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When I was around ten years old, I visited Butlins in Minehead. I went with my family of course, I wasn’t running away with dreams of being the youngest Redcoat in Butlins history. The holiday was pretty much what you would expect of such a thing: lots of sugar was consumed and I remember running around a lot. I also remember that whilst there I saw the Chuckle Brothers, Keith & Orville and Daphne & Celeste performing live shows. Even as a youngster, I was pretty darn cool.
This past weekend, I returned to the very same Butlins complex for the ATP festival, Bowlie 2. Given my past experiences here, the festival had a lot to live up to. As well as that, I was missing both the X Factor final and the final instalment of the Coronation Street 50th Anniversary week of episodes, so I was hoping it would be worthwhile.
Bowlie 2 is the successor to The Bowlie Weekender, a festival curated by Belle and Sebastian in 1999 which provided the initial inspiration for the string of ATP festivals which have been occurring for the past decade. Bowlie 2 is the latest of these festivals and saw the return of Belle and Sebastian as its curator. The line-up was admittedly less eclectic than some of the other ATP festivals, yet offered just as many treats. Acts that I had wanted to see for quite a while, such as The Vaselines, Dirty Projectors, Those Dancing Days and Camera Obscura, significantly helped to justify the £150 ticket price. The ticket was cheaper than most of the summer festivals and included three nights stay in a chalet within the Butlins complex. After spending a few Leeds Festivals in a rain-soaked tent, a Butlins chalet sounded heavenly. Bowlie isn’t the first indoor festival I have been to, but it is the first that lasted an entire weekend. As such, many of the experiences were new and quite strange. It was odd to return to a warm room rather than a cold tent. We even had a bathroom so no one had any excuse to smell and look terrible by the Sunday. Peculiarly, the bathroom included a bath and not a shower. Never have I felt less cool at a festival than when I was bathing before going to see bands. I’ve never left a festival being clean, it almost felt wrong. Part of the festival routine is returning on the Monday and spending four hours attempting to wash that unique festival smell off your skin. The festival experience didn’t feel complete without this. In fact, the whole festival seemed a bit incomplete. Something about having a bed, tea making facilities and a TV in the room added a civilised feel to the festival that summer festivals seem to lack. For better or for worse, you never felt completely detached from normal life like you tend to when you’re camping at a festival.
In fitting with the general nature, crowds at the festival were rather pleasant. Instead of the shoving and borderline-aggressive atmosphere that has existed at the past few Leeds Festivals, people seemed much friendlier. Even towards the stage and during popular bands, there was plenty of room to dance. Saying that, I really wouldn’t call what I do at gigs ‘dancing’. If you’ve ever seen those instructional videos on how to avoid cramp and deep vein thrombosis on long distance flights, my dance moves are pretty similar to the advice offered in those. Occasional tapping of the feet, jerking of the knees, slight movement of the upper body, nodding of the head. It’s a very low energy style. No one even threw plastic cups of beer and their own urine into the crowd, which made a nice change from the summer festivals. I wasn’t sad at the absence of this rather horrible tradition. Although, it is a bit annoying that the only festival at which I have access to a bath is also the festival at which I don’t get covered in odd fluids.
I seem to be rambling a lot about personal hygiene and Butlins, which probably isn’t the best way to represent the festival. Musically, the festival was great. I’m genuinely struggling to think of one act that wasn’t at least entertaining. The between-song chats by The Vaselines were almost as entertaining as the songs themselves. Frances McKee, the band’s front-woman, spoke more smut than one would ever expect from someone who looked so motherly. However, when you write songs as good as Son of a Gun and Molly’s Lips, you’re allowed be as crude as you like.
Belle and Sebastian were obviously the main feature of the weekend for most attendees, yet much credit is to be given to the two bands who preceded them on the Pavilion Stage that day. Both Wild Beasts and Dirty Projectors played impressive sets which reminded me why their recent albums (Two Dancers and Bitte Orca, respectively) were two of my favourites of 2009. Belle and Sebastian themselves were thoroughly entertaining and took advantage of a willing crowd, encouraging participation and singalongs throughout their two-hour performance. Stuart Murdoch is a natural performer and looked at ease knowing that he had the whole crowd eating out of his hand. When he asked for a woman to come up on stage to dance with him, I’m pretty certain that the screaming of the girl behind me deafened me briefly.
Of course, the festival had the same downsides as most live music seems to have. These all seem to stem from me being easily annoyed rather than the problems with the festival though. For example, whilst Foals were playing, a man in front of me was searching for live videos of the band he was currently watching on the YouTube app of his iPhone. I could not comprehend this. A growingly popular trend at gigs which I find equally incomprehensible is people taking photos of themselves whilst the band are playing. The only possible explanation I can muster for this is that the person has become so engulfed in the amazingness of the music that they have completely forgotten what their own face looks like. I’m fully aware that I need to ignore things like this, but it is hard to when the flash of someone’s camera is going off right in front of you.
Yet the weekend made a nice change from the muddy soiree of the more mainstream festivals, but you might find yourself missing the dirt a bit. I have to admit, I never initially planned to go to ATP this year. I’d originally planned to go to Glastonbury but unfortunately had to cancel my ticket due to exams clashing. ATP was quite a happy consequence of this and I’m incredibly glad I ended up going. If you’re looking for something different from the usual summer festivals, give it a go. Or just give it a go anyway.
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