photo credit Rockman of Zymurgy
Since being featured in the Daily Telegraph's top ten list of independent festivals earlier this year, it was no surprise that the Nibley Festival would be a sell out event.
Held on the village playing field and run by volunteers from the local community, Britain's "Friendliest Music Festival" has what near-neighbour Prince Charles might describe as a sense of proportion. Here's a quick review from a Nibley newbie.
Location: 9/10
What's not to love about the stunning views of the Cotswold escarpment and the Tyndale Monument?
Weather: 2/10
Rain on and off through the early afternoon, turning into solid rain by the evening.
Ability to Cope with Weather: 9/10
Regular updates via the website and email reassured visitors that the show would go on and that it was being held on well-drained, high sloping ground. Not like certain other more high profile music festivals held in the west country that one could mention.
Food: 9/10
A good supply of tasty, mostly healthy and reasonably-priced food stalls meant virtually no queueing - quite an achievement with four thousand mouths to feed.
Community Involvement: 10/10
The sight of pensioners cheerfully directing traffic in the rain while Imperial Leisure leaped around on the main stage was a memory that will last some time.
Musical Quality: 7/10
Difficult to compare with the big players in the festival world, but signing The Christians, Dodgy and The Selecter on the same bill was an impressive feat for an event with no paid staff and a limited budget.
Shopping Experience: 7/10
Plenty of beads and trinkets on sale, from a range of independent traders, apparently at good prices.
Family-Friendly: 10/10
A distinctive feature of Nibley is its appeal to whole families. The extensive arts and craft tent, along with drumming workshops, a magician, rocket building and plenty of space to kick a ball around, meant that the younger generation were well catered for, even through many of them were down the front enjoying the music with their peers and (I kid you not) their parents.
People Watching: 6/10
The mono-cultural nature of the event (I spotted one black face among 4,000 punters) limited the range of opportunities for gazing out at the breadth of humanity. Despite this, the sight of men who were presumably barristers or senior aviation consultants by day appearing in their exotic multi-coloured suits and top hats, with wellies, and flowers in their receding grey hairlines was a sight worth taking in. As was the number of local teens who had been given dispensation for the day to dress down and shelve their independent school uniforms and riding outfits in celebration of Nibley's grand day out.
Toilets: 3/10
Alongside discovering the Higgs-Boson particle, designing affordable portaloos which remain clean through a weekend remains one of technology's last final frontiers.
Which just leaves space for the official Trym Tales Nibley Festival awards.
Best Movement from Stage into Audience and Back Again: Imperial Leisure's lead singer Denis
Most Unlikely Combination of Styles and Human Geography: Wotton-under-Edge's white ragga collective Aranka's Cackle, whose song Wotton is our Town was a masterpiece of ironic rural toasting. I expected at any moment to hear the cry, "Let me Hear Ya Calling, the Stinchcombe Posse!"
Best Food: for simplicity alone, the corn on the cob was a minimalist wonder of efficiency and taste
Best Senior Moment: a conservatively-dressed white haired gentleman in his seventies moving his shoulders up and down gracefully to the smooth sounds of The Christians as the rain poured down upon the crowd.
Best Band: The Christians
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