Bearded Theory 2014 had a lot to live up to; voted best small festival in 2013, renowned for great value and quality, and a byword for Great Times; how did it fare in its seventh year? Well it was certainly Lucky Seven as far as this reviewer is concerned. Bearded still remains a benchmark event.

There is no luck about it of course; festivals, particularly good festivals (and Bearded is very, very, good) don’t just happen – it takes months of hard toil to deliver one weekend of excellence… and deliver they did. It’s all about the Bearded ethos you see. There is a love of the festival scene and an immense pride and satisfaction in bringing a small slice of humanity together in blissful harmony that drives all this. It’s not easy to create a vibe where you can convince ten thousand people to put reality on hold for a few days – but once again the Bearded crew managed it with aplomb… and at a new venue too! (Read the FFA review of the 2013 bash to compare and contrast!)

They upped sticks and moved to Catton Park in Derbyshire this year, and fine and dandy it is too. This new location was big, flat, and, err, muddy. God must hate a winner as the elements were less than kind to Bearded 2014. Downpours, thunderstorms, gales, brimstone, plagues of frogs (ok I did make that bit up); it was all a bit of a quagmire as the weekend progressed, but the organisers handled it well in the main. There were hassles, it’s a festival in a field in the bloody UK in May for goodness sake, but any hiccups were genuinely driven by inexperience of the new location rather than slippage of Bearded Theory’s renowned high standards. There could have been more lighting and straw around the bottlenecks (access to the disabled / campervan field was unfortunately particularly bad), toilet numbers and maintenance could have been a bit better and the site design requires tweaking, but that’s all being rather pedantic and regular Bearded punters just know that any teething hassles will be corrected for 2015. It’s a trust thing.

If anything the site was perhaps a little too big – but that does provide scope for future expansion whilst ensuring that noise pollution between the stages was kept to a minimum and there was plenty of space to mud wallow with Hippo’s and Wildebeest. It also facilitated an absolutely massive dedicated kids area crammed with goodies and activities. This is one child friendly festival which manages to nicely balance and separate the family malarkey and the ‘adult’ scene.

Leaving the new site aside it was business as usual in every other department, the same old Bearded Value For Money was perhaps even better than ever this year – indeed they excelled themselves … the festival offered completely gratis entry for a fourth night by opening on the Thursday with some good stuff going down in Tornado Town to keep the early adopters happy (and it appeared the majority of revellers did actually arrive Thursday – it was heaving), they added the simply wonderful Locked Inn The Woods venue (a splendid location of stage, bars and general merriment in a woodland glade), and unlike many events large and small these days, you are still welcome to bring alcohol into the arena (all they ask is that you buy a couple of reasonably priced drinks in the bars – which incidentally were still packed whatever the drinks policy) … and all this for a miserly £87!

The best brains at Festival University still can’t fathom how Bearded manage to consistently present a bill of such outstanding talent for the price. This year witnessed the likes of Carter USM, The Stranglers, Ali Campbell's UB40, Dub Pistols, The Wonderstuff, Pop Will Eat Itself, Dreadzone, Peter Hook & The Light, Oysterband, 3 Daft Monkeys, Membranes, and Hayseed Dixie amongst a host of acts across five stages.

Not only that, but the festival boasted the last ever festival appearance by Carter USM, plus a special guest appearance from Reverend and The Makers, bouncing in as replacements for the sadly indisposed Wilko Johnson. They did the great man proud, and incidentally, ‘Silence Is Talking’ must be one of the top ten festival anthems yeah?

FFA cruised through the weekend, which given the fourth night, still appeared to fly by, and we never failed to be impressed by the sheer quality of each of the 150 or so artists on the Bearded Theory bill. You’ll all have your favourites but here is just a snapshot of some of those that made their mark on this reviewer:

On Thursday Dr and the Medics delivered a splendid opening night set in Tornado town, a bit less vaudeville than we’ve seen them of late and all the better for it. Something for everyone, including The Cult fans, and a great opener for the pre-festival proper crowd.

