Green Man Festival

Day One
Got off to a slow start, leaving Bath quite late, me driving, in the pouring rain through the complicated one way system, you're 'aving a giraffe mate. In a freaky reverse of our normal entry into Wales, as we went over the Severn Bridge, the rain stopped and the sun came out, Hurrah! We didn't get to the B&B in Crickhowell until 2 ish. We decided to walk along the main A30 to the site, it didn't look far on the map, the blokey at the B&B said it was only a mile and a bit. It turned out to be twice that, walking along an incredibly busy road, with no footpath for nearly an hour. We were ready to leave as soon as we got there, not least because the minute we got inside the main gate the heavens opened.

Hywel and Malcolm had also driven from Bath in the rain, and gone off to pick up the narrow boat that they'd hired for the week (at a hefty £800) which they sailed along the canal and moored directly outside the site. Brilliant wheeze really but way too expensive.


We met up with them later on and saw a few damp acts, Billie was happiest sheltering in the Chai tent drinking Earl Grey and reading The Grauniad. She was impressed with M Ward though, who was American, and quite tuneful in an only very slightly folky way. Also saw Circulus; all crumhorns, lutes and swords:

There were three stages, the main stage was in a natural bowl which had been terraced to make it easy to sit on the banked hillside and see everything. The sound was good, and even from the top of the hill was clear. There was a big top tent housing the Folkey-Dokey stage, and another small stage at the Green Man Cafe. There were loads of stalls and bars and food outlets and so forth, and no queues for the loos. After M Ward, Hywel and I wandered off to see The Skygreen Leopards but they were a bit naff, so came back to the main stage to see The Aliens, a wacky off-shoot from The Beta Band.

Even though it was only about eight, it was peeing down and we all decided we'd had enough of bloody festivals for today, so we wandered back up to the boat for a cuppa before heading off along the pitch black canal bank back towards Crickhowell. Luckily we'd purchased a Morrocan lantern for a fiver which lit our way, otherwise we'd have ended up in the murky depths.

Day Two
The weather was a bit brighter but still showery. We'd arranged to meet up at The Green Man Cafe to see Charlotte Greig, wife of famous Cardiff author John Williams, at 1:30.


She was pleasantly folky, doing lots of trad. material plus a Sonic Youth cover. Because the rain started again while Charlotte was on we decamped to the literature tent for the afternoon, which was being curated by John. We saw a local young poet Owen Sheers, who was actually very good, and a young novelist whose name I can't remember. Then John did an interview with famous sixties producer Joe Boyd. He produced the first Pink Floyd single and ran the UFO club, as well as producing loads of the best folk acts of the time. That was all very interesting, and took us through to a break in the rain. So we went out to the main stage to watch Tuung, who were also pleasant (pleasantness being a kind of the theme of the whole weekend musically). Then:
Bat For Lashes - All girl trio, Cat Power singing the songs of the Shangri-Las, in the voice of Bjork, backed by the Velvet Underground - probably my fave act of the whole event.
King Creosote - Scottish laddie with nice voice and nice tunes.
Micah P. Hinson - Gruffer voiced than ever.
Silver Jews - Gloomy Americana.
We left after a few numbers, as the rain had started again. I'd driven in so getting back was easier, and despite the rain the car park wasn't a bog.

Day Three
Hardly any rain all day, indeed the sun even popped out for a few minutes. We were booted out of the B&B at 10.30 - "We've got the BBC stayin' yer tonight" - and so parked and walked up to the canal for coffee and cookies with Hywel and Malc, joined by John and Charlotte. Because the weather was so obliging we were able to dive back and forth between the stages (all timings were very strict, and the different stages had staggered start times, which meant you could walk between stages, and hardly miss anything). Managed to see some, or all, of:
Onions - Folky duo
Nancy Elizabeth Cunliffe - Very folky, played the Welsh Harp (much tinier than Joanna Newsome's).
Fink - Folky duo
Emma Tricca - Folky solo
18th Day of May - Nice Fairport Convention tribute band, groovy accompaniment to my delicious vegetable chilli.


Juana Molina - Spanish ex-stand up, using lots of effects to build up songs in layers. Nice to lounge around and read the paper to.
Archie Bronson Outfit - Rockers...lots of people felt they were out of place, I was ready for a bit of raucousnesss at this point, they just weren't very good.
Marissa Nadler - Goth folk, sang an Edgar Alan Poe poem.

Martha Wainwright had cancelled, replaced by Cerys Matthews, so we decided to beat the traffic and head off to see my mum. All in all a pleasant event, but in need of a bit more edge, and a lot more sunshine.