Green Man Festival

Hello everyone, I am back from a short trip to Wales where I visited the The Green Man festival. Yes, Ms "if it does not have at least 4 stars I am not staying in it" has been roughing it. In a tent. No bathroom, no shower. Just portaloos, shared with thousands of other music enthusiasts. Why? The Lilac Time were playing their first gig since 2003 there and had organised a small warm up gig the night before in Hereford.

So I flew to Birminigham


where I only spent one hour before I boarded the train to Hereford. It was like a school reunion: C., M. & M., G., D., N. and many more were there too. A couple of us met before the gig for a drink in a pub and a curry. It must have been at the restaurant were I lost my ticket to the concert. Can you imagine that? I come all the way from Germany, just to lose my ticket hours before the gig. I am sure I still had it when I met M. & M. earlier, because it came with a map and we checked the location of the venue. But when we were at the door, it was nowhere to be found. Luckily, L. was at the door and she recognised me and put me on her guest list. Phew!

My camera did not cope well with the light and the indoor setting, so the picture I post was actually taken by M. His camera was far bigger than mine, with an impressive zoom.


The whole event had a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Lyrics were forgotten, instruments had to be retuned, children (and grown ups) were dancing, dogs behaving well. A really wonderful evening and well worth coming all the way for.

The next day I took a train to Abergavenny in Wales and from there the bus shuttle to the festival site at Glanusk Estate in the Brecon Beacons.

I had booked a tent with Tangerine Fields. Luxury camping. When you arrive, the tent is hitched and the airbed inflated. All you have to do is move in. I did and my tent looked like a bomb exploded inside of it only minutes later. Somebody should have told me tents do not have wardrobes.

The festival had several stages and all had performances from 12pm until 12:30am. Lots of music and most of it was very good. Findlay Brown unplugged his guitar and stepped off the stage for his final song:


And then of course there was The Lilac Time on the main stage Friday night:





They were much more focused than the night before, less lyrics were forgotten and instuments only had to be retuned once. An excellent performance, but way too short. Nobody was allowed to do encores, so they had to get off the stage after 45 minutes. I had met up with D. to see them play and afterwards we agreed that we probably stood too close to the stage. We would have had a better view from further away.

The next day it started to rain. And it didn't stop. So the Green Man turned into a mini-Glastonbury. Mud developed everywhere. Wellingtons were the thing to wear.



The Folkey Dokey tent...


The main stage (not the enormous soap bubble on the left side)...

My muddy feet...

When it turned dark, you could no longer see the mud and the scenery was beautifully illuminated...



Fire lanterns flew into the sky. Quite romantic.



Sunday morning all portaloos were overflowing and toilet paper had become a rare as a dodo. My airbed had gone flat... again (I had already pumped it up once before). I took a look at the programme and decided to evacuate the site and find myself a nice little guest house in Abergavenny. With my own shower and a soft bed. Wimp? Sissy? Champagne Socialist? Yes, maybe. But Abergavenny is actually worth a visit, if only for a day. They have a castle...

... and you can go for some really nice walks...

Monday morning I was back on my way to Birmingham. This time I had some more time to spend in the city and my main impression is that it is one large shopping mall. You leave one just to enter the next. And there were so many people around, it was unbelievable. I know, I am probably doing the city injustice and there is much more to it, but all I saw in a couple of hours was shops.