Secret Garden Party 2022

Secret Garden Party 2022: a magical four days of organised chaos

Secret Garden Party 2022, A Review Written By Joe Roberts

Having never before visited the intriguingly Secret Garden Party, a lot of curiosity and a pinch of anticipation accompanied my first experience of the famously bonkers festival. I had heard stories of “an immersive party”, combining “low and high culture in one place” – a “circus of imagination” but who knows until you try it yourself?  

For me, SGP is about wandering. My best experiences came from roaming around, somewhat aimlessly, taking in whatever I happened to stumble upon. 

It felt like the natural way to experience the festival’s 20th anniversary and its first edition in five years. SGP returned to its roots with a completely secret lineup, an eclectic programme championing independent artists and creative stages that kept you in a constant state of discovery. The lineups were revealed on the first day of the event and were kept offline, displayed only on signs outside each venue. 

You meander from a left-field folk set, through a field of sunflowers, into a tiny pop-up igloo containing a dozen or so people and thumping techno, into the imposing and enormously fun Naughty Corner (ran by He. She. They.), and over to the main stage to catch some of the festival’s bigger names like Kae Tempest, Ibibio Sound Machine and London Grammar. 

The festival challenged you to put yourself out of your comfort zone. Rather than working to a schedule, you follow your senses, going where your ears and eyes take you. The event is designed to encourage exploration, championing the UK’s diverse and eclectic club and music scene along the way. 

It was a pleasant surprise to stumble across much-loved bands from my own home city of Leeds. TC and The Groove Family, who are very much worth a specific shout-out, are a great example of the excellent emerging talent showcased at the festival. The 10-piece band brought high-energy, afrobeat and jazz-influenced grooves to the Avante Garden venue. The tent was packed, spilling out into the surrounding area as the set reached its climax. 

The Afro-fusion continued over at the Chai Wallah stage where Nigerian-British afrobeat legend Dele Sosimi and Sheffield native K.O.G. both put on incredible shows beneath the canopy of the festival’s wooded area. 

I could fill the rest of this review with memories of the bands and DJs I saw, but what I loved most about this festival was that, in many ways, the lineup didn’t matter. It was the components of the festival as a whole and how they came together that stole the show. 

It’s that what made 70,000 people apply for a ticket with no idea of who would be playing. Secret Garden Party was among the first festivals that realised that audiences come to events like these every summer to come together in a beautiful part of the world and experience the closest thing to freedom you can get. 

Celebrating 20 years of the iconic festival, the anniversary edition of the event wouldn’t be the same without the extravagant firework display on Saturday evening and Sunday’s spectacular paint fight, both of which have been a mainstay in the festivities since its inception. 

When the music kicked off at 12pm on Sunday, the vibe was noticeably more relaxed. The sounds of dub and reggae had replaced the techno and house that could be heard from mid-afternoon the previous day. 

The festival-goers, who had been partying since Thursday night, were starting to wind down, soaking up the sun, taking things a little more slowly and reflecting on the madness of the past three days. 

Secret Garden Party and its contemporaries such as Bestival and Boomtown, reinvented the boutique festival in the 2000s. The anniversary return of Secret Garden Party 2022 was a beautiful reminder of this impact on the boutique festival scene, shaping festival culture for years to come and establishing itself as a true innovator in the way we experience live music. 

SGP2022