Electric Gardens 2006

United Kingdom | by Peter Freeman | 04 August 2006

It’s Saturday afternoon and I feel ropey. My mate Joel sitting in the passenger seat looks like I feel and I’m guessing he feels just as ropey. He hasn’t mentioned Tottenham Hotspurs once during the entire journey and for Joel that’s a sure sign he’s not right. We’re off to the Electric Gardens festival, one of the this year's many new festivals, which is being held in the grounds of historic Mount Ephraim Gardens in Kent. If, like Joel and myself, you live in London the festival is conveniently placed less than an hour down the M2. Inconveniently, it starts the day after a good friend of ours is married in Worcestershire. After four sweaty, hung over, hours of traffic jams and fresh air stops (apparently my erratic driving makes passengers feel sick) we finally arrive at the festival car park.

The walk from the car park takes us through huge orchards that form part of the Mount Ephraim estate, explaining the “Pick your own fruit” feature boasted by the organisers. Howevere, this is only really a great feature if you’re a fan of hard, unripe, apples and pears. When we arrive at the campsite we encounter the first of the festival’s teething problems. Our tickets clearly indicate we’re camping so we expect the guy at the gate with a rainbow assortment of wristbands to give us green “weekend” bands. However, he informs us that we don’t have a “camping pass”. After a few minutes of wrangling he settles for giving us a white and a yellow band, before finally letting us into the campsite. Very confusing.

The campsite itself is sparse with only two food vans and a small portaloo block. I’ve borrowed my flatmates tent after abandoning mine last weekend for not being waterproof. Unfortunately when we unpack it we find it contains only one intact pole and no pegs. As there are no stalls selling festival supplies we’re forced to construct a Ray Mears style bivouac with the sorry remains.

After the Krypton Factor tasks of the wristband challenge and shelter construction I can’t wait to get a cold beer and see some bands.  The first thing you notice as you pass through the main entrance is the stunning gardens of the huge Mount Ephraim House, amongst which the main site is located. It’s an impressive setting for a festival especially when compared to Global Gathering last weekend, which is more reminiscent of “Apocalypse Now”.

The second thing you notice is the size of the site. The organisers aimed to provide an intimate “boutique” festival. It's certainly going to be intimate, in fact we almost miss the tiny site, which is almost lost in the huge estate. The tickets cost just £50 for a weekend pass and the cheap ticket and fantastic line up seems to have attracted a range of ages and music tastes.

The festival is arranged over two days, a dance day and a more indie orientated day, with acts playing in two tents and on a main stage. Saturday is the dance day and we head straight to the second stage to catch the end of Paul Trouble Arnold’s set. He’s accompanied by a human beatbox with an amazing vocal range. I mention to Joel that he reminds me of the bloke from “Police Academy”. “Which one?” he asks. I shake my head.

Next up are breakbeat masters and personal favourites The Stanton Warriors, who don’t disappoint with a banging set that whips up a storm in the crowded tent. All that dancing makes us hungry. Organisers claim that at this festival the food doesn’t take a back seat and have called on the services the caterers used by the Chelsea Flower Show. I have to admit that the food is much better than the usual deep fried hog anus, but the menu lists just four different meals and at £7 each, it comes as no surprise that many of the people I speak to are a bit miffed.