SUMMER is all about festivals. It sounds divine, all music and sunshine. But to have a festival called Eden sounds like they’ve gone too far. Surely, they are promising heaven.
Eden is what is known as a “boutique festival”, which I expect means something bijou and special. This year, tickets are selling out fast, and Eden’s growing reputation has seen it frequently described as one of the best small festivals in Britain.
Not so small either, with over 250 acts performing across nine stages. So, where is it, this other Eden? Well, the festival takes place just outside Moffat on the arguably ambrosial Raeheills meadows, in Dumfries and Galloway. It’s just over an hour’s drive from Glasgow and Edinburgh, and 40 minutes from Carlisle.
And it isn’t all music. There’s dance, cabaret, burlesque, circus skills, theatre, and stuff for kids. So it’s kind of a family thing. There’s even a Healing Field, if you fancy getting your head round Craniosacral Therapy, sticking your nose into aromatherapy or putting your best foot forward for some reflexology.
Another way to relax might be to bung yourself into a vintage vehicle and sit back to watch movies at the Drive In Cinema. This takes place beside the pond and is billed as “your perfect little getaway under the stars”.
Among the huge list of performers will be dreamy techno team Skye Edwards and Ross Godfrey from Morcheeba; passionate soul singer Andreya Triana; dancefloor-friendly Afriquoi; and Glasgow’s John Langan Band, a high-energy trio infusing Balkan, Roma and Flamenco into their rowdy Celtic folk roots. And that’s just some of the acts that will be performing on the Devorgilla open air stage.
There are other stages. On the tented stage of the Furry Chillum Cocktail Bar there’s everything from brass and swing to reggae and ska. Rabbie’s Tavern, meanwhile, will provide an auld Scottish bar in which to enjoy Celtic, roots, rockabilly and blues plus, it says here, “anything else that makes you stomp your foot, hoist yer tankards and get yer melons oot”. That sounds distinctly fruity to me.
For more details of all events, which run from Thursday, June 9 to Sunday, June 12, waft edenfestival.co.uk onto your computer’s address bar.
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