Summer Festival Fun

Isle of Wight Festival 2018

I went to the Isle of Wight Festival again this year; it was the 50th anniversary of the original IOW festival, and this one was sold out completely. Everyone baked in the extremely hot weather, and any spot of shade was immediately filled! The noise was immense - no quiet to be found anywhere; between the stages was the noise of funfair rides and 90,000 punters having a great time. There was food aplenty, as well as drink and the occasional whiff of weed wafting past. I note a few acts that I particularly enjoyed; Depeche Mode were great as far as I was concerned (lots of others not so keen), Feeder were fabulous, as were Nile Rogers and Chic. I watched, as is traditional, the Medina College Ukulele band in the Kashmir Café who were on top form. Mostly I pottered around, catching up with chums, and letting the atmosphere and music waft over me. Good times, despite the mild sunstroke.

 

Rhythmtree Festival 2018

Ah, I love Rhythmtree Festival! It is so laid back with an electric range of music on three stages, and filled with lovely laid back people too. I spent two days in the woods with the scouts throwing axes and making dreamcatchers and pipecleaner teddies, and listening to the music from the woodland stage. Lovely. The sun beat down on the main arena, where the grass had dried to straw, so we were in the coolest place. There was a good range of food (I highly recommend Tansy's Pantry vegetarian food bus), and we had several forays to the tea and cake shop next to the Frolic Inn, where we sat either on the squidgy sofa or hay bales. Nice!

Rhythmtree reminds me of a large, English summer fête really, with slightly random stalls selling all manner of strange things, music you wouldn't necessarily listen to on a normal day, homemade cake and tea, Morris dancers and carnivals (not sure you'd get that at a fête, but the articulated tigers were great, as was the mechanical horse). Great fun, and I highly recommend going.