When: July 17th-21st
Where: Castle Hill Estate, Devon
Website: somersaultfestival.com
I went to Somersault festival with some
trepidation as to what it would be like as it was the first time ever that it
had been on, and I thought that it would be small and maybe a bit unorganised. However, I could not have been more wrong as it was a smooth running festival, with
a huge site in the most beautiful location in Devon.
Somersault itself comes from the same
stable as other UK festivals like Wilderness and The Great Escape. Somersault
was more of family-orientated festival, where there were opportunities to go
off site to the beach, and to do activities such as kayaking and surfing.
However, there were also many activities and happening things on-site such as a
rapping competition in the Variety Tent, holistic healing, yoga and massages in
the Wild Wellbeing Centre and lots of crafts and games in the kids area.
As for the musical acts, highlights were
Nick Mulvey’s brilliant set on Saturday as well as the famous Jack Johnson,
who, while being brilliant and bringing a huge crowd, did have an extremely
long set of over 2 hours, which got a bit tedious after a while. Half Moon Run
also attracted a big crowd with their folk/indie style pop on Sunday followed
by the haunting Ben Howard who had the group of boys near me all crying as they
sung their hearts out! Jack Wills were there with their own acoustic tent where
I particularly enjoyed the lovely Rae Morris in the afternoon.
 |
| My friend Jessye and I watching Half Moon Run. |
The food on offer was vast and looked
beautiful with two areas full of hundreds of stands such as a stall selling
smoothies made by bike-power and a café that put garlic in everything.
Kopparberg cider had their own bar, selling delicious chilled strawberry and lime cider at £5 a pint. As for other alcohol, there were 4 Somersault Bars stationed around the site with fairly reasonable prices (cheaper than Glastonbury anyway).
I got a free ticket as I worked with Green
Stewards at the festival. This was an excellent experience as we got our own
camping area away from the main areas, and only had to do three 6.5 hr shifts
the whole weekend. Whilst working most festival-goers were understanding if I had to prevent them going into an area etc. and very chatty so the time flew
by. I was lucky as I got shifts that usually didn't interfere with the main musical acts I wanted to see, but even if I wasn't, there was still plenty going on such as the Chai Wallah tent which had some brilliant DJ's on after 10 o'clock.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the festival
and am definitely going to attend next year, hopefully stewarding again. The
atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly, with plenty of security and nightlife
to keep everyone going!
