Set in the heart of sunny Essex, Brownstock Celebrated its tenth Birthday.  We went along to see how this boutique, family run festival was coping through its adolescence.

Dizzee Rascal headlined the first evening and he delivered all that was expected of him, entertaining young festival virgins with party music and pyrotechnics.  For those of different musical inclinations (ourselves) the Saloon was the way to spend the Friday night and we headed there after dizzee’s set. A cover band created a raucous atmosphere which spurred on the first festival boob flash of the weekend, all in all in was a great first night.

We awoke Saturday morning feeling pretty bloody sprightly, the campsite had been uncharacteristically quiet for festival but was very much welcomed. The site has all the usual accessories of a boutique festival to keep you entertained in the daytime; kitsch cake van, mini skate park, shisha bar and a double decker bus turned bar, it was all rather pleasant.

Our weekend was made by two bands: Longy and Youth Club. Coming on early on Saturday afternoon Longy really got the party started.  Starting on his own he captivated the audience, slowly being joined by the rest of his band, until the 6 piece were in full flow.  Its Surprising what a trumpet and soul backing vocals add to a Rock and Roll band. And then there was Youth Club. Arguably one of the best festival acts we’ve seen all year. They closed The Tree House stage with great songs that captured the summer vibes perfectly and even a cheeky cover of OMG by Usher that gave the original a run for its money.

We popped over to the Main Stage to polish off our Saturday night for a bit of De La Soul with high expectations. Unfortunately the set lacked some of their seminal tunes, which left us feeling a little disappointed. To pick ourselves up we headed to the bar for some self-medication before taking it back to the old school with DJ EZ which in fairness ticked all the right boxes.

The hedonism eventually caught up with us and we crawled into Sunday feeling pretty worse for wear. The rest of the festival seemed to share our pain.  The main stage was sparsely littered with people sleeping it off on the grass, not the best audience for the bands starting early.  The music was a bit hit and miss, a group of dad rockers with Noel Edmonds haircuts (The Milk) did little to soothe the monkeys smashing cymbals in our heads.  It was a shame because when a genuinely great band like Bi-polar Sunshine came on, it took until mid set for the crowd to realize they actually should be listening. Razorlight closed the festival and were lapped up by the crowd. The Sing-along atmosphere was a pleasant way to end an overall pleasant festival.

Brownstock is a great value festival however the line up was a bit hit and miss, More negatives? It does pull some of the local beefcakes and perma-tans but in all fairness at no point did we experience the ‘trouble’ that so often comes with the territory. The biggest faux pas however was the maximum ‘15 cans per person’ campsite beer limit.

The recurring theme was that you really had to seek the diamonds in the rough, but when you did there really were some great gems.