Friday we caught the inimitable John Robb and post punk outfit Membranes. Much more hardcore than Robb’s alter-ego (one of many!) Goldblade, the man is the consummate entertainer and the way he works the crowd should provide an education to any budding rock star. Great Stuff.

In the pantheon of acts guaranteed to get a festival field bouncing, Dub Pistols are always buzzing around the top of the list. They excelled again at Bearded with a dazzling hour-long romp - the clouds parted briefly and the sun got its hat on and lit up Barry Ashworth and his merry men. Surely one of the festival bands of the summer!

Bloody ‘ell – Carter! What can I say? It was everything hoped for and more. What a loss to the scene when this pair of likely lads hang up their collective guitars for good. Bathed in their trademark piercing white light, the set list covered the full gambit of their work from the smart-ass techno indie-punk madness of Midnight On The Murder Mile to the beautiful spine tingly poetry of the very apt Final Comedown. What a way to bow out of the festival scene - It was a genuine pleasure to witness this last outing.

Jolly Jock’s midnight set in Locked Inn The Woods was always destined to be a delight – and so it proved. Those new to the JJ experience initially tend to take it all seriously and shuffle nervously early into the set before realising that the man is a musical comic genius, with considerable talent to boot. One of life’s eccentrics and the world is a far better place for it.

Saturday once again illustrated why the old stagers still rule the festival roost – there are some bands that you just know whatever the event, whatever the circumstances, they can always be counted upon to deliver. Bearded are astute enough to seed the line-up with said bands … these are the bankers on the bill, the hooks around which everything else revolves. Just take main stage Saturday as a fer’ instance. Merry Hell, 3 Daft Monkeys, and a particularly fine Oysterband. Class acts. Throw in great sets by The Wonderstuff and The Stranglers (a particularly dark menacing set of brooding musical excellence from the men in black) and that’s a main stage line-up worthy of the entry price alone.

We started the day with an absolutely packed Something Else Tea Tent for Ferocious Dog’s excellent acoustic set. This sums up Bearded; there was more atmosphere and good times in this little side stage than on some other festivals main stages. It’s that kind of festie.

OK, OK, it may have been our mind-set but arguably set of the weekend was the psychedelic techno trance madness of the marvellous Astralasia in the wonderously bedecked Magical Sounds tent. Another crew who’s put in the man-hours over the years and it shows – Astralasia delivered an audio-visual feast. It was a beautiful thing in that tent. If you were there then you’ll get it – if not then you missed a treat.

Sunday, well they are virtually the Bearded house band and no wonder why – Dreadzone! Another band guaranteeing sheer quality and enjoyment. These guys have everything from sing-along tunes to deep psy-dub, and they never seem to disappoint. The crowd loved ‘em as always. Another class act.

UB40, whatever the hassles with the band name and wherever your loyalties may lie, there can be no argument that this ‘UB40’ featuring Ali, Astro, and Mickey, are an absolutely splendid outfit live. Tight, slick, professional exponents of bringing Reggae To The Masses, they produced a blinding set. Very good indeed. (read the recent exclusive FFA interview with Ali Campbell).

Earlier we caught one of the sets of the day from Monster Ceilidh Band; they blend traditional ceilidh orientated folk overlaid with drum and bass electro beats and produced a veritable delight. Splendid stuff.

All roads late Sunday led to Locked Inn The Woods for the much anticipated Mark Chadwick. What a truly splendid and magical setting for Mr Chadwick to debut his new ‘Moment’ album - played in its entirety. Augmented by a four piece band, the electric piano and double bass added a jazzy feel to a number of the new tracks, whilst the fiddle hit the spot on the more folk-rock elements. First listening indicates that Moment contains all the trademark memorable musical hooks for which Leveller Chadwick is famed. The rousing ‘Bullet’ in particular passing the next day whistle test.

(Read an exclusive Mark Chadwick interview with FFA just before he went on stage at Bearded!)

So there you have it – Bearded Theory in all its glory - still offering stunning value, superb music, attracting a great crowd, and delivering one hell of a party.

Article by Barrie Dimond