I first came across Beat-Herder festival last year when my mum asked to go to a festival for her birthday and now it appears my mum, myself and Festie Rach have a new tradition – I suspect every July from now on will be dominated by the prep for, attendance and recovery of the absolute spectacle that is Beat-Herder.
Let me talk about the lovely Beat-Herder accessibility team. The previous two years we have applied for accessibility for my mum, who requires walking aids. Both years we have received a free carers pass and camping on the accessibility site, which is located closer to the action and has showers and toilets. In addition there are accessible toilets located around the site. I can’t stress enough people, if you have a disability or are festivalling with someone who has, then please think of looking up your chosen festival’s accessibility options before booking. The Beat-Herder Accessibility team are awesome and work really hard to make this festival for everyone. Well done folks!
Beat-Herder is the friendliest festival ever. The attendees are the most fabulous range of people of all ages and backgrounds. There’s a big cohort of younger people, but the most polite, helpful and friendly young people I’ve come across at any festival. It’s weird how lovely everyone is. My mum, with her lit up walker, seems to be a local celebrity. The below photo is of her dressed as Santa (Saturday is fancy dress day) giving presents to some steampunk type bronze people at Trash Manor, one of my fav stages. This sums up Beat-herder for me, a festival for everyone which means its bonkers, weird and delightfully creative.
This year was a challenge because of the weather. It had been raining constantly from a few days before, right through until Sunday afternoon. When the clouds finally cleared and the sun shone, it felt like a rave deity’s intervention.
On the subject of rave, I described the festival to a friend as a rave over the weekend, who asked me with surprise if I was going to call it that in my review. ‘Of course’ said I, because it is. Beat-herder is a big fat rave. Don’t let that put you off. It is a big, beautiful rave, containing a main stage offering some mainstream acts and then a range of stages around the site offering acts from punk (see Loose Articles) to hip hop, rock and jazz, but there’s lots of DJ’s, really really good DJ’s.
There are so many incredible stages, which feel more like venues to me. Beautiful little venues, such as the Parish which is located on a street of tiny bespoke buildings constructed to hold people who are having a lovely time, or the Launderette where people DJ from inside a washing machine. This festival becomes a magical town for the weekend but one that is really easy to navigate. All of this, together with the people makes Beat-Herder a unique and awe inspiring adventure of a festival.
Ah, I was talking about rain. Yeah it rained, I can’t blame Beat-Herder for the rain. I thought the ground held up remarkably well under such conditions but it was hard work, just like any other rainy festival. That being said, we’re northerners, we’re tough and we had a blast. On with the acts…
Loose Articles
I bloody love this band. Performing on the friday night, in the Working Mens Club, which is an old skool working class vibe of a stage and was the perfect setting for them. It went off. They were LOUD and raucous, they brought out the well known bangers such as Sinead Loves Bitcoin, as well as a few new ones. These Mancunian women describe themselves as feminine and threatening. I couldn’t agree more with the feminine bit but I think they’re threatening in just the right way, to the right sort of person. They certainly weren’t threatening to the women on the dance floor, I have never witnessed an entire dance floor become a mosh pit dominated by women and with Natalie in the middle singing, it was sublime.
Listen, if you’d really like to get into punk but you’re worried about the crowd. I get it, I’ve been there and you’ll soon find that punk crowds are amongst the most respectful and safe. Just in case though, start with Loose Articles. They’ll set you right, I promise.
Venbee
After her performance at Glasto I was excited to see her again and she is an excellent booking for Beat-Herder. I was worried at first, fearing the heavy rain would scare away a decent crowd but as soon as those beats combined with her gentle but melodic voice and witty lyrics sounded out, a big crowd of soggy happy dancers gathered. She was brilliant, my new fav song, ‘messy in heaven’ fit perfectly with the surroundings. She filled the large stage with a massive sound and astounding presence, not forgetting her awesome drummer. I’m confident this artist will be present at many big stages over the coming years.
Piri
Piri, is the stage name for local artist Sophie Leigh McBurnie. The TicTok sensation was performing straight after Venbee, a friend told me they’d worked together so I decided to stick around and I’m glad I did. Delivering a mixture of disco beats and liquid drum and bass, this woman brought the party. Not perturbed by the weather, she and her dancers held amazing stage presence whilst getting the increasing in size crowd dancing EDM bangers. I also had the pleasure of meeting her very lovely and proud parents in the audience and seeing her dad dancing in the rain to her music was an absolute delight.
Alison Goldfrapp
She had a tough job. It was the Sunday night, the crowd had been rained on all weekend, we were knackered from wading through mud. Honestly, the only reason I was still out was because it was the legend that is Alison Goldfrapp. She closed the festival with absolute class. Bringing her glamour and disco vibes whilst chatting with the audience, she had us all forgetting about our sogginess and aches and pains. I’ve been a fan of Goldfrapp for a while. I always enjoy her performances because she has a warm and amiable character which is contrasted by her banging out her tunes like an absolute diva, not dissimilar to characters such as Dolly Parton. You get a sense of confidence from her which reassures you that it will be a good gig. It could have gone badly based on the environment. Beat-Herder must have been thankful they’d booked such a pro for this challenging set. Thanks for keeping our festival spirit Alison, you smashed it.
