Review: Ashton Court Festival Diary

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This year over 100,000 festival-goers from all over Bristol and beyond watched as 150 live acts took to the stage at the Ashton Court Festival. Now in its 32nd year, the festival has grown into one of the UK’s biggest community music and multi arts events, committed to promoting new music and local talent. Here’s what happened when MyVillage joined the crowds on Sunday…

1.30pm. With the Suspension Bridge closed again this year (apparently Brunel didn’t have the foresight to design it to withstand thousands of festival goers traipsing across it at the same time,) we join the long queue making the assent up to festival’s site, perched right at the top of Ashton Court Estate. The path is fenced in on both sides so there’s no taking a short cut through the woods as at previous festivals. Luckily the people at Relentless, who sponsor one of the two main stages, are giving away free cans to those (like me) already suffering from the effects of uphill walking and searing heat.

2.15pm. Find a space amongst a sea of sweltering bodies in front of the Relentless stage ready for Bristol nine-piece, John E Vistic Experience’s set. One of the things I love most about Ashton Court is that you get to see all kinds of sights, some more disturbing than others. There are more than enough contenders to be this year’s ‘thong-man,’ a festival legend who shows up every year wearing only a thong. My favourite is the overweight pony-tailed guy wearing a day-glow pink and black striped cycling short one-piece accessorised with a bum-bag. Down the front an over-enthusiastic guy with crazy hair head bangs between songs.

3pm. Wander past the hippy clothes stalls, a tent where you can inhale alcohol for 10 minutes for £3, a hammock area, the obligatory stalls offering a ‘herbal high’ and related accessories and a poetry corner with a handful of bemused spectators standing around.

3.15pm. Join the crowd watching Kingswood’s Circomedia performers execute their acrobatics and contort themselves into impossible positions. They’re followed by a guy with one of those giant cotton reels-on-a-string things. He can’t compete with the previous act and we drift away.

3.30pm. The mellow folk of Slow combines with the effects of sunstroke to lull me into a chilled-out reverie. Feel the first signs of what will later turn out to be the worst case of sunburn I’ve ever had. Wander over to the main stage via the Blackout Marquee where a mixed crowd, including plenty of families, are taking in the eerie experimental noise accompanied by weird visual projections on the wall.

4pm. The comperes on the main stage rev up the audience between acts with some ‘comedy’ banter and then introduce Santadog, a female-fronted indie-pop band whose catchy hooks are let down only by lyrics like ‘Oh my god, your skin is so soft.’ Throughout the performance a pod with two people inside on the end of a bungee rope keeps appearing and disappearing from above the tree -tops. Consider having a go for about three seconds before deciding against it.

4.30pm. Just in case we’d forgotten that this is the Orange Ashton Court Festival, the comperes return to the stage and give away Orange watches, an Orange phone and try and instigate an Orange space hopper race. Elguapo come on and sound exactly like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, which turns out to be no bad thing on a blazing hot summer afternoon.

5.30pm. Back to the Relentless stage where the head-banging man is still in action. He must be knackered. Watch 3hostwomexicansandatinofspanners do their angry, god-hating punk rock thing. As the lead singer growls and emits unearthly guttural sounds into the microphone and invites everyone to ‘Fuck off’ I notice a number of people to exactly that.

6.20pm. Babel are introduced onto the stage as ‘probably Bristol’s best band’ and, though their highly listenable guitar-pop is obviously a popular draw, they remind me far too much of Travis, at least on this occasion, to warrant the title.

7pm onwards. As per my usual Ashton Court routine, it all gets a bit hazy after this. Nathan Fake were in there somewhere as were Simple Minds but I can’t really tell you what they were like, suffice to say I was having a great time in my lager fuelled fog. On the way back down the hill I realise that I’ve gone the whole day without using the woods as a toilet once. Despite this, I, along with the rest of Bristol, have had a fantastic day and can’t wait to do it all again next year.

www.blackheartstudios.co.uk/visticweb
www.circomedia.com
www.darkhousemultimedia.com/slow
www.santa-dog.co.uk
www.3hos.com