2000trees
11th – 12th July, Upcote Farm, Withington, near Cheltenham
Tickets £39
2000trees is a new festival on the SW circuit, created only last year by 6 friends disillusioned with other mainstream music festivals that seem to be morally and ethically corrupt, being ridiculously overpriced, having poor facilities and un-ethical structures and with only one thing in mind all weekend – to make dollar!
Last year saw 1,500 people at the 2000trees festival enjoying 50 bands, locally sourced food and drink and a fantastically ethical set up in a stunning settling near Cheltenham. Through the use of recycling stations and onsite composting the festival was able to recycle 66% of its waste which is staggering and all power and lighting used was produced using locally-sourced biodiesel (recycled chip fat).
This year the ethical and entertainment targets are set just as high. Expect a wide selection of music genres across The Treehouse, The Leaf Lounge and The Greenhouse stages including some brilliant headliners including Art Brut.
Last year attendees commented how “it felt like some older festivals did, a long time ago.” I am really looking forward to this one!
www.twothousandtreesfestival.co.uk

Larmer Tree Festival
16th – 20th July, Larmer Tree Gardens near Shaftesbury and Salisbury
Tickets £172
Set in a beautiful Victorian pleasure garden with forest, hidden statues and peacocks as standard, this fiesta is all about world foods and world music and is regarded as one of the best kept secret on the festival scene.
There are seven venues each with their own distinct character and artist line-up so you can experience the diverse range of entertainment the festival is famed for. Over the 5 days there will be more then 80 performers from all over the globe, with my person highlight this year being the blues monster Eric Bibb.
Best of all, with no big sponsors and only a small team, this ensures the festival keeps its independent vibe and they can strictly limit numbers to protect the events intimate atmosphere.
www.larmertreefestival.co.uk

Bestival in a Field
19th – 20th July, Lulworth Castle, Dorset
Tickets £120
It seems everyone wants a piece of the festival action nowadays and it’s increasingly difficult to find a festival which isn’t attended by absolute masses of people with queues so long for food and toilets that you wonder why you bothered coming in the first place. Glastonbury is now just a muddy city with 150,000 tickets sold, Bestival now gets about 60,000 people turning up and in an effort to counter that, Rob Da Bank (who established the first Bestival 5 years ago) has created Bestival In A Field to try and retain that intimate festival vibe. 2008 is the fist year this new festival will be tried and the key is they are only making 10,000 tickets available – mmmmm…just right.
If you’re lucky enough to go, expect similarly wide ranging music as Bestival, entertainment from the Bestival Bluecoats, an Insect Stage, a Balearic Bollywood arena, theatre in the woods, films projected on the Castle Walls and enough elbow room to really get down to some serious boogying.
www.campbestival.co.uk

Glade
18th – 20th July, in Wasing Estate, near Newbury
Tickets £125
Formed 5 years ago by the people behind The Glade at Glasto, this festival focuses on cutting edge electro-dance music playing all range of breaks, heavy drum’n’bass and real chill out and once you are in, you’re in, and the party doesn’t stop!
True to Glasto’s classic values, Glade has a strong aversion to all things corporate and mainstream, preferring to celebrate the alternative, underground and interesting and is the biggest UK festival without any sponsorship. With a strong ethos of music, art, laughter, evolution and healing, you can wonder Glade’s creative wonderland and get the lot if you want, or just dance and then dance some more.
www.gladefestival.com

WOMAD
25th – 27th July, Charlton Park, Wiltshire
Tickets £125
WOMAD stands for World of Music, Arts and Dance and aims to bring together many forms of music, arts and dance from various countries and cultures across the globe. WOMAD festivals are regularly held all over the world, allowing audiences to gain an insight into cultures other than their own though the mutual enjoyment of music and in WOMAD’s 26 year history, over 150 festivals have been held in 27 different countries.
A brief glance at the festival line-up gives an indication of the international atmosphere you can expect; 100 artists from 40 countries will be performing including influential musicians from Cuba, Egypt, Tibet, Guyana, Congo, New Zealand, Jamaica, USA, Brazil and the UK. So you don’t feel too out of your depth though, Saturday night the main marquee will be given over to a drum’n’bass night billed as ‘Beat Bristol’. Represent!
More than just international music, expect stalls and cafés offering cuisine from every corner of the globe, percussion and dance workshops of every variety and people from every walk of life in the creation of a festival that aims to excite, inform and create awareness of the worth and potential of a multicultural society. WOMAD is more than a festival; it’s a way a life!
www.womad.org

Bloom
8th – 10th August, Seven Springs, Cheltenham
Tickets £85
Nominated as Best New UK Festival in 2006, Bloom is a young fledgling at 3 years and is still as fresh and as exciting as it was at its conception. 2008 sees the festival moving HQ to a new, more open space in the beautiful Seven Springs overlooking the city of Cheltenham.
The 3-day event sees several arenas pumping out music in a plethora of genres including electro, house, hip-hop, reggae, jazz, folk and drum’n’bass. But it isn’t just about the music, expect cabaret, comedy, stunning live visuals, fire shows, instillations, live art, Bloom bingo, circus acts, Bloom vegetable patch, beat jigsaw and a digital funfair?!
www.bloomfestival.com

Croissant Neuf
15th – 17th August, near Usk, Monmouthshire
Tickets £75
The story of Croissant Neuf is a sweet one. It all started off as a skiffle band in East Anglia doing the rounds of folk festivals and village halls. This slowly grew into a tent café that specialised in selling croissants and coffee while people could watch bands and the tent toured shows around the region. In the late eighties the collective toured the steam fair circuit, fusing together circus performance and live music.
After a quiet 20 years, the Croissant Neuf team cam back together last year to host an entirely independent event to celebrate Croissant Neuf’s 21st birthday. The beautiful setting, superb mix of eclectic entertainment, along with a wealth of activities, workshops and wonderful people ensured the weekend was a huge achievement. More than enough positives were drawn from the experience to warrant doing the festival for a second time and this year’s event promises to be even better than before.
So 2008 sees Croissant Neuf Sumer Partry as a fully fledged festival! Diverse music of course will be on offer with lots of family entertainment and workshops and the organisers are striving to keep all the food and drink onsite organic and locally sourced.
www.partyneuf.co.uk

Bestival
5th – 7th September, Robin Hill Country Park, Isle of Wight
Tickets £130
Interesting Fact: The Isle of Wight hold more carnivals per capita than anywhere else in the UK; so where better to round off the end of the festival season than at Bestival? Established 5 years ago by Radio 1 DJ supremo Rob Da Bank, Bestival has grown into one of the major highlights of the UK summer calendar whilst retaining its independent, non-corporate feel and is often described as a ‘boutique festival’.
Every music taste is catered for across Bestival’s numerous stages hosting popular rock/pop acts and several DJ tents (this year including Bristol’s own DJ Derek!); most interestingly though, the event is famed for its ‘secret stages’. Just as popular is Bestival’s love of all this odd and innovative, for example, last year saw an inflatable church where people could get married and in 2005, the festival squeezed into the pages of the Guinness Book of World Records by getting 10,000 people to dress up as cowboys and indians! Splendid.
www.bestival.net