After a 2 year absence Guilfest returned to Stoke Park, just outside Guilford, Surrey which for 3 days became an eclectic mix of 80’s pop, soul, funk, jazz, dance, R&B, disco, metal, hard rock, indie, punk and ska.

Spread across 8 stages there really was something for everyone.

Main Stage

Played host to some music legends. Headlined on Friday by the Boomtown Rats, Saturday by Kool and the Gang and Sunday by the Human League

Good time stage

The little sibling of the main stage hosted an eclectic mix of music from the likes of Public Service Broadcasting and Dreadzone through to Boney M.

The Big Cheese cave

Was the place to go if you wanted metal, hard rock or a bit of Indie

Funk and Dance Tent

Did exactly what it said on the tin

Vive Le rock Stage
A furious cauldron of noise and energy where classic bands such as Buzzcocks and the Skints rubbed shoulder with brash new up and comers delivering punk, ska and new wave music.

ACM Presents stage
The Academy of Contemporary Music showcased some of ACMs most exciting up and coming talent.

The Acoustic Lounge
A lovely small tented stage delivery some fine chill out performances.

The Surrey Advertiser Stage

A stage showcasing up and coming and grass roots performers from the area.

I told you it had something for everyone…..didn’t I ?

Altogether there were over 250 bands on site, the food and drink was priced at a level you would expect for a festival of this size and there was a lot of choice of cuisines. Guilfest prides itself as a family festival and there was lots of entertainment for the kids. There was also a friendly atmosphere for the most part within the festival.

As well as music there is comedy, theatre, hands on experiences for the kids in arts and crafts and musical instruments, a small fun fair area for smaller kids and for the adults a good selection of beer tents and drinking areas.

We arrived on the Friday straight after the kids had finished school and the sun ( despite the forecast ) was still managing to make its appearances. A quick wander around the site to get our bearings and then we were off to enjoy the evening.

Off to the Good Time Stage where the Paper Boats were performing, a five piece band from Guildford. They say they take their influence from 80’s Indie and whilst not knowing any of their music its clear these are very talented and have a bright future in front of them – a great start to our musical extravaganza !

Next on the Vive Le Rock Stage Underview  a 4 piece band performing Indie to a sparsely populated stage. They gave a great Indie rock performance and deserved a better audience than the 20 or so people who were there.

On the Big Cheese Stage The Darling Buds led by actor Jamie Campbell Bower – and for those of you that don’t know him (like me) he’s an actor from the Twilight series of movies and Mortal Instruments, which I guess goes to show why the arena was full of teenage girls! They performed pop punk and were very good creating a buzzing atmosphere inside the tented stage and performing strongly, musically and vocally.

Over to the Vive Le Rock Stage The Vibrators performed a great pure punk performance, the band performed a tight set of furious, fierce and powerful music. An amazing live band even if you’re not a great punk fan

Glorious sun appeared and a massive crowd gathered at the Main Stage to greet the Fun Loving Criminals who produced an hours worth of alternative hip-hop and the crowd lapped it up with great affection. 

Canterbury were performing at The Big Cheese Cave and a good crowd had gathered to see this band that has had fantastic reviews from the likes of Kerrang and Rocksound. Musically great they engaged with the crowd well and produced a good set and the crowd left fully appreciating this up and coming band….watch this space.

Over at the Vive Le Rock Stage – Chelsea. Old Skool Punk for you sir?

Then right this way for possibly the performance of the day a massive crowd turned out and a loyal following of fans bounced, sang and shouted along through nearly an hour of classic old skool punk.

Extra noise? Sure…in fact as the singer said “ Turn the PR up, we’re not a F**kin choir we’re a punk band! Brilliant………..

On the Main Stage the Boomtown Rats were cranking through their classics from yesteryear. A massive crowd on what started as a beautiful evening saw crowds singing and dancing along to classics such as I Don’t like Mondays.

Bob Geldof probably not everyone’s cup of tea – is still a great entertainer when he’s in this element. Unfortunately the rain started but the evening still finished on a high.

Saturday, and the thunderstorms that were predicted for the day luckily failed to materialize and we had a quick look in the ACM stage at Sister Leona, a 4 piece who perform good time grunge with a sprinkle of rock and roll before moving onto the Vive Le Rock stage to see Skaciety - young SKA/Punk sensations from Kent they produced an amazing performance. Definitely ones to watch they left the stage to an amazing send off from the crowd who loved every minute of it and from the amount of Skaciety T-Shirts on show on the Sunday made themselves a whole load of new fans.

Wandering over to The Big Cheese Cave for Nylon Sky who were performing their revolutionary alternative rock / hip hop fusion. With a lead singer who’s charismatic and likeable they produced a high energy performance, engaging as much as possible with the crowd, musically brilliant and vocally interesting it’s a good combination the performance ended with the lead singer climbing up the stage scaffold, encouraging a mosh pit and ending with the crowd in a mosh pit puffing on something he was given by someone in the crowd!

