20-22/08/2010 @Brecon Beacons, Wales

Any plans for the 3rd weekend in August 2011? No? Then I recommend you go and buy yourself a ticket for the upcoming Green Man Festival or put it on your wish list for christmas. From a one-day event in 2003 the Green Man Festival is nowadays a three days festival of folk, indie, electronic and dance music as well as comedy, literature and film. In the beautiful surrounding area of Brecon Beacons National Park Hills in Wales, you’ll find what a festival should be all about: music, art, hippies and peace (I never thought I’d say that, but it’s true).

I saw a lot of acts during the festival, these are the ones I’ll keep in mind:

Coco’s Lovers

The band ‘made up of husbands, wives, brothers, sisters and friends from Deal on the Kent coast’ released their debut album ‘Johannes’ in march 2010. The music feels like getting on a train to folk via bluegrass, pop and roots. (Un)fortunately there were technical problems, when they were performing, so I had the chance to watch a brilliant acoustic set in the middle of a tent. With Violins, guitar, mandolin, bass,  drums and stunning vocals from the whole band, I felt like batik dyeing my clothes and braiding flowers in my hair. But I have too little hippie spirit for this, so I just bought the EP ‘Time to stand’. But I guess the band will forgive me.

Laura J Martin

I really don’t know how to describe Laura J Martins style. So here’s what she says about her music, maybe it helps. ‘Thinkie folkie weirdie beardie (without the beardie), and funki (with an *i* – check it), mixed in a cauldron with some jazzy slurp = niceness squared = me.’ So apart from buying her single ‘The Hangman Tree’ you should check her myspace for live dates. She’s an amazing flutist and live performer, don’t miss her.

First Aid Kit

You might have heard of Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg from their Fleet Foxes ‘Tiger Mountain Peasant Song’ version, which was a little youtube sensation about two years ago. I’m not sure, if they’re full aged yet, but who cares? They sound like troubled and heart-broken mid-forties from some American desert and look like Sofia Coppola’s dream cast for the Virgin Suicides.

Lone Lady

There are two kinds of artists: the cool ones and the entertaining ones. Sometimes a cool artist can be very entertaining and of course an entertaining artist can be absolutely cool. So much the worse, if you’re none of both. Lone Lady aka Julie Campell played her songs, she played them pretty well, it’s danceable music and I still love the album, but…not only one word to her audience except a mumbled ‘good night’, not only a glimpse at her audience and a 45 minutes set shortened to 30 minutes. I really hope she was just in a bad mood, cause if this is her usual performance, it sucks.

Tags: Brecon Beacons, Coco's Lovers, First Aid Kit, Green Man Festival 2010, Laura J Martin, Lone Lady, Wales