- Most festivals tend to have a colourful history, but few have evolved and changed as quickly as Glade. Originating as a stage at Glastonbury, after going it alone Glade quickly gained an enthusiastic following and grew as a result of quality lineups, lush kitting out in terms of décor and sound and an intimate atmosphere. Mostly, though, it was because of the open-mindedness of the people there. In its early years it was basically a large-scale, high quality, (paying) free party.
In 2007 things started to go awry. First there were the repeated licensing difficulties and extreme flooding (the rescue efforts across the country were described as the biggest in peacetime Britain). After that, the economic condition made a shrink-down necessary. Then, it was forced to move sites after things were made difficult sound-wise for the organisers—and then a year later, in 2010, the new constabulary raised policing costs at short notice from £29,000 to a prohibitive £175,000. The festival was cancelled, and the result was thousands of disgruntled punters, many of whom waited months for a refund.
On to 2011. Following a shrink down to its original size, a handover to the organisers of the Secret Garden Party festival and yet another site pulling out after contracts had been signed and deposits paid, the festival ended up on the privately owned Houghton Hall in Norfolk. A lot had changed. Even on looking over the lineup—with its content toned down compared to previous years—it was evident that they were taking stock. Onsite, the vibrant psychedelic flowers and bulbous cloth sculptures, once completely ubiquitous, were stripped down to more sporadic outcrops, including a fireworks display and pyramid that was set on fire on Saturday night.
The language on the news release about the move looked to growth for the future, though, and over the course of the weekend, it dawned on me how carefully the essence of Glade was being nurtured. There was little to be faulted in the sound as far as I was concerned—a gripe in previous years. Staples such as the Origin stage (psy trance) and Overkill tent (breakcore and electronica) and the Rabbit Hole (floppy acoustic and electric partying) remained. And although the music had moved away somewhat from the electronica and psy of previous years to include the more modern boutique dance of artists like Lone and Space Dimension Controller, there was still canny curation to satisfy the underground electronic music lover.
Highlights? Eskmo creating delicate scraping beats by recording little sounds with hands and coke cans. Photek playing dubstep—'nuff said. Slo-mo house on Saturday night with Mark E. Andrew Weatherall playing flawlessly as usual, this time with techno of a defined, electro-slanted persuasion. Drumcode taking over on Saturday night, setting up a converging tunnel of concentric rectangles on the stage, and then having Slam, Paul Ritch and Adam Beyer (with hair) crack out the label's signature blocky, unstoppable techno.
But most importantly, a cheerful, generous attitude came from everyone I met. It's an attitude that was gradually being lost as the festival was growing, and it was great to see it back. We quickly made friends with everyone camped in the vicinity, and walking through the campsite was slow, for similar reasons. Chatting to the lovely medics revealed an experiential empathy for all the ups and downs of festivals. There were things to play on for kids of all ages: massive blowup balls to climb inside, a wall of furry spikes, a machine that made music out of your brainwaves and a dance-off stage. Amusing fake road signs around the place saying things like "30: you're too old for this shit" and my favourite: "Dance like nobody is watching," with a smaller sign below saying "There are thousands of people watching. You look like a fool."
The fact that the lineup was filled with lesser-known artists served not so much to lower the quality, but to soften the edges and also to illustrate the solidness of ability even at that level. The Rabbit Hole was a great place to finish the night/morning, accessed by crawling through a tunnel, with excellent, unknown DJs reeling it out flawlessly. Upcoming bass label One4Ho joined the dots between Roland disco tech and dubstep, nailing the early Friday afternoon vibe to a tee. Dub FX was bottom of the bill on Saturday, but demonstrated an enviable ability for constructing whole tunes—good ones—with beatboxing. And Gaudi finished off the festival for us, with tight, hip-hop and reggae inflected breakbeat that sounded impressively fresh.
Glade in the first two years was undoubtedly among my best festival experiences ever, and I love festivals. I'll never forget the joy of being surrounded by so many smiling people, and so much awesome music. This wasn't the same as that. It was more homogenized, more grown up. I'll miss the old Glade. But it's evolved into something, not really less good, but just different. As it grows in strength again, I for one will be onboard. After all the problems, it's kept alive the open-heartedness that always made it so special.