Festibelly!

Set amongst fields full of yellow buttercups, in the beautiful, peaceful New Forest just outside Lymington, was the one day festival....FESTIBELLY!

Following its success last year, this boutique festival provided 1000 people an intimate, chilled day time and fun dance-filled party night. For only £20, your ticket included camping for one night, great music from emerging talent in the rock/indie/acoustic/pop/reggae scenes and for a second year in a row folktronica, James Yuill.

Alongside the music was Secret Wars. This is where two urban artists battled it out in the form of a tag-team competition on two giant white walls, either side of the main stage. The crowd could watch/cheer as their walls became filled with amazing illustrations and designs. At the end of the 80 minute set for Reggae Roast, the champion was crowned. The champion..Reeps one, was also the Beat Boxing Champion in the UK and also performed on stage where he quite literally flabergastered the audience with his talent. Mouths dropped all around. He put on a highly technical and entertaining set, which proved to be so popular that he performed not once, but twice on stage.

Inside the festival, adding to the hippy atmosphere was a t-shirt stall, where for only £7.50 you got a plain white t-shirt and had the pleasure of creating your own personalized tie-dye effects on it. If like me, you didn't trust your capabilities at tie-dying and also didn't want to walk around with dyed hands all day, you could also buy a pre-tye-dyed t-shirt for £8!

The Babooshka shisha stall was somewhere to sample different flavoured molasses, whilst siting back on piles on cushions, enjoying the bands. Also the festival supports neighboring traders and provides tasty food from the local area for both meat eaters and veggies. There was venison burgers and wild boar sausages, a hog roast and an ice cream van. I sampled the delicious and generous serving of jerk chicken with rice and peas and towards the end of the night i had a slice of chocolate brownie cheesecake, accompanied by a warming cup of hot chocolate. The Festibar was well staffed and stocked full a supply of soft drinks, and alcoholic beverages.

The music began at midday and the last act finished at 12am and then the dance tent took over. Unfortunately due to the prior night drinking, i went shortly to bed from a headache i had been battling with all day.

Waking up the next day with a headache gone and a peaceful, quiet campsite sleeping, I queued up for my bacon sarni and innocent smoothie...used the still exceptionally clean and non-smelly toilets and then i was ready and fueled for packing up and heading home!

It was a brilliant day, where with friends and people of all ages, I listened to some great music that i had never even heard before, sampled some delicious fairly priced food and danced the night away! I will be returning next year for sure!! This was the first year i decided not to go to Reading Festival and it was definitely the right decision. FESTIBELLY was smaller, friendlier, cleaner, more intimate, boutique and lots of fun!

The Line up also included: Man Like Me, Colouring In, Reggae Roast featuring Brother Culture, Brass Roots, The Pepys, Rob Cowen and The Dissidents, Tarrbaby and Alex Parsons.