Back in February, when we first published a preview for this year’s Green Man Festival, the line-up was looking impressive enough – Beirut, Neutral Milk Hotel, Tunng. It’s a lovely festival too, always has been, since I went to the very first one back in 2003, when the organisers lost £9.10 on the whole venture.
It rightly garners more than its fair share of awards and plaudits, by somehow hitting the sweet spot of music and other arty diversions. It’s large enough to survive very well thank you, without getting silly-big. Personally speaking though, I’m not one that believes “it’s all about the experience, man”. I’m very much on the fence about camping so close to other people, I’m a teetotaller, I don’t do drugs, so there’s got to be a pretty massive draw to get me loading the tent into my car.
For this year’s Green Man, I feel as though I looked away a moment, then looked back, and in that instant, the line-up became absolutely and totally unmissable. I mean, Sharon Van Etten and Polica on the same bill? Get away…that alone was enough to regain my attention. And then the more I looked, the better it got. Speedy Ortiz? If you haven’t seen them, trust me on this, you need to. Joanna Gruesome, East India Youth? And that’s before you even get to the big hitters in the form of Anna Calvi, The Waterboys and Mercury Rev.
Honestly, I haven’t been paid to write this. Speaking as someone who is usually ambivalent about the festival scene, certainly for the camping ones, Green Man is almost astounding in the quality of the line-up. I can only assume that either the bookers have a pact with the devil, or the festival itself has a such a reputation with musicians, that they will say yes to this over most other offers. I guess I’ll see you in the front row; I’ll be the cynical git in the orange baseball cap.
