Review: FarmFest 2021 – ‘Delightfully laid-back’

“I can’t actually believe I’m at a festival!” is the first thing I hear as we take our first steps into Farmfest. It’s a sentiment that’s shared by me and apparently by most of the other 5,000 lucky festivalgoers who are bouncing their way through the fields of Gilcombe Farm near Bruton.

Farmfest in 2021 has retained its delightfully laid-back atmosphere, filled with a mix of age groups; small enough to wander off and easily find each other again; and surrounded by beautiful Somerset countryside.

The festival spans two days, although we’re only able to make the Saturday. There’s four of us including our four-year-old and 16-month-old daughters.

Determined to make the most of our limited time we’ve taken a borrowed wagon (box on wheels), pram, and bedding in the hope that we can drag sleeping kids around while we sample what the festival has to offer at night.

There’s plenty for us to enjoy beyond the music during the day however, and we start off with a turn around the big wheel, taking in the small, bustling site and rolling hills beyond.

The crowd at FarmFest 2021, once again taking place on Gilcombe Farm near Bruton in Somerset – photo: FarmFest

After enjoying some crowd-pleasing numbers from the DJs at the Soul Express we venture to the Big Blue tent to sample energetic two-piece Bite the Buffalo- ruff vocals over blurry, blues-tinted rock that bears a pleasing resemblance to Queens of the Stone Age.

We take the kids to the play area, conveniently located near the Bone Shaker tent which we’re able to dip into for bits of Bristol-based Glaswegian Marco Bernadi’s Detroit-flavoured techno-house set whilst our youngest circles the sandpit giving out high fives.

Then it’s back to the Big Blue for KOG’s brilliantly energetic performance. Ghanaian-born Kweku is electric on stage, leaping about in a frenzied dance whilst spitting ragga vocals over a range of Afro-infused genres including reggae, dancehall and hip-hop, expertly provided by dj/producer Tom Excell of Nubian Twist.

“We’ve been locked down for nearly two years!” shouts Kweku from the front of the stage. “Are you happy to be free?” The crowd, willing to accommodate the slight exaggeration, are clearly very happy.

The genre-bending theme continues from the rest of the acts from here on in. It’s not too far down the West African coast from Ghana to Nigeria and an even shorter distance from the sweaty bowels of the Big Blue to the Main Stage for Ibibio Sound Machine, led by the resplendent British/Nigerian frontwoman Eno Williams.

The Afro theme continues but this time drifting between soul, gospel and bass driven funk that keeps the blissed-out crowd swaying as the sun sets over the hills.

It’s a real festival! – photo: FarmFest

Time to get the kids in their pyjamas but our eldest is not going to miss out on Henge once she catches a glimpse of weird and wonderful alien druid band take to the Big Blue stage.

For starters, beardy frontman Zpor has a plasma ball on his head. It turns out he’s the captain of the spaceship Mushroom One and has brought some fellow intergalactic travellers with him to Earth to spread a message to us humans to find peace and look after our planet.

This positive message is conveyed through the medium of a mind-bending performance and some frantic and utterly bonkers music which somehow works brilliantly. A captivating frontman, distorted vocals, rave licks, computer game bleeps and psychedelic drones keep the crowd spellbound throughout.

A Weston film theme tune gives way to a Rage Against the Machine-esque funk rock breakdown via a klezmer-like stomp. The lights go down, the smoke machine spews, and a couple of mushroom dancers spray silly string into the crowd.

As we’re pushed up against the front barrier this bit proves a bit too much for my four-year-old, but she certainly doesn’t want to leave and Henge bring us back by getting the whole crowd involved in Demilitarise, their anti-war singalong.

It’s great fun and apparently quite exhausting as both kids are asleep in their chariots, cocooned in sleeping bags and ear defenders, by the time we’ve left the tent.

Parked on the edge of tents for the rest of the evening and taking it in turns to guard the kids from stumbly ravers and dip in, we stick around for the start of a set from crowd-pleasing remix maestro The Reflex before wheeling ourselves over to The Den, packed out for Ross from Friends who delivers a set that takes us on a strangely nostalgic journey through lo-fi house, ambient techno and finally into a joyous and exuberant garage crescendo.

The final tune of his set features a vocal sample ‘freedom’ which send the crowd into a hands-in-the-air frenzy.

While Farmfest has offered almost everything to a festival-starved family it has thus-far lacked much in the way of a broken beat, something I have been craving through a sound system for some time.

Luke Vibert soon resolves this as the headphones are passed to him at 2.30am. Starting off with some slow, blurry breaks with eery screams and whistles that take us back to the analogue 90s, his set gets progressively heavier and more dancefloor friendly.

Half an hour in and it’s turned into a jungle tear out, rattling Amen Andrews numbers alongside some 90s classics that have the tent a blur of closed eyed grinning heads and flailing limbs.

At this point it begins to rain and both kids stir in their wheeled beds. As we wheel them back to camp, grateful we’ve made it this far into the night, amen breaks drift across the fields and we still can’t quite believe we’re at a festival again.

Main photo: FarmFest

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