A break from the music a bite to eat and a sit down watching Mark Simmons a comedian who delivered an excellent set of one-liners, fully refreshed we were back to it.

On the Main Stage The Farm, I remember these the first time around they now seem to have become a staple on the festival scene. The crowd loved them, I loved them and the music was just as good as ever – the band performed brilliantly and everyone in the crowd sand along to classics such as All Together Now and Groovy Train. Superb, a genuine crowd pleasing performance.

Over at The Big Cheese Cave The Servers. Described by Rock Sound Magazine as "a white hot slab of incandescent fury", in Metal Hammer UK Magazine as "Mastodon meets Queens brand of intelligent riffs" they performed dark and powerful rock to an enthralled audience.

They were followed by Boy Jumps Ship who performed an infectious mix of alternative rock to a crowded stage and appreciative audience. The band from Sunderland are undoubtedly very talented and have been making an impression on the UK festival circuit.

Out into the sun again to catch a bit of Naughty Boy on the main stage, a massive crowd had gathered and the sunny climate and time of day was perfect to sit, chill, stand, dance and enjoy. His set at Guilfest was enjoyed by a wide ranging mix of ages and demographics, the only thing in common being the fact that smiles abounded throughout the crowd with classics such as Get Lucky and Lifted had the crowd singing and dancing….Kool and the Gang who followed on the main stage had a lot to live up to.

Over to Vive Le Rock – Urban Voodoo Machine. We were really looking forward to watching Urban Voodoo Machine as they had come highly recommended, we managed to squeeze into the front of a packed stage and witnessed what I think was one of the performances of the weekend despite having massive technical difficulties at the beginning which took 30 minutes to sort out.

I’m not really sure how to describe them, a bit of punk, mixed with a bit of gypsy and a large splash of blues. A vicar playing a Double Bass, a drummer that looked like he’s come straight from a voodoo ceremony, washboards, accordions, trumpets, saxophones, violins, ukulele, some odd looking instrument that I can only describe as a blow piano ( see picture ). The performance was brilliant, massively talented with a bit of theatre thrown in the performance finished with a fire eater, just in case we weren’t impressed enough with the music !

Kool and the Gang closed the show on the main stage and The Buzzcocks closed the show in Vive Le Rock we saw neither, we tried to see the Buzzcocks but the tent was full to capacity and standing room only outside showing the popularity of this all time great British band.

Sunday

First band of the day on the Acoustic Stage were the Darling Buds. Seeing The Darling Buds again was a great experience. The acoustic tent has a chilled out relaxed feel and you feel close to the performers. The whole band really seemed to be enjoying themselves and their musical abilities were brilliant.

Over to the Main Stage where DJ Norman Jay went through his set. He got the crowd going by playing loads of classic pop / disco songs to get the whole crowd dancing. He was joined near the end by dancers Street Vibes – freestyle dancing throughout the last 20 minutes of the set. The crowd were really appreciating this talented group and so was DJ Norman Jay! His last song was Lionel Richies classic All night long with the crowd joining in.

Needing a little break from the sun and punk / ska / we headed over to the ACM Stage where Cherry Pie sang covers of hits from Adele amongst others, it gave our skin and eardrums a rest for 20 minutes and set up for the last onslaught of music to come………

Back to The Big Cheese Cave – Reverbed nominated for best British newcomer at the 2013 Kerrang awards this supremely hard working band ( 200 gigs in 18 months ) and they only missed two as according to the singer “he’s a shit driver and they had a car accident” ! A mix of pop / punk this band had the audience captivated from the start as they blasted through a 30 minute performance which everyone enjoyed and left the stage to a tremendous ovation.

As soon as the Skints came on stage, the Vive le Rock tent was full of dancing, jumping, singing people. The “reggae vibe” provided a happy backdrop to the music of the multi-talented band members. A range of instruments created a changing rhythm in the music which made it sound very interesting and one band member played 4 instruments altogether during this one performance as well as singing. It was not only the band who were singing, but all of their fans; especially during their cover of Katy B’s ‘On a Mission’.

Walking back from the Skints we caught the last song from Dreadzone Little Britain, but it was my song of the weekend and a massive crowd had gathered to bounce along to this great track.

They were followed on the Good Time Stage by Boney M who went through a lot of their back catalogue including Daddy Cool, Rasputin, Brown girl in the ring, Rivers of Babylon, a real crowd pleasing performance. Those who gathered to watch them undoubtedly had a great time and sang and bopped along to some disco classics, a really great disco performance.

And all that remained from 3 days of music was the Human League, an iconic band of the 80’s they’re probably more popular now than they were back then were about to bring Guilfest to a close. They ran through hits including Don't You Want Me, Mirror Man and Together In Electric Dreams. A huge crowd gathered to see them and sang and danced along to every song. Their performance was electric and over too soon and so too was the weekend.

A real cauldron of music and the format was great, you had the opportunity to listen to the music that you know and love as well as the chance to listen to some new music and up and coming bands. We all left the festival with a list of artists we need to find out more from.

A great time was had by all the family!

Review and photos: Gab and Dave Wayne.