Boutique Festivals

Image courtesy of Wakestock Festival

Buckle up music lovers summer is around the corner. Your flowery wellies need an airing, your liver is bracing itself for an onslaught and your tent is about to re-emerge from the depths of your cupboard. As festival fever begins in 2008, how do you choose where to go from the ever-growing choices, and what is happening to dear old Glasto? Jo Gifford takes a look at the trend for boutique festivals with some great ideas for where to shake your glow sticks and wade in musical mud…

Festivals are a veritable British music pop culture phenomenon.  Since the beginnings of Glasto in the hazy 70’s our love of summertime music revelry has steadily escalated to spawn a variety of events to tickle the most diverse taste buds, and in 2008 the choice of events has reached a whole new level.
For the best part of three decades the UK festival scene has been sewn up predominantly by Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds festivals with V joining the throng in later years. This summer the inboxes of music fans will be inundated with details for smaller, “boutique” festivals offering an alternative to the big events; the focus is on smaller, less corporate events with an eco theme, and we are awash with options.

So why the need for choice? This year is the first that Glastonbury tickets did not sell out immediately; organiser Michael Eavis cited the good old British Weather; "I think three years of mud may have taken their toll”, but are other factors to blame?
The introduction of hip hop headliner Jay-Z has been met with much criticism, as has the nature of the so called “hooray Henry” crowd attending with a good deal of column inches from recent years bearing disgruntled comments that the festival has become too middle class. The price of tickets has been much maligned, as has the corporate sponsorship by Emap, the Guardian, Orange, Budweiser and Natwest bank. If prices have gone too far and corporate partners are against the core nature of festivals it may go someway to explain Glasto’s perceived decline in popularity and the appearance of a multitude of smaller independent festivals.

In addition, it would seem that the trend towards green initiatives and local sourcing has extended to the realm of festivals, as noted by trendsters the Future Laboratory. Across a wide slice of consumerism we are seeing a return to the values of independence, accessibility, affordability, variety and choice, a trend, which by default leads to individuality and quirkiness.
The Secret Garden Party in Huntingdonshire is a prime example of a Kleinist anti-globalism independent festival, harking back to the original concept of Glasto. Now in year four of existence, Secret Garden  is attracting a large crowd of festies enjoying the mixture of arts, music and community spirit. Local residents are given free entrance, and all the food and drinks stalls are independently run with not a sponsorship logo in site. The organisers give a breakdown on their site as to how ticket money is spent, and make clear their ethos:

“The Secret Garden party is…YOUR PARTY. It exists because of what is inside you – imagination, freedom, curiosity, energy and insuppressible spirit. … …..conceived as a moment in the year where you can explore your wildest fantasies and realise your wildest dreams. …a gathering of individuals away from cities and schedules, brands and boundaries….…not for profit, all for love. It is four days and four nights of creativity, serenity and euphoria: mass temporary collaboration generating a deep and permanent sense of community.”

With an ethos similar to the original Glastonbury, the challenge before organizers of SGP and other boutique festivals is to remain small and independent: a continual balancing act of growth and adherence to values, and to maintain success without becoming mainstream.

Blissfields is another successful festival with a formula that has led to winning several accreditations. Including the Best Small Festival 2007, appearing on The Times’ Festivals of the Year list, and the Observer’s top 20 festivals for 2008.
Now in its seventh year, Blissfields has retained a balance of attracting established names in music (this year sees the Wonderstuff and Roni Size headlining) alongside exciting emerging acts whilst playing to a crowd of just 5,000 ticket holders. A green stage made from sleepers and earth allows acts to perform with the grass beneath their toes, and the organisers are keen advocators of care sharing, waste minimisation and awareness of the environment.

Wakestock has successfully combined board sports and music for the festival to be successful enough to be expanding to second venue this year, with dual events running at Abersoch and Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. Top headllining acts this year include Groove Armada, The Streets and Mark Ronson with the fabulous addition of wakeboarding. Keeping a sense of uniqueness is a key factor in the trend towards boutique festivals, with Wakestock a prime example of this.

Other festivals abound this year, with the Mighty Boosh festival, Lodestar, and Lattitude in their inaugural years whilst Bestival, Wireless, The Big Chill and Lovebox enjoy continued success. Our choice towards smaller, greener, and quirkier is mirrored from retail consumerism to musical consumption and the challenge will be for the new contenders to keep their spirit alive.

Glastonbury may not last much longer as it sinks into a corporate quagmire but its spirit is well and truly alive in a new generation of events. Lets see how they all fare, and enjoy some summer festival fun in the meantime.

www.secretgardenparty.com
www.blissfields.co.uk
www.wakestock.co.uk

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