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This review was posted in the Bloom Festival 2007 forum

Subject

Bloom Festival 2007 @ Dyrham Park (Dyrham) in Bath (UK)

Fri 10 Aug 2007

Review

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Subject

A Bloomin' Amazing Weekend

Mandy-Looo	What can I say? Small festivals usually feel so much more intimate and Bloom was no exception. It was incredible from start to finish. We thought we were arriving peak hours, Friday lunch time, but there was no queue onto site and we parked a short stroll from the festival entrance. Wherever you were parked there was not going to be a long haul of camping equipment from the car to the camp site, so Bloom got it's first star for that! From the campsite, it was another very short walk into the festival itself. Second star! And everything on site was wonderfully spaced to mostly avoid sound clashes, the only exception to this was the Funk Bar, outside of which you could definitely hear the mainstage. All the stalls sold interesting items and there was no festival tat. If anything, a General Stores would have come in handy for lighters and odds and ends that might have been forgotten. All the food stalls looked excellent. I didn't manage to eat from all of them, but the Pieminister served delicious mash and gorgeous veggie gravy with their pies. You could also choose from Oriental, Mexican, baguettes and there was a chocolate fountain for those munchy moments. The fruit smoothie stall deserves a mention too - very reasonably priced. Yup, another star for this lot. Festival fixed decor was a little spartan, but there was loads of mobile entertainment to focus on. Saturday afternoon saw breakdancing competitions, three legged races and hundreds of people in imaginitive fancy dress - so good to see so many people making the effort. Let's give the festie another star! On to the music. I felt I saw so much, but I still managed to miss the Dub Pistols and a couple of others. The main stage had a great eclectic mixture. Trojan Soundsystem blew me away on Sunday Morning and Cold Cut were one of the highlights, drawing one of the biggest crowds of the weekend. I have to say, predictably for me, I spent most of my time in the Beats Bubble. The crowd were electric for Pendulum who teased us with cuts from "Hold Your Colour" (where did Fasten Your Seat Belts disappear to?) before throwing in Slam to get us all bouncing. The breaks line-up on Saturday was wonderful, so many Baobingas and IDs in the audience - where were the real ones? Rogue rocked it too and big up to Tayo for being the only breaks DJ in fancy dress. It was great to see so many DJs enjoying themselves. I think my top 2hours or so of festival stomping was on Sunday with Altern8 treating us to an Old-Skool set which covered so many classics yet completely avoided the cheese cabinet. He was followed by Ed209 and Ken Mac laying down some thumping breaks grooves - arguably a little populist, but for me it was the right set at just the right time, we needed the big tunes. The Lost Disco was also an extraordinary place. It felt like its own mini-festie, with its vaguely hidden location and zig-zagging entrance, not to to mention the slightly eerie Tunnel of Glove. Cagedbaby were excellent up there, but it was Kenny Hawkes who blew me away on Sunday evening with his drift-away blend of tunes. The Funk Bar seemed to have a more eclectic selection, with Kid Fiesta spinning the party music late into Saturday night - I hear he did the same again on Sunday. Beardyman was a Sunday afternoon act worth catching as well - how does he do it? If you had the energy at the end of all that dancing, the Chai-Wallah cafe was a cool place to hang out after hours. If there were any downsides, I'd say the lack of showers was a minor disappointment (not sure I'd've wasted time at them anyway) and with the loss of the Dolly Mixture stage some of the artists, notably DJ Derek who only got to play a disgruntled 30 mins on the main stage in the end, didn't play at the times in the programme which was confusing at times. At least they were all there. I wonder what will happen to Bloom next? On Friday afternoon they could have done with a few more numbers, but expanding the festival too much will mean it loses some of its unique character. The vibe is just so friendly at the moment, full of smiling people who want to have fun and make idiots of themselves without behaving like idiots to each other. Overall, the festival was absolute quality. I've lost count of all the stars I could give it. Let's just say 9.5/10 eh? Reply Quote Posted Wed 15 Aug 2007 Edited Wed 15 Aug 2007

Mandy-Looo

What can I say? Small festivals usually feel so much more intimate and Bloom was no exception. It was incredible from start to finish.

