Beautiful Days (festival)
| Beautiful Days | |
|---|---|
|
Beautiful Days in 2006 | |
| Genre | rock, alternative rock, folk, punk rock, dance, experimental |
| Dates | August |
| Location(s) | Escot Park, Ottery St Mary, Devon, England |
| Years active | 2003–present |
| Website | |
| http://www.beautifuldays.org | |
Beautiful Days is a music festival that takes place in August at Escot Park, near Ottery St Mary, Devon. The festival is organised by the band The Levellers and was first held in 2003. The festival has no corporate sponsorship or branding,[1] leading to Virtual Festivals proclaiming it "the festival that sells out ... by not selling out".[2] In 2011 Beautiful Days was pronounced "Best Family Festival" by the UK Festival Awards,[3] later winning the "Grass Roots Festival Award" in 2015,[4] as well as the "Best Medium Festival" award from FestivalKidz the same year.[2]
History
The Levellers began the festival at Escot Park in 2003, after a previous venture the Green Blade Festival ran into licensing difficulties. The Levellers' singer Mark Chadwick explained at the time[5]
The whole reason for doing it is that many festivals are shit. They just haven't got that right element of cultural exchange. We're trying to get that 'weirdness' back into festivals, which is the whole point of doing it ... as soon as the corporate hand sticks its tiniest bit in, they're fucked.
The first two festivals were held over two days (Saturday and Sunday) and utilised two stages, named the Main Stage and the Big Top. In 2005 it became a three-day festival with the addition of bands playing on the Friday, and has since expanded the number of stages. Since 2012 there have been six main stages; the two mentioned above, plus the Little Big Top, Bimble Inn, the Band Stand and a Theatre Tent.[6] The festival is held on the third weekend of August, the same weekend as the V Festival; Chadwick stated that although this was not originally deliberate, he liked it because "the ethos of the festival is (the) antithesis of V."[5]
External links
- 2003 artist line-up
- 2004 artist line-up
- 2005 artist line-up
- 2006 artist line-up
- 2007 artist line-up
- 2008 artist line-up
- 2009 artist line-up
- 2010 artist line-up
- 2011 artist line-up
- 2012 artist line-up
- 2013 artist line-up
- 2014 artist line-up
- 2015 artist line-up
References
- ↑ Gliddon, Becca (4 March 2016). "Beautiful Days Festival 2016 - Line-up announced". Midweek Herald. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
- 1 2 "Beautiful Days 2016". Virtualfestivals.com. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
- ↑ "and the winners are...". UK Festival Awards. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
- ↑ "Devon's Beautiful Days triumph at the 2015 UK Festival Awards". Exeter Express and Echo. 28 November 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
- 1 2 "Levellers' Mark Chadwick interview". EFestivals. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
- ↑ "Artist line up, 2012". Beautiful Days. Retrieved 16 August 2012.