An afternoon at Budstock: Saturday 1 August 2009

Sorry, Budstock. I could stay for only a few hours in the afternoon. Really pathetic of me, especially as it was my first visit to a rock music festival. And it was free, and the rain held off! With talented bands playing and everyone enjoying themselves against that wonderful backdrop of Otter Head, it’s a unique event. And if you don’t like a particular band you can always go wandering down the path along the Otter, birdwatch or something, and then pop back to see how they’re getting on. But with 20+ bands playing there was a good choice for everyone, unless of course you were just into classical music, in which case there were the Budleigh Festival concerts.

The Quails http://thequails.info/ were playing when I arrived. Hailing from Teignmouth, like world famous Muse, they’re talked about as an up and coming band. My friend fell in love with the lead singer because of his “strong voice.”

Plenty of Quail-followers here at Budstock. They’re doing a lot of gigs in Devon over the next few months, but have apparently just come back from a tour in Turkey so they’re building up an international audience as well.

I thought this was a band called The Tor (like Glastonbury) but then checked and it seems they’re called Detor. I was going to say they were playing folk music, but then discovered a useful site at http://www.molebomb.com/bands/trams/trams.html which tells me that “the music is hard to pigeonhole, but its roots are European, drawing on Gypsy, Klezmer and other Middle and Eastern European sounds.” That sums it up pretty well. Interesting, and they made a nice sound.

Budstock is proud to be a regional festival with its own bit of individuality, so I thought this grouping of the Devon flag, Union Jack and Skull and Crossbones was just right.

It’s also justifiably proud of its good reputation as a well organised event. There was a certainly a massive support staff to make sure there were no hitches.

Organiser Joe Holroyd and his team deserve the credit for good organisation. Joe looks like he’s not got a care in the world but he was pretty busy when I caught up with him.

These are the Men in Black who were making sure that everyone behaved themselves.

The local police even put in an appearance when I was there, which was good of them.

Just in case…





There was plenty to eat with Kenniford Farm http://www.kennifordfarm.com/ - the East Devon free range pig business supplying hog roasts.

And some people came well prepared with their own picnic – I even spotted a bottle of Pimms on the table.





Sadly it wasn’t as hot and sunny as it should have been when I was there, but these Exmouth ice creams were selling well.

But of course the famous Budstock ale was going down in gallons.

The Budstock Crew litter pickers were much in evidence – I was impressed.

Here are the famous portable loos, generously sponsored by local firms including solicitors Vine Orchard and Budleigh Salterton Lions. A special loo fund had been set up to avoid over-use of the public facilities, which normally close at 10.00 pm. The Panasonic Store in Exeter was also a keen Budstock supporter.

I just thought that this couple and their dog looked like possible celebs. Maybe it was his Pete Doherty hat. Also her colour coordination of shoes, dog lead and lipstick was rather cool.

These people could have been celebs, especially the gorilla. The cricket field next door was partially under water so no play there, which might explain why the second guy on the left is in whites.

But principally people came just for the music rather than to show off their gorilla heads. This is a band I quite liked called Terrible Strangers, from Exmouth. They have only 35 fans on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Terrible-Strangers/51067304731 but clearly Facebook was not the place to look because their MySpace entry at http://www.myspace.com/terriblestrangers boasted 21954 profile views.

There were a lot of very young Budstockists here. I don’t know whether this shot is of the fathers comparing notes about the band, or just letting the kids put their heads together.

This little one certainly approved of the band.

And this dance trio obviously think the Strangers are very nice people, which I’m sure they are.

So there we are. A final general shot of Budstock, and I’m sure that there are many better pics than mine finding their way on to the web. Maybe at http://www.budstockfestival.co.uk/ and http://www.myspace.com/budstock