We thought we were arriving peak hours, Friday lunch time, but there was no queue onto site and we parked a short stroll from the festival entrance. Wherever you were parked there was not going to be a long haul of camping equipment from the car to the camp site, so Bloom got it's first star for that!

From the campsite, it was another very short walk into the festival itself. Second star! And everything on site was wonderfully spaced to mostly avoid sound clashes, the only exception to this was the Funk Bar, outside of which you could definitely hear the mainstage.

All the stalls sold interesting items and there was no festival tat. If anything, a General Stores would have come in handy for lighters and odds and ends that might have been forgotten.

All the food stalls looked excellent. I didn't manage to eat from all of them, but the Pieminister served delicious mash and gorgeous veggie gravy with their pies. You could also choose from Oriental, Mexican, baguettes and there was a chocolate fountain for those munchy moments. The fruit smoothie stall deserves a mention too - very reasonably priced. Yup, another star for this lot.

Festival fixed decor was a little spartan, but there was loads of mobile entertainment to focus on. Saturday afternoon saw breakdancing competitions, three legged races and hundreds of people in imaginitive fancy dress - so good to see so many people making the effort. Let's give the festie another star!

On to the music. I felt I saw so much, but I still managed to miss the Dub Pistols and a couple of others. The main stage had a great eclectic mixture. Trojan Soundsystem blew me away on Sunday Morning and Cold Cut were one of the highlights, drawing one of the biggest crowds of the weekend.

I have to say, predictably for me, I spent most of my time in the Beats Bubble. The crowd were electric for Pendulum who teased us with cuts from "Hold Your Colour" (where did Fasten Your Seat Belts disappear to?) before throwing in Slam to get us all bouncing. The breaks line-up on Saturday was wonderful, so many Baobingas and IDs in the audience - where were the real ones? Rogue rocked it too and big up to Tayo for being the only breaks DJ in fancy dress. It was great to see so many DJs enjoying themselves.

I think my top 2hours or so of festival stomping was on Sunday with Altern8 treating us to an Old-Skool set which covered so many classics yet completely avoided the cheese cabinet. He was followed by Ed209 and Ken Mac laying down some thumping breaks grooves - arguably a little populist, but for me it was the right set at just the right time, we needed the big tunes.

The Lost Disco was also an extraordinary place. It felt like its own mini-festie, with its vaguely hidden location and zig-zagging entrance, not to to mention the slightly eerie Tunnel of Glove. Cagedbaby were excellent up there, but it was Kenny Hawkes who blew me away on Sunday evening with his drift-away blend of tunes.

The Funk Bar seemed to have a more eclectic selection, with Kid Fiesta spinning the party music late into Saturday night - I hear he did the same again on Sunday. Beardyman was a Sunday afternoon act worth catching as well - how does he do it?

If you had the energy at the end of all that dancing, the Chai-Wallah cafe was a cool place to hang out after hours.

If there were any downsides, I'd say the lack of showers was a minor disappointment (not sure I'd've wasted time at them anyway) and with the loss of the Dolly Mixture stage some of the artists, notably DJ Derek who only got to play a disgruntled 30 mins on the main stage in the end, didn't play at the times in the programme which was confusing at times. At least they were all there.

I wonder what will happen to Bloom next? On Friday afternoon they could have done with a few more numbers, but expanding the festival too much will mean it loses some of its unique character. The vibe is just so friendly at the moment, full of smiling people who want to have fun and make idiots of themselves without behaving like idiots to each other.

Overall, the festival was absolute quality. I've lost count of all the stars I could give it. Let's just say 9.5/10 eh?

Reply Quote
Posted Wed 15 Aug 2007
Edited Wed 15 Aug 2007

jacKofKats	sounds like a great weekend. Reply Quote Posted Thu 16 Aug 2007