Now a staple in the festival diary, The Big Feastival which takes place on Blur’s very own Alex James’s farm in the Cotswolds returned for it’s 2023 edition featuring a stellar line up of top draw music combined with some of the best cooking talent too. A family friendly festival if ever there was one, I headed down to The Cotswolds with two young daughters to check it out. Here’s our top ten from the weekend…
1. Sigrid
What a great booking! One of only two UK performances this year, this was something of a coup for the Big Feastival. Sigrid performed an hour of her hits to a packed field including a rapturous rendition of ‘Strangers’ at the end. This was worth the entry fee alone.
2. Food
I suppose you’d expect the food to a highlight at a festival which has food as one of his main acts. However it needs to be seen (or eaten) to be believed. I managed to tuck into Michelin Star bait which is something of a festival first for me. Best grub for me of the weekend was the Grilled Poole Bay Oysters – superb.
3. Toilets
Never have I been to a festival with such amazing toilets. With over 25,000 punters the expectation was that they’d be the usual mess. But every single portaloo was in tip top condition. Bravo!
4. Mel C
Who wouldn’t enjoy an hour of entertainment provided by an actual Spice Girl. Mel C’s set included a perfect mix of her solo hits (you forget how many she had) and Spice Girls classics which had the Sunday afternoon crowd singing along to every word.
5. Silent Disco
This was a firm favourite for our family with the kids requesting to go back each night. It was easy enough to get into the tenant even at peak times with the crowd entertained by two separate channels of tunes.
6. The Weather
The forecast for the weekend was not very promising ahead of our journey down. However in true British tradition, the weather man got it arong and apart from the odd show (and one mad hail storm) the rain mostly stayed off. Happy days!
7. Rick Astley
What a crowd pleaser! Opening with ‘Together Forever’ Rick lead his band through an hour long singalong culminating of course with ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. Superb festival entertainment
8. Old Dirty Brasstards
We stumbled across the ODB’s (an 8 piece brass band!) on Saturday afternoon playing a superb meddley of Britpop anthems. Absolutely brilliant.
9. M&S!
The younger me would’ve scoffed at being at a festival with Marks & Sparks on site. However having a bacon butty and coffee for £6 first thing to clear the cowebs was a godsend. Not to mention the free Percy Pigs.
10. The K’s
The Big Feastival music line up combines some of the biggest current chart acts alongside some great heritage acts whilst not forgetting giving opportunities for some great up and coming acts. One of those we caught on the Main Stage was The K’s, hailing from Warrington. Brilliant anthemic rock n roll, these boys will go far. Points deducted for the dubious football flag on stage though!
What a weekend. Well done to all involved in The Big Feastival, we will certainly be looking to return next year. If you want to join the fun, tickets have just went on sale now, you can get them HERE.
