Following a surprisingly easy journey from London yesterday, and a quick monsoon waiting for the bus at Abergavenny, myself and @kambucca arrived at Glanusk Park to be greeted by sunshine and spectacular mountain scenery. I have been to a lot of festivals, but Green Man is undoubtedly the most beautiful.
One of the (many) great things about an independent festival like Green Man, is that the food stalls are as much of an attraction as the bands. There is literally everything you could want, from vegan bacon to whole rotisserie chickens and not a grease sodden noodle in sight. Likewise the booze selection is ample,and the lack of corporate sponsors breathing down the necks of organisers mean the average pint is around £3. Nice.
With a delicious Thali, (homemade dhal, potato curry, coconut rice and tomato chutney, OMG) and a warm can of cicer (this is a British festival after all), we sat down to enjoy our first band of the day, Broken Records. The band wowed with a bombastically orchestral sound, providing a wonderful start to the festival.
Following that, I skipped excitedly over to the Green Man pub to see my favourite band of the moment, Blue Roses. Turns out I can't read though, as they are actually playing on Saturday. Oops. Instead, we were greeted by the mild acoustic sounds of The Gentle Good, who were indeed gentle, and in no way dissapointing.
Next up was another of my most overplayed artist of the moment, Emmy the Great. Featuring an impressive cover of the Skeeta Davies classic, End fo the World, Emmy's sweet sounding acoustic pop, tinged with dark, worldly lyrics provided a great soundtrack to the afternoon.
As darkness fell, festival-goers descended on the main stage wielding branches for indie-rockers, British Sea Power. I remain relatively indifferent to the band, but their set was impressive and livened up a tired audience amidst an acoustic lull.
As soon as headliners, Animal Collective finished their mesmerising set, we headed tentwards, for a bit of sleep, and perhaps the coldest night of my life, to make sure we were as prepeared as possible for Saturday's killer line up of Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, and the legendary, Jarvis Cocker.
Animal Collective Image Via Shot2Bits