Brecon Beacons, Wales
18-21 August
Wales’ finest musical festival returns, with a lineup showing the organisers’ increasingly more diverse and exciting tastes. Year after year Green Man seems to get better, pushing itself into new territory. Belle and Sebastian and James Blake are headlining yes, and both will likely be great, but they’re appearing alongside Kamasi Washington, a jazz virtuoso whose debut album was three hours long, as well as Michael Rother who through both Neu! and Harmonia basically invented krautrock. Couple this with its ever increasing electronic presence through the likes of Floating Points and (the somewhat self-explanatory) Awesome Tapes From Africa and you have a festival light years away from its twee, folksy beginnings.
However, the festival has managed to keep the best bits of its tamer beginnings. Chiefly, a really pleasant atmosphere that allows families to come together, and for everyone to have a great time without the usual tedious laddish pricks and rich kids in Native American headdresses. The more family oriented style means there’s more than just music – there’s a cinema tent, with highlights this year being High-Rise and The Man Who Fell to Earth, and the food is some of the best you’re ever likely to get at a festival too. Best of all though is the comedy tent. The lineup this year hasn’t been announced yet but last year Adam Buxton performed a brilliant headline set, along with sets from Holly Walsh, Rhod Gilbert and, er, Mark E. Smith. Admittedly The Fall man was being interviewed for Mojo but it was so ridiculous it may as well have been a comedy set. Green Man is a great festival constantly on the up, steadily refining itself into a wonderful, carefree weekend for genuinely everyone.
