I seriously considered not going to Solfest this year when I found out how many of my friends were going to Shambala. But despite the 600+ mile round trip I’m so glad that I made the effort. Solfest improves year on year and has now matured into one of the finest small festivals on the UK calendar. There were more people there this year with ticket sales increasing to 6,500 and nearly 10,000 people onsite altogether when you include performers, traders & crew. But there is so much space that it never feels crowded although the campsites did fill up noticeably quicker.

Stages were positioned as before and there were a few technical difficulties with the sound on the main stage on Friday evening. But the one big plus this year was the enormous new dance tent which had an absolutely kickass PA and superb laser enhanced visuals. The stage in the main bar, which has performances alternating with those on the main stage also seemed to have a much better sound than I recall in the past and the quality of the acts on there would certainly have graced a much bigger venue.

The Kids area was much larger this year with several different tents and areas providing performances, workshops & other entertainment for the junior punters. And as well as the more familiar sculptures and structures a new group of brightly coloured tipis were added for people to chill in. There was also a small pyramid in the middle of the arena which lit up at night & shone amazing projections through clouds of dry ice. There was no theme to the fancy dress this year but I’ve never seen so much effort and inspiration put into costumes by so many people and the haul of photos that I have are among those that I am most pleased with from my festival wanderings.

Toilets were plentiful and as clean as I’ve seen anywhere and more urinals were added, although there were still a couple of overflow situations. Stewarding was friendly but superbly efficient in dealing with traffic flow and also both a medical emergency and a tent fire. All in all Solfest is a very friendly, entertaining & slickly run event and my congratulations go to Simon & Sarah and all of the crew for developing and running such a brilliant festival in such idyllic surroundings.