly athletic pole dancers during Fenech Soler’s set
- The bands performing on harnesses in trees.
- The face painters, I dabbled, like I said I would.
- The endless inspirational and life changing costumes as donned by the Garderners; I never thought I’d say that the rather dashing Sherlock Holmes was camping next to us. I saw a touching moment when two different groups of Oompa Loompas eyed each other up and town then embraced each other in the true festival spirit. Or on Sunday morning when I saw three identical ‘naval officers’ compelte with Aviators jumping into the lake.

The music:
The thing is with SGP, you think you’ll go see a couple bands here or there, you’ll get an event guide and mark down all the people you want to see and then you’ll really end up at a secret gig or at Strummerville watching a bunch of guys dressed as pirates sing some sea shanties.

Living up to expectations, the memorable, Beans on Toast who got a whole 45 minute set that not just pleased us musically, but entertained us. Extra points to Jay for having a go at the guy who tried to get everyone up standing, saying he didn’t care if people sat or stood because he just wanted them to enjoy the music.

It has to be said that Gorillaz Sound System on the Saturday evening were a highlight of the whole weekend. They took the Gorillaz sound and transformed it into a bigger, more interesting set. Sampling all different genres of music proved their worth; from Bon Jovi to Dizzee Rascal, their set seemed to go on for a very decent length of time and I enjoyed every minute of it. On a similar note, in the dance arena one band who I did actually get to see, Fenech Soler did not disappoint, whipping us all into a frenzy on the Friday evening. Look out for further info on these electro indie boys on the blog in the upcoming weeks. One other artist who I’d been told by several fellow musicians to go see was Ed Sheeran, who wowed a packed Living Room tent. His eclectic mixture of gorgeous folk with beatboxing, rapping and loop pedals couldn’t have impressed me more, I am pretty proud to say that Ed and I are both from East Anglia, oh yes, Ed proves that the countryside can offer provide talent and that there is a shit lot of it going around. I believe Ed was on NR1 Records but I hear he is surpassing the label nowadays and I hope the mainstream accept him because he’s much more than a generic musician. There’s a certain Frank Turner crossed with Jamie T esque to his music, but he makes it his own sound and does it bloody well.

We actually achieved something at SGP too, a band we’d been meaning to see in London but have ended up missing is Hoodlums. And I got to see them twice over SGP, they’re sort of Indie Jazz; they list Ella Fitzgerald to The Cure as their musical influences. What a fantastic show these boys gave on The Living Room and Where The Wild Things Are stages. I was incredibly impressed by the boys’ cover of M.I.A’s ‘Paper Planes’, which is not an easy song to perform. I saw them do it twice and both times they got the crowd up and dancing. We will also be featuring them on the blog in the upcoming weeks.

SGP has a little bit of something for everyone; I’m not even covering most of it. I love discovering new music and sometimes that’s not always possible for us because we’re at a gig to interview or review a certain musician so SGP catered for our lust for a discovery for new music. From the weekend, I have discovered more music but also, cheesily, made a couple friends and created memories that I shall not forget until the next one. It’s mayhem, it’s crazy, you don’t really expect to understand it, but you live it. Rock on SGP.

Interview with one of the co-creators of an art project displayed at Secret Garden Party coming soon.