The Secret Garden Party

the main stage

Fes-tiv-al

• A day or time of religious or other celebration, marked by feasting, ceremonies, or other observances
• a period or programme of festive activities, cultural events or entertainment
• gaiety, revelry, merrymaking

I didn’t know much (if anything) relating to SGP before arriving. The only thing I knew was that my friend’s band were playing on the Saturday evening. My trip out to the SGP (just outside of Cambridge) began with a National Express coach from Cardiff to London, then a mad dash for a train to Rhys’ house, followed by jumping in his awesome bug and driving to Oxford. It was the perfect evening driving conditions; nice sunset, some good tunes and some good jokes.  We arrived in Oxford just in time to see Ute at the Jericho Tavern, and it was fucking awesome. Ute had a completely new level of intensity and I absolutely loved it. We celebrated the band’s awesome set by heading back to a friend’s house, where many beers were consumed with some good company.

Ute playing the Jericho Tavern, Oxford

Friday morning was met with the compulsory hangover, which goes with visits up to Oxford! The beetle was packed up and gunned (all of 60mph) towards the festival. We arrived at the festival in high spirits, and with enough O Town’s speciality sports rum to get us nicely into the merriment of things.

We wrestled with putting up the tent for a good hour before heading to check out the main stage (we wanted the campsite to know how novice we really were.) We were joined by the remaining members of ute and spurred each other on in the ways of sports rum. The good thing for me about SGP was knowing none of the bands on the bill! This meant I was free to walk around in abit of a haze trying to take in the hippie-tasticness of it all. There was alot of fancy dress on display and interesting stuff going on; or failing that there were so many beautiful girls walking around looking like fairies, I thought I was in my own personal fantasy!

Ute’s time to rock the party soon came round on Saturday evening, and luckily for them there was a massive drum and bass gig going on in the next tent! The folkstars of Ute did not let the fat basslines stop them and launched into their tunes. The sound guy looked completely off his face, so the mix wasn’t amazing but they made up for it with passion and completely rocked the little yurt.

SGP was an awesome festival with many a good time spent shaking our ‘thangs’ in the numerous dance tents! Not knowing any of the bands stopped it being life changing. There wasn’t that buzz you get off seeing a band you love at a festival that keeps you going. One of my personal highlights of the weekend was during the early hours of Sunday morning, Ollie played a spontaneous set in one of the tents. He played one of his own songs ‘Blackwood’ (which has alot of personal significance for me) which is about an old cabin out in the bush in Victoria, Australia. There Ollie and I drank wine, many cups of tea and got very high of some natural herbs! Next Ollie led the whole tent in a rendition of Arcade Fire’s ‘Wake Up’. He had about 20 people screaming at the tops of their voices, and awesome moment indeed…all the time I knew that the moment would have been sweeter if Boo and Kitty could have been there to have shared it.

The pirate ship stage at SGP