Sunrise Festival 2013

This year Sunrise took on a gorgeous new site, created a brand new buzzing micronation, introduced new stages and set off on a new beginning – not that I thought they needed one.

The new site this year is beautiful, spacious, and more importantly flat!! There were some good new stages, but sadly some of my favourites were missing from this year’s field: the Bimble Inn, Small World, and Chai Wallahs! 

I loved the home-grown café, it was a wonderful chilled little gem of a tent. Every time I wandered in there, live music of all kinds was on. Sadly I only found the little stage on the Sunday! A highlight was an early-morning set from electro-punk Stephanie Rearick. With wonderful lyrics, passion, beautiful delicate high electronic hooks and one heck of a voice, for me, she stole the show! 

For those with something heavier in mind, there was the very funky and stylishly designed underworld which you would enter through the mouth of a huge devil statue!  After walking in you see the two main clubs the infamous legendary label Ghetto Funk’s ‘Beyond The Stars’ and newbie the futuristic looking Spaceport AKA Terminal 2. My musical highlight of the underworld was ghetto-funk-signed DJ B-side armed with grooves and the best in remixes he certainly got me up on my feet.

Then there was ‘The Shire’ full of crazy creatives, eco-thinkers, jamming dudes, fires, and bands! There was so much to try your hand at and I spent a chilled out afternoon filing myself a flint moustache. If you were looking for a more reflective experience, Cat’s Cradle played host to various talks. I was fed for free by the Earthian telling us of his inspirational peace pilgrimage from London to the Middle East without money or a passport.

The central stage in ‘The Shire’ was the returning ‘Spit & Sawdust Stage’ highlights there included festival favourites Balkan-Gypsy-Groovers Gadjo! They played the spit and sawdust on the Sunday night to a packed crowd, everyone was dancing. In some songs they even fused some Bangra beats with their Gypsy-style! Hattie Hatstar also played on The Spit & Sawdust, treating us to her sideways look on life with her cheeky self-penned numbers! With hilarious lines like ‘I’ve never heard of control underwear, I thought you just bought the next size up’!

Children had a great time here and that has to be good news for the parents. No fuss, no need to sign up and all for free. I love the way this festival gets families involved – not just the kids while the parents sit around (although that is an option), but whole families are welcomed into every activity, from the potters’ wheel to scrap fashion. This year the new site gave us a magical woodland, with rope nets in the trees for children to climb and a spellbinding story from the Whispering Woodfolk mixing it with aerial acrobatics and live music. Another great hang out was the Groovy Movie Solar Powered Cinema with great family friendly indie films and shorts by day and music and cabaret by night (special mention to Swervy World and oh yeah, I managed a slot there too!).  Perhaps it’s a minor point but having given such a great time for families, the camping needs a rethink. Sunrise has a very diverse crowd- that’s to its credit and it’s a big part of what it is, but at night time the party was too much for some families and a quieter camping area would be an easy fix. 

My ultimate musical highlight this weekend was ex-funboy-3 member and ex-lead-singer of almighty Ska legends, The Specials. He really got the crowd going with his bold stage presence and wonderful vocals, playing classic numbers such as ‘Monkey Man’, ‘A Message To You Rudy’, and ‘Ghost town’. Luckily there was just general funky moves and good times on the dancefloor, and NO FIGHTING (Excuse the awful pun)!

I have to give a special mention to Nina and her charity Love Support Unite. They’re good people with a mission to provide a better experience for children at an orphanage in Malawi. Their particular fundraising method was selling glasses that refracted points of light into love hearts. They did more than their fair share to spread the love! They have just received funding from Strummerville to start teaching underprivileged kids music as a way to express themselves.

At most festivals you find your favourite venue or spot and return to it, making it your home over the next few days – perhaps it was just me but I found it tricky to find where I wanted to be or to work out what was happening and where. I only found my hang out on the last day. And so I would say there needs to be a bit more help and info around the site…even if its just to help me out!

A few tweaks and this festival will be perfect again like last year (And please bring back the Bimble!). The people at Sunrise are great and I love the diversity there. Sunrise isn’t just a one weekend opportunity to party, it is a way of life. The festival has a good heart and I will definitely want to be back next year – after all, I am a very proud passport holding citizen of the new micro-nation!