Nova is the new born star in our festival firmament-however it has had a difficult birth! As a long term Big Chill fan I was very excited to hear about Nova and actually jumping around whilst reading the line-up, many familiar old names seemed to be queuing up to play at Nova and I felt like lots of old friends were having an intimate gathering and I was invited! But then it rained!
It rained and rained and rained. It stopped raining for a few minutes and then it clouded over and rained for the whole bloody weekend! But because it had also been raining for the previous week there was nowhere for the rain to go so it sat around in the fields of the English country side (much as I had been planning to do) and rather got in the way of everyone having a good time.
Now I have done muddy festivals, I have never managed to go to Glastonbury when the sun actually shines, I have waded waist deep in flood water to get to the Glade only to discover fields of mud as far as the eye could see but in my experience as long as the artists are willing to perform, the eccentric British public will just get on with it and have a damn good time even if it pisses down for days. We are used to British summers after all and we love a bit of camaraderie when the chips are down and we can all pull together and have right old moan about the weather. The one prerequisite for this however is that both artists and eccentric British public need to be able to get on site!
It’s a small matter of and one that I would have thought would be easy to prepare for by laying down temporary tracks as I have seen many festivals do over the years thus allowing vehicles to move about freely without ploughing up the fields into such a muddy mess that we may as well have been swimming in the rain never mind singing in it. The only thing more solid than the ground was the compost toilets-sometimes I just haven't the strength- my inner hippy was hiding and I would rather have liked a plastic portaloo to shelter in from the rain just for a minute!
However once I had parked up some distance away and walked back to the festival even through the dismal rain and mud I could see how lovely it was. The people that were there WERE like old friends and it was in such a beautiful location. Wisps of clouds were floating among the hills and trees and just occasionally, very occasionally a tiny glimpse of sunshine fought its way through to the handful of festival goers braving the rain to have a little dance and I could feel the potential in my bones and see just how wonderful it will be when the sun shines on Norman Jay (as it always does) next year.
Next year I am taking my swimming costume to have a hot tub by starlight, next year I am taking my kids so they can play crazy golf and run around in the fields, next year I will be up the front again having a dance, getting down and getting a little tipsy in the Nova arms.
I only stayed for the day as it seemed just too wet to camp but the music I did see made me forget about the weather completely. So wonderful 'We Were Evergreen' stopped me in my tracks (I was about to leave) I heard them up the hill and had to go for a closer look/listen. You can’t help bopping and smiling when you hear them. The tunes are catchy and the different instruments they all seem to interchange so quickly make the songs quirky and memorable and they love it so much. When the artists have to dance to their own music that’s so infectious you get caught up in it. Mercifully for me a personal favourite the Staves were on in the evening. I know the music and the astounding angelic voices by now, but they were so engaged with the audience this, time they seem to have grown in confidence since I saw them a year ago and rightly so - they are stunning.
All in all it was a bit of a mission and the whole country was unlucky with the rain that weekend but it was still worth the effort and I will be back next year. I would advise though, if it’s absolutely chucking it down, don’t keep the only sizable tent available for shelter closed to mothers and small babies because there is a male burlesque workshop being attended by a couple of men. I was rather amused to be sent away from the male only tent so they could get their kit off in peace, I did not see amusement on the other faces being sent back into the rain with their small babies. You never know I suppose a new male burlesque star may have been born!
Published on 10 July 2012 by Cathi Moore
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