Blissfields
4-5 July | Vicarage Farm, Hampshire
Now in its 13th year, Blissfields is a chilled out weekend which compliments the musical line-up with delicious food, a series of creative workshops and a strong focus on a family friendly atmosphere. Set in picturesque Hampshire with its main stage situated fifteen minutes away from campsite, it’s also a perfect follow-up from Glastonbury.
Activity tents, workshops and vintage clothes stands lined the right hand side of the arena. Sadly, this included a stand of live owls, vultures and birds of prey from around the world. The stand was positioned in the loudest area of the festival, and every bird on display was known to possess an acute sense of hearing, which you worry could be damaged beyond repair. For £3 you could hold a bird for a couple of seconds, but I would rather pay £30 to see them fly free. A beautiful floristry workshop run by London based freelance florist Pel Mercer gave people the chance to create beautiful head pieces and tent decorations from freshly cut British grown flora. The left hand side of the main arena was dedicated to delicious artisan food stalls, with Luardos Burrito van selling the best Burrito I have ever eaten at a festival, and the You Doughnut! stall selling freshly baked balls of fluffy goodness drenched in homemade salted caramel sauce were literally perfection.
The travelling cedar wood hot tubs were thankfully present. Submerging my body and shotting Prosecco for a couple of hours to escape from the icy rain on Friday night seemed the only reasonable thing to do before seeing girl/boy noise-pop duo Sleigh Bells perform one of their few UK festival dates of the year.
The Hustle Den had played host to New Desert Blues on Friday morning. All dressed in a uniform identical to Steve Jobs daily wear, the Southampton based band played an hour of perfectly on point eerie synths and wailing vocals. Snakehips, the queen of premium feel good pop, played a wonderfully soulful set. By the end of Friday evening, there was a smile on every audience member’s face.
The highlight of Saturday’s line-up was no doubt Melt Yourself Down in The Hustle Den. Although I couldn’t understand a word of the set, all of the band members put on an incredible show; dripping in sweat, lurching into the audience, scaling the amps and riding the huge plastic elephant. The problem both the performers and the audience had with the set was the massively overactive security. Girls on boyfriend’s shoulders were screamed at to get down, the lead singer putting one leg on the barrier was a supervised affair and decision to drag the plastic elephant onto the stage caused mayhem throughout the stages’ headsets and walkie talkies. Melt Yourself Down played Glastonbury the week before; they went a thousand times wilder and no one said a thing. But maybe that’s because it’s Glastonbury.
2 Many DJs headlined the festival on Saturday evening, typically drawing the largest crowd of the weekend. Every genre was covered, from house to techno, 90s Brit pop and rave. Monki’s set at the Party Bus (Bliscoteque) drew an unexpectedly large crowd, with a set full of Disclosure hits and 90s garage.
As the smaller stages ended and the night continued, The Hidden Hedge fired up to be a totally unexpected marvel. Fire breathers, jugglers, creepy projections onto trampolines in the trees and secret doorways to tiny clearings filled with pillows lined the walkway to the strobe light saturated white plastic domed tent, which was thumping out dubstep and techno until 5am. Blissfields is a cute weekend of partying and exploring; as opposed to getting so wasted you forget your own name. Unless you find the Hidden Hedge, that is.
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Words: Jennifer Vilder
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