Strawberry Fields Festival 2013
Festival overview
This year ArtsIn had several people on site to cover this festival. We asked some of them for their impressions of the festival as a whole.
From Dannileigh Robson
For my first time attending Strawberry Fields, I really enjoyed the day. The festival site was intimate, the sun was out and good music was a flowing!
There was plenty to do away from the music, with stalls offering hand-made goods, alternative fashion, signs and posters you could graffiti and leave your own personal message on. There was even an on-site hairdresser and beauty tent.
There was plenty to eat with most types of cuisine covered (from vegetarian, to French, to Vietnamese and greasy spoon cafe) – all were very affordable too.
The inclusion of a kids corner (sandpit, face painting, milkshake van, and various things that could be made) made sure the festival was a family friendly event – something that is often overlooked in the festival season.
SFF is certainly now on my yearly festival calendar!
From Michelle Ferguson
This was my first time attending Strawberry Fields and I was pleasantly surprised. There was a diverse mix of music and art, a wide range of food, drinks, face painting and of course the vintage clothes tent, accompanied by live music throughout the day.
All food and drinks were reasonably priced throughout the event, even though there was a lack of variety in the Cider department – real ale drinkers however were certainly in for a treat courtesy of The O Bar chain.
Throughout the festival there was a great mix of music, poetry and spoken word, whether you were dancing to Ska or busking along to slam poetry, the festival held cohesiveness. Personal highlights included the Mud Collective (A mixture DJs, live music and slam and beat poetry), Words and Coffee (which included spoken word representatives from Word, Pinnng…k and Weaving Words poetry night).
The Strawberry Jam tent, hosted by Lock 42, The Musician and The Donkey respectively offered a great selection of local musical talent, and not forgetting The Poetry Brothel! Of which for anyone who did not go this time, is well worth keeping your eye out for around Leicester in the coming months.
The festival clearly is attempting to cater for families with the inclusion of the sandpit, and offers plenty of places to sit and chill as a family. From a vegetarian food perspective, there could have been more variation as well as a more centralised food area.
Finally, it did feel that the stages were competing with each other on the volume front. It was difficult to listen to the spoken word acts at times due to their proximity to the main stage, something that could be easily rectified I feel with a little more planning on the layout front.
Overall, my first visit to Strawberry Fields Festival was great fun. The strangest festival freebie I found was the organic tomato ketchup and I look forward to seeing what the next year brings.
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