Sarah and I were lucky enough to be invited to the Livestock Festival, taking place in Longdon near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. You can read our pre-event thoughts and find more details about the event here.
So, having spent the weekend in the shadow of the Malvern Hills, did the event live up to the hype? Well, for a festival in its second year, I have to say that we were impressed. Over 4,500 people took part in the festivities, with mostly glorious sunshine, a feast of food, and acts like Chesney Hawkes, Reef and The Fratellis getting the crowd bouncing.
For music fans, the daytime and early evening were jam-packed with local and up and coming bands, with plenty of haybales to relax on in the sunshine. As the sun went down over the Malvern Hills, the big names came out to play, and they definitely didn’t disappoint. The Fratellis, Reverend and the Makers and Reef were all hugely popular and got the crowd up on their feet, singing and dancing to their greatest hits. My personal highlight though was Chesney Hawkes.
Although I love Chesney Hawkes’ classic hit, The One and Only, I must confess that I didn’t know many of his other songs beforehand. Nonetheless, I soon found myself singing along with the rest of the crowd as he seamlessly segued from his own songs into popular chart favourites, including Mr. Brightside and a wonderful rendition of She’s the One, dedicated to a young couple who had gotten married the day before. He also took time out to selflessly invite festival goers onto the stage to tackle the #22pushups charity initiative, currently taking social media by storm to raise awareness for veteran suicide prevention. Chesney was challenged to take on the feat by Olympic Boxer, Kelly Morgan, but was unable to take part due to a back injury and therefore rallied the Livestock audience. We met him backstage and he was completely professional and a really lovely guy….Chesney, you are officially The One and Only!
We were quite surprised at how much space there was for camping. The website did say there was a lot but it wasn’t until you drove in along the top of the festival fields, past the giant Hollywood style “Livestock” sign, that you could see the huge space laid out before you. Having been to other festivals previously where people were packed like sardines, it made a pleasant change to see plenty of room for kids to run around and people to have a bit of personal space.
Not that you needed to hide in the campsite because the festival had plenty of activities on offer for kids and grownups alike, ranging from inflatables to dodgems. Hidden along a fairy light festooned corridor of trees, there was a Woodland Stage featuring acoustic sets and some cool DJ beats. We took the time to enjoy some refreshing Wobble Juice cider and get our faces glittered up by the sparkly Boho Boutique.
There was also a great selection of food on offer ranging from wood fired pizzas to burgers to battered halloumi. The prices were all fairly reasonable too, at least when compared to other events we have attended recently.
All in all, we had an awesome time and can’t wait to see who they have headlining next year. Perhaps we’ll see you there?!