Some festivals take their name because of their location -Reading, Isle of Wight, etc. Lounge on the Farm takes it one step further, leaving you under no illusion where it is set - on a working dairy farm, the main stage being a cow shed. Set just outside Canterbury, Lounge on the Farm is the one of the premier festivals in Kent (the other being the larger Hop Farm). As a county Kent has been subjected to mixed fortunes with its festivals, from the shambles that was Zoo 2008 (google the words ‘worst music festival ever’ and Zoo 2008 will be noticeably present) to the much better Electric Gardens, which ran very successfully in 2006 and 2007 but then ended following the illness of a key organiser. This year has also seen the cancellation of the Sellinge Festival, with the company who ran it going to into liquidation.
Lounge on the Farm however continues to successfully grow, with the Virtual Festivals website describing it last year as a boutique festival that was “well worth the trip to Kent wherever you are in the world.” The organisers of the event have likened it to a “pumped up village fete,” and certainly this festival gives off the air of very much being a ‘local’ event with its great range of locally sourced grub - the Guardian named it as “the best for foodies,” - and a website whose travel directions are certainly not aimed at those who are travelling some distance.
This year however it's well worth travelling the distance even if you‘re not local. Over the three days of musical and agricultural adventures many Breaking More Waves approved bands are appearing. (King Charles, Rose Elinor Dougall and Wild Palms for example), but it‘s the Saturday line-up that really bites. On the wonderfully named Sheep Dip stage Moshi Moshi Records and Wichita Records combine to curate a superb line up of bands that includes First Aid Kit, Silver Columns, Slow Club, Summer Camp, James Yuill, Gold Panda, Veronica Falls, Dam Mantle , Spectrals, Lissie Trulie, Wave Pictures and Hot Club De Paris. Excellent stuff.
Tickets for Lounge on the Farm, which takes place on Merton Farm near Canterbury on the 9th-11th July 2010 are currently still available and can be purchased from the festival website here. Even better, if you click here, for the cost of just your email address you can download a free 17 track compilation album that features acts appearing at the festival including Slow Club, Gaggle, Silver Columns, Frankie & The Heartstrings and Phenomenal Handclap Band. You don’t even have to be a ticket holder to grab this album.
Breaking More Waves will be bringing a review of the Saturday of Lounge on the Farm 2010 and in particular many of the acts on the Sheep Dip stage. Hopefully it will be mooo-sic to our ears amongst the haystacks. In the meantime here’s some clips from last years event.
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