It’s always such a pleasure to attend Beautiful Days, it has such a special feeling, a real gem in the crown of the festival season. Now in its ninth year the festival has lost none of its charm or atmosphere and seems to effortlessly go from strength to strength.

As usual the festival is set in the rolling Devon countryside, in the natural amphitheatre of Escot Park. This year gates opened on Thursday for the first time, which was a wonderful and welcome addition. Another first for us was the introduction of our 2 year old to the festival. We camped in the new overflow family camping section, which being situated only a few minutes from our car was an absolute joy. Everything about the festival was easy, accessible and laid back. The police were again low-key, security & stewards all very friendly and there were lots of available spots to camp with suitable amounts of toilet blocks close at hand.

Beautiful Days is a feast for the eyes and ears alike. The unmistakable array of colourful flags, giant wicker foxes, graffiti, wooded sculptures, giant robots, fire lights and ample seating adorned the site. There were however a few changes this year. Dirty Davey’s Bandstand had moved into the edge of the campsite, which resolved the sound bleed problem from last year. I also felt this was an inspired move, sitting it outside the main site and in amongst the camping field gave it more of an exclusive feel and made it an attractive place to simply sit and chill out. The 24 hour cafe and the Tea Bus were also situated outside the main site and did a roaring trade, especially with the cooked breakfasts, and vast arrays of cakes, coffees and teas.

Having a toddler gave us plenty of time to experience the children’s area and the first thing that seriously impressed me was the under 5’s area; a fenced off marquee and sand-pit packed full of age appropriate toys & games. Our little man would have easily spent the entire weekend here, it was safe, secure and a huge amount of fun for the kids and parents alike!

As ever with Beautiful Days, the philosophy is one of looking after the punters, not ripping people off, and encouraging that true festival community vibe. This is firstly reflected in the ticket prices and secondly reflected in the price of food and beer. Being asked to pay £3.00 for a pint of Daze was incredible, considering the over inflated prices of many other festivals. The available food on offer was again vast and well-priced, queues were never overly long and portion sizes were decent. The pizza hut situated close to the Big Red Top was a stand-out, as was the local bakery store which served hand rolled croissants, curried pasties and amazing bread.

On the music front I wasn’t initially overly inspired, not because I didn’t like what was on offer but simply that I didn’t know that much of it this year. On Friday we ambled around, enjoying the sunshine, sitting at the giant wooden table and carved mushrooms, generally soaking up the atmosphere. After dragging our boy away from the sand-pit we headed to the Levellers Acoustic set, however we were unable to gain access, so sat outside and waited until Four Men and A Dog took the stage for some foot-stomping Traditional Irish tunes. We then headed to the Main Stage for those eccentric gypsy punks and festival favourites for many, Gogol Bordello, who went down a storm. The Main Stage was bouncing, especially when they dropped the crowd pleasing ‘Start Wearing Purple’. I was looking forward to Big Audio Dynamite, being a lover of all things Dreadzone and Don Letts, however I was dismayed. The sound and the crowd were both very flat, the moment has clearly passed and the guys should return to their days jobs! While the wife went in search of food I had a quick peak at the Little Big Top with its drum ‘n’ bass themed night. It wasn’t nearly as packed as last year but the sounds were just as impressive with Maxxi P, Mr Nice and Sigma all dropping some huge DnB anthems. Feeling my age and after a long, enjoyable day I ambled back to the wife and boy and retired for the night.

Saturday initially brought us rain, a short but large downpour in fact. However by the time we had fully waterproofed up and headed to the Main Stage for Backbeat Soundsystem, who incidentally were a revelation, firing up the crowd with their reggae roots and dub synths, the sun arrived with a vengeance! Gentleman’s Dub Club were a must see and didn’t disappoint, these lads tore up the Main Stage, the crowd went crazy to their mix of reggae, live dub-step and ska. The band have an infectious energy which you just can’t resist. The remainder of the afternoon was spent in the under 5’s area making sandcastles, playing with puzzles, wooden blocks, hula hoops, chatting to other parents and relaxing. Later we attempted to catch Adrian Edmondson, however most of the festival had the same idea and we were unable to gain access. That evening it was all about Afro Celt Sound System – haunting pipes, frantic dhol drumming and mesmerising melodies. The Little Big Top was our final destination for Dreadzone Sound System featuring MC Spee dressed in an all in one skeleton suit firing conscious lyrical flow over heavy hitting beats courtesy of Chris Oldfield, a fitting end to a beautiful Saturday.

I understand there was an increase in capacity this year, apparently another 5000 people were added to the mix and this was noticeable on Saturday. I sincerely hope numbers don’t increase anymore as this will inevitability dilute the atmosphere and overall experience. Also, on a practical note litter was an issue for the first time this year, an oversight on the numbers increase perhaps.

Sunday was a day of sunshine and spots! I love the effort made by most punters on these themed days. This year we had Mini Mous’s, Ladybirds, a family dressed as a set of dominoes, a twister matt and a vast array of spotty dresses, coats, wellies and faces. The Fabulous Good Time Party Boys kicked the day off in their truly wacky style. A host of musicians, all in crazy fancy dress, led by Rev Hammer and covering such classics as ‘Born to be Wild’ and ‘Crazy Asses’ (I mean Horses!)

It was a crime to be inside with such fine weather, so we headed out, grabbed an ice cold beer and slowly meandered our way to the Main Stage in time for The Beat. Having recently seen the American Beat I was keen to check out Ranking Roger’s version and they didn’t disappoint, whipping the sunny Sunday afternoon crowd into a skanking frenzy by dropping all the classics including ‘Mirror In the Bathroom’, ‘Twist and Crawl’ and ‘Hands Off… She’s Mine’, alongside a few new tracks written and sung by Ranking’s son. From here we headed back to the Big Top for Alabama 3 Unplugged to experience some deep, down, delta blues built with a rhythm just made for dancing. This was a hugely enjoyable set. Larry Love was his usual dry and witty self, his whisky smooth vocals a perfect match for their slick acoustic bluesy sounds.

The Levellers were celebrating the 20th anniversary of the album ‘Levelling The Land’ and treated Beautiful Days to the whole album, which was a lovely touch as, in my opinion, this remains their best work to date. They threw in a few other tracks and as usual included ‘Beautiful Day’. The whole thing ended with a seriously impressive firework show. Heading to the car (we had decided to make the short trip back to Bristol early this year) we were left with a deep sense of joy and satisfaction. Beautiful Days is without doubt our favourite festival, it ticks all the boxes – it’s family friendly, excellent value, easily assessable, caters for all musical tastes and is set in such beautiful surroundings. The anticipation is already building for what may be in store for their 10th anniversary next year!

Review by JumpUp