Lodestar festival is super chilled and genuinely fun for all the family. Set on a farm in the Cambridgeshire fens, its' appeal is as much in its quirky stalls and "summer fete" activities as in its' eclectic line up of music and comedy. 

As we, my mum and I, drove down the track towards Lodestar festival, the chilled out, family atmosphere was immediately apparent. Smiling cub scouts directed us to the car park and all the spare space was occupied by kids playing Frisbee or cricket and bleary eyed parents, sitting outside their tents washing up their breakfast pots. 

When we got into the festival site, we realised why they had chosen to play cricket rather than see the first band...they were not a good fit! A band by the name of "dead wolf club" were on stage-9 hours later after a few pints I may have realised their appeal, however at 11am with a camomile tea...I think my mum summed it up well; "remember when you were in the orchestra at primary school and Mrs Orr had to come in a take over the drums...they could do with Mrs Orr!!". Needless to say we headed for the tented stage and we were rewarded with the simply lovely sounds of The Folk: a group of 3 girls who met at music collage with the occasional added cello from a session musician. Their beautiful songs made the sun come out and made me feel extremely contented with life. 

To add to my contentment we headed out in search of a snack, out of the wide choice, from Thai to rