Review: Shindig 2018

In the last five years since Shindig started I have been privileged to watch this festival grow, develop and mature into the incredible festival it is today. Crowds of shiny, sparkly people, it is one of the friendliest events I have ever been to. The atmosphere is vibrant and each year’s theme creates a shared sense of silliness between strangers. This year’s theme ‘over the rainbow’ made it the most colourful one yet.

Torrential weather on Thursday and dull weather report for the weekend was a concern but in true Shindig Style the sun came out to play for the rest of the weekend. The thunder and rain storms didn’t dampen the high spirits.

The Ghetto Funk team are legendary in the West Country for their glorious and bonkers funky style as well as their award winning record label, and since bringing this festival to the fields in Somerset May bank holiday has changed for ever. It’s a fantastic mash up of music, circus, food and family.

This year’s festival started Saturday afternoon for us with a trip down memory lane to back when we were teenagers at university. The Tutti Frutti stage had an old school line up including Altern 8, 2 Bad Mice and Top Buzz all playing classics from the early nineties for the now named rave generation.

Photo by Leora Bermeister

Saturday evening saw us head to the front of the stage for festival favourites The Dub Pistols who played a bouncing set as ever. We left The Dig Inn sweating, elated and loving the fact that they never disappoint a crowd. Later at The Dig Inn we witnessed crazy carnival drum and bass by Slamboree but the crowd was too tight to squeeze into so we watched on tip toes.

Saturday night also saw The Jungle Brothers followed by Krafty Kuts joined by the legendary smooth sounding rapper Charlie 2na at The Ghetto funk nightclub. The packed crowd were rockin’ out for this and Saturday night was in full swing.

The sun came out again on Sunday and a quick visit to the kids field explained why families keep coming back to these Somerset fields. Whatever the age of your child they were catered for with soft play to circus skills, climbing wall, music, theatre, graffiti and crafts. With such great camping and facilities the family are all kept happy.

Photo by Jason Bryant

By far the biggest crowd on Sunday was for world famous Soul to Soul celebrating their 30th anniversary. A packed out Dig Inn had to wait for them for nearly an hour in the heat and humidity and the sound was definitely off but they still gave the crowd what they wanted with all their classics from over the years.

There was so much to see and do and other highlights included funky revelry with The Stereo MC’s, dirty funky bass over at Father Funks Church of Love and The Bad Sisters at Nautilicious. The Word stage had comedy including Phil Jupitus and Mark Thomas and talks all through the weekend.

We finally sat down at sunset on Sunday to watch the famous Bullzini hire wire circus who did a spectacular arial love story. This year’s festival without a doubt had the most diverse music that I have seen at Shindig and the positive vibes for the future are all over it. This is a party for the older party person and their families if they choose to bring them and we are looking forward to next year already.

Photo by Leora Bermeister