Shiny loves independent festivals: Farm Festival 2011
There were quirky decorations all over the festival, but I was particularly charmed by the beer tent which was adorned with old-fashioned umbrellas, bunting and antique lampshades
Anyone who’s been reading ShinyStyle for a while may remember last year’s post about Farm Festival, an intimate independently-run event in Somerset that marries anarchic creativity with a love for music and not taking yourself too seriously.I’m all for small, intimate events that celebrate creativity and aren’t all about draining your bank balance, so it holds a great lure for me. Farm Festival is one of my favourite events of the year, so naturally I had to come again. This post is a little late but hopefully some of you readers will read about my experience there and want to give it a try next year.
Again a lot of love and care had gone into the event, which was bigger and more inventive than last year. As soon as I’d unpacked and pitched my teepee (the easiest tent to put up ever, apparently, but it still perplexed me) I headed over to the beer tent with my friends to get a pint of Black Rat cider and was struck by the whimsical and charming decorations. The entire ceiling of the tent structure had been decorated with antique lampshades, upside-down umbrellas and school fete-style bunting trailing down the walls. Outside, each dustbin was lovingly hand-painted with patterns of flowers, leaping fish and abstract designs and curious wooden handpainted creatures and objects peeped out of the grass. It is quite a magical place which, thanks to the intimate size of the festival, you can learn like the back of your hand within a couple of hours.
On Saturday I was transported back to the 90s for the headlining act Dodgy, whose hit “Staying Out For The Summer” I’d completely forgotten about (I have pretty much mentally blocked out the 90s) but surprisingly could remember most of the words to. I am ashamed to admit that I didn’t spend nearly as much time this year checking out the live acts – but that was only because I was running around in their mysterious Lazer Cave tent and dutty winding in the Dubstep tent. I don’t even like dub that much but Farm Festival’s dub tent is probably one of the most fun places in the world, I’d regularly drive to Bruton to go.
As usual I hit the vintage stalls pretty sharpish with my boyfriend and friends to hunt for ridiculously OTT glitzy clothes to wear in the evening. The prices had gone up a little this year but so had the quality of the vintage, so it’s a fair trade off. I dithered for a long time between a white neon-printed pair of city shorts, an achingly beautiful pair of old men’s brogues and a gold brocade wedding dress – naturally in the end I chose the gold brocade dress, priced at £16, which I wore all weekend until I was told to take it off.
The hats were, again, quite spectacular. I saw a lot of boys cavorting with their T-shirts off wearing Viking horns and wolf hats (perhaps they think it justifies silly behaviour?) while the girls opted for romantic flower garlands, wide-brimmed straw hats and vintage pillbox hats. Also brilliant were the gallant face-painters, who did particularly excellent tiger facepaint and painted my face like a magic kitten for two pounds.
If you want to see for yourself a few snapshots of my FarmFest experience, check out the gallery above. It’s been a brilliant highlight of my summer.
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