Mucky Weekender Festival
I/we absolutely love the Dub Pistols, having seen them quite a few times over the years, so I thought it was about time we experienced the independent, self-funded festival they throw every year.
It’s quite an intimate setting near Winchester, with a capacity of around 5,000; it has six stages most of which are under cover. The line-up consists mainly of Dub, Reggae, Drum and Bass, Jungle and House. In short, if it’s got a beat and the floor vibrates, that’ll be an artist or DJ set that Barry Ashworth has booked for this place.
We purchased a live-in vehicle pass (for our tent-box), and arrived as soon as the gates opened on Satuday morning. We hit the stages just after midday and were still dancing over 12 hours later before finally crashing out back at the tent.
Lots of people were dressed up in fancy dress, some sticking to the circus theme, others not. We weren’t going to bother until we saw the huge effort our neighbours, Rob and Jo, had put in. The decision was possibly also helped by the consumption of the duty-free rum I’d picked up on the way back from France the day before!
Coincidentally, Rob and Jo also go to Bearded Theory most years, so we exchanged email addresses and aim to hook up in May. Oh and they’ve also been to Bredy Farm, Beautiful Days, Boomtown, Y Not and a host of others we’ve been to, but these guys tend to do things in style, using a camper-van, which is much less hassle than our tent! One day we may convert…
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We spent the day and night bouncing between stages. All are very close together, which was handy.
For us, the highlights were Dutty Moonshine Big Band and Dr Meaker, both of which had awesome and energetic stage presence.
Mucky Weekender has an ‘end of festival season’ vibe about it, with the people here being so incredibly friendly and chilled.
We also loved the music, along with the bands and sets, but if we’re being absolutely honest, we’d have liked to see a few other genres. That said, we only came for the Saturday, and I think the other days were a little more diverse. BUT it was a great experience overall, and we’re so glad that we gave this one a spin.
We also missed Sabres of Paradise who performed on Thursday which was a real shame…
I’d definitely come again, and for the entire weekend but would probably need to twist Emma’s arm (or bring more rum)…
The weather was way better than expected, with sunshine in the afternoon and no rain until the next day (when we were tucked up in bed), so another dry festival for Emma.
One day she’ll experience a wet one!
