Winston's Zen

NO BRANDING, NO SPONSORS - JUST MUSIC AND PUNTERS

Vince Power is a man who knows a thing or two about what makes a good shindig. In 1982 he establishekd the Mean Fiddler club and watched it quickly grow into the all encompassing music empire we now know and love. Along the way, Power has hand a hand in organising some of the biggest knees-ups on the planet (Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, Homelands and the Spanish behemoth Benicassim as well as last years Mighty Boosh festival all spring rapidly to mind)

Now the brains behind the Hop Farm Festival, which this year grows into a two day multi-staged affair for the first time, Mr Power has decided to offer the average fest-lover something a little bit different. Hop Farm comes about after an extensive survey suggested that many UK festival goers silently suffer the twin complaints of marketing burn-out and wristband envy in order to secure their summer fix of live music. Amazingly, it appears that for many of us, pitching tents under a giant Coca Cola banner, at the back of the Red Bull campsite in order spend all day drinking nothing but warm pints of Tuborg and cursing as hundreds of VIP-wristband-wielders ignore the crash barriers and congregate in front of the co-sponsored Duracell/Mastercard stage, ensuring themselves a better view of the every single artist you’ve shelled out two-hundred sheets for and spent three hours on a cramped coach to see, isn’t exactly our idea of a fabulous weekend in the sun.

Thank the heavens for Hop Farm, then.

Laid out across ninety acres of unspoilt Kent countryside Hop Farm promises a festival with no sponsorship, no branding and no VIP areas. That’s right, none at all. No T4 stage, no JJB arena, no L’Oreal adverts in-between gigs, no Superdrug bus offloading suncream, Anadin and morning after pills. Now, you might assume that would mean a no-frills line-up of pub bands and no-hopers. You’d be wrong. Highlights for this year include established names like Paul Weller, Doves, Editors, The Rifles and The Fratellis alongside some of our favourite new and upcoming acts such as Florence and the Machine, The Joy Formidable, Fight Like Apes, The Chapman Family and Dananananaykroyd. Can’t knock that for a line-up, right?

Those of you who are looking for a less commercial festival alternative, within easy reach of the capital might as well stop looking now.

Hop Farm 2009 takes place on 4th and 5th July. Weekend tickets cost £125 including camping and parking, day tickets are £65. For more information, or to purchase tickets head directly for The Hop Farm website.

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Winston