Ashton Court Festival, Bristol - July 14th-15th.

So, here we go again, 2007 is the 33rd year there has been a summer festival held in Bristol. According to the Ashton Court Festival website the event expects to attract 80,000 people over the weekend, “the concept of the Festival is to bring together all the creative arts produced in the city in one place; to provide an event of artistic merit and high quality entertainment that develops and engages the local community”. All sounds good, I decide to check it out.

Saturday: After sleeping in for longer than I should have I hit the road to dive the 60 something miles to the centre of Bristol, I had decided to park in the city centre and take the festival bus out to the site. Everything went to plan, despite driving through torrential weather Bristol appeared to be blessed with sunshine; perhaps the wellies can stay in the car boot after all I thought to myself!! Deciding to be kind to the organisers and to take their recommended mode of transport (the festival bus) comes at a price, £2 each way for a 10 min journey, but as they say you pay for your pleasures. Arriving at the festival it seemed slightly disorganised after pushing my way through the crowd I managed to find my way via some kind helpers to the mythical (or so it seemed at times!) production office, all wristbanded up it was time to truly enjoy the festival.

I decided to let the sound of the music tempt me towards my first band of the day. The sounds of the Madness of King George coaxed me into the Colston Hall Global Marquee. After a slow start they managed to charm a static crowd to the extent that when they had completed their set everyone was swaying and dancing to the rhythms of the old countries. The work of the Russian composers was reclaimed in Bristol on a sunny yet slightly muddy afternoon by a band with the lead member wearing wellies. I’m pretty sure it’s the first time that this type of music has been played in such footwear! They could be likened to Gogol Bordello without the hype and the need to be fake friends with Madonna. According to their website “their upbeat, cabaret klezmer is driven along by irresistible latin, ska and reggae beats. Playing traditional arrangements and original compositions, this boisterous six piece are guaranteed to unleash your inner dervish.” I completely agree, check them out and if you can make the effort to see them you will not be disappointed!

Next, I was drawn to the main stage, after waiting around for about 40 mins, another thing that the organisers didn’t really get right was the turnaround between bands L Bed Monster bounded onto the stage with the introduction from the announcer that they hail “all the way from the other side of Bristol”. Their opening few songs sound quite good, stompy singer, mellow groove and they manage to energise a crowd who don’t look as though they understand the concept of live music! These guys deserve to be huge, they are the epitome of what the Ashton Court Festival is all about, local talent.

Up next on the main stage were Hacksaw, they would only come out onto the stage to a chorus of boos! Real abuse was needed to get them onto the stage. They were accompanied onto stage by crazy dancers and a backing band called the mass kazoo orchestra! Proper rockabilly punk music sounding reminiscient of The Dead Kennedys. They attempted to connect to the crowd with a song “especially for the emo’s”. They truly channelled the spirit of punk and as they themselves state they are still going when other bands are no more. Lets hope that they are here for a long time to come yet. Hacksaw are a testament to the power of punk rock to keep people together.

Othe honourable mentions go to, Type and JB, The She Creatures, Falling Dan and Jocasta.
The next couple of hours were a bit of a blur, taking in all of the sights talking to random people. I found myself amongst people with acoustic guitars and tambourines welcoming in the glorious red sunset. As the sun finally disappeared and the stars came out the mud seemed a distant memory and the Enchanted Garden was the only place to be. As I finally stumbled home via the extortionate bus and the 60 odd miles of the M5 I was looking forward to the next day, little did I know that I had already had my best Ashton Court Festival experiences for 2007.


Sunday: Parked up in the city centre and wandered to Colston street to catch the bus to the festival, instead of a slightly rickety bus greeting me I was faced with a big group of miserable already soaked wannabe festival attendees. Already there were mutterings about the event being cancelled, surely not I thought to myself, but then the rumble of health and safety swept through the crowd and we all knew that we were not destined to go up to the Ashton Court estate today. Luckily I was standing between two geek boys who had their mobile phones plugged into the web and were able to read me a statement posted on the BBC website. So I trudged back to the car park feeling slightly silly that I was now in the centre of a city wearing wellies! Also feeling a little bit angry that the official festival bus stop did not have a sign saying that the event had been cancelled, this lack of adequate signage also led to me driving home and not realising that some of the bands had been re-scheduled for venues in the city that evening.

So on balance, Sunday was a waste of my time but it was worth it to feel the power of the Internet in the pouring rain.
To sum up the weekend it would be fair to say there were, some good bands, some awesome bands, random but friendly people and a slight rain problem, all in all a pretty good weekend if you don’t count Sunday, roll on next year! Maybe if the event is staged next year (looks doubtful due to debts and lack of confidence in the event) I can enjoy two days of music and not just the one.


Check out the bands mentioned:
Madness Of King George
Bed Monsters
Hacksaw
Type and JB
The She Creatures
Falling Dan


Review by Tessa Appleby


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