Located at Cabourne Pava Farm in Lincolnshire, the inaugural Blind Cat festival is probably the closest you'll get to a 1970's festival for those of an age to remember. A friendly hippy style festival; the indicator being the amount of people, including yours truly, who were wearing Gong shirts.

This non-corporate festival is run by volunteers, with friendly smiling stewards who were continuously asking if there were any problems or any suggestions for improvement.

The site provided easy wheelchair access and designated disabled toilets, and there were adequate toilets and facilities, including some showers for those who still believe cleanliness is next to godliness!

The camping area looks out on rolling fields as far as the eye can see, and it only takes minutes to walk to the two stages.

Persistent rain on Friday didn't dampen any enthusiasm as the main stage is in a barn. At the opposite corner to the stage is the bar which sold Lager, Cider, and Black Sheep Bitter - all priced at £3.00 per pint which is certainly reasonable by festival standards. The barn was furnished with leather armchairs, couches and various other comfy chairs.

The roundhouse woodland stage catered more for acoustic and folk rock with plenty of seating and tables. Next to the barn was a three foot diameter fire pit with blazing logs and more seating.

Now on to the music which was billed as ‘Psychedelic Space Rock’ …

The first band to appear on Friday were Alice Syndrome who played a steady set to start the weekend.

The music continued with The Peoples Free Republic Of Pandemonia who can only be described as Space Reggae with synthesizers and blues harmonica. This theme carried on throughout with dance music included and a very Beefheartesque song called ‘Squirrel’.

Vostock who appeared next was a solo guitarist playing effect laden ambient music which was well received.

Closing Friday evening were the excellent Flutacious whose unique blend of jazz influenced jigs, reels, and rock was a joy to hear. The band even did a curious and interesting version of ‘Paint It Black’. They finished their superb set with ‘The Road To Skye’ - a raucous 15 minute instrumental, before returning for a well-deserved encore.

Saturday brought out the sun and the music kicked off with Spiral Navigators; prog-rock with heavily featured violin. They got the day off to a fine start.

Next on stage were Paradise 9 who continued the progressive theme with a more melodic spacey trippy flavour. A quality band who delivered a really enjoyable 60 minutes of controlled mayhem.

Deviant amps were next on the bill and they gave a competent rockier heavier hour.

The next band were Dubble - the music is Space Dub; what more is there to say!

One of the highlights of the festival came early Saturday evening with Sendelica. This extremely talented four piece outfit were as tight as a drum and played a mainly instrumental set. Non-stop music for an hour, as each tune merged into the next with no gaps. Psychedelic Jazz Rock at its best.

Peyote Guru perform intricate ambient music, although not to my taste they went down well with the crowd.

Probably best known as the keyboard player and vocalist with Here & Now, the other venture Mark Robson is involved with is Kangaroo Moon and the two bands are as different as chalk and cheese. Saturdays headliners Kangaroo Moon were amazing. Take Electric Folk, Blues, Jazz, Hillbilly and a large helping of didgeridoo all thrown into a big pot and the end result is a packed dancefloor. Kangaroo Moon are sheer class and without a doubt the outstanding act of the weekend.

The sun was out again for the last day which was opened by Dog On Wheels whose Prog Rock with Reggae rhythms got the proceedings off to a lively start.

Chariots took the second spot and delivered a great blast of rocking Blues.

The straightforward rock from Roz Bruce Infusion continued the mood and went down well.

The first real Prog band of the day were Spacedogs who played an excellent slot with plenty of spacey laid-back guitar.

Band Tantrics were difficult to judge as their Hawkwind influenced music was marred by sound problems and feedback.

The more progressive sound of Silverspace was pleasing on the ear - they were competent and very entertaining.

I was unable to stay for the last two bands, Nukli and Krankshaft, and I apologize for excluding them from this review.

Let's hope word gets around about this fabulous little festival and it returns next year.

At a bargain price of £40.00 for the weekend including camping, with free carer tickets for the disabled, this event deserves to succeed.

Article by Iain Derbyshire