This year's Minety Festival saw thousands rock up to enjoy the show as Embrace, Echobelly and The Bluetones took to the stage. Jamie Hill reports.
Minety is a festival that seems to get better every year and this weekend's event was certainly a belter.
Okay, you have the named acts who are the ones that get the tickets sold, but for me it's always further down the line-up where things get a bit more interesting.
I do have to confess that I only attended on the Saturday and Sunday, but by all accounts the Thursday and Friday line-ups went down pretty well with the audience.
One thing that is pretty noticeable is that the festival does like its cover bands, which is not a bad thing especially as during the day a lot of the audience, made up of a great family crowd, were able to lounge in the sun and let the music wash over them.
I did catch a few of the cover acts but one that stood out to me and who have been on the circuit for years was Hooch, who expertly blended all the Britpop hits from Supergrass to Oasis.
My stand-out act though on Saturday afternoon was Just Like Water.
There is a certain creative energy that exudes from this band and the whole set was like being taken on a journey through the imaginings of the musicians.
Led by the irrepressible Lee Knott, who is a Swindon music scene legend who has been in more bands than I can count, the music veered through every genre imaginable.
Definitely a band to catch if you ever see them on a line-up elsewhere.
If you wander around the festival you can see that it really is an eclectic musical beast with the alternative more guitar-based bands on the Kandu Arts stage battling away against some pretty good folk or indie vibes on the Minety Stage.
But on the Saturday evening the main stage was where it was at and as the sun was setting they had a perfect line-up of band after band starting with Plucking Different then continuing into a dub odyssey with Dub Catalysts before continuing with the amazing Dub Pistols (whose set was one of my festival highlights).
The headline that evening was Embrace, who packed the place out with their anthemic indie doses of goodness.
But my real highlight of that evening was an after hours DJ set from Leeroy Thornhill from The Prodigy, who left the entire tent one big sweaty mess with his effortless mixing.
For me personally, I was a bit more subdued on the Sunday as I was paying for the sins of the night before, but Minety didn't disappoint in its efforts to keep my exhaustion at bay.
As a special treat, the festival had organised for the Minety Stage (the second largest stage) to be taken over by those amazing lot from the Swindon Shuffle and the line-up they put on was second to none. Mixing it up with the folky goodness of Tamsin Quinn to the absolute 'thrashy' style in your face rock fest that is Modern Evils.
Let's hope that this is a partnership that keeps going and is maybe even expanded for future years as it really did give the festival an injection of new cutting edge music.
My highlights from that stage were Joe Kelly and the Royal Pharmacy and Concrete Prairie.
Back on the main stage one of the afternoon acts that I caught was the amazing JB and the Mojo Makers. The brainchild of Swindon musical stalwart Jim Blair, this band really are one of the best acts around with so much musical talent that it really is unfair on every other band around.
Special mention has to go to Sarah Loddington on keys, who was absolutely fantastic.
On the main stage in the evening you had two big name bands who would instantly transport you back 20 or 30 years to the height of Britpop in the form of Echobelly and The Bluetones.
Pretty good stuff and judging by the smiles on everyone's faces, both acts that the audience lapped up.
All in all, we are very lucky to have as good a festival as Minety Festival right on our doorsteps here in Swindon and the fact that it is not-for-profit and raises shedloads for charity is just the icing on top. Credit has to go to all the organisers for putting together such a great event.
I'll see you there next year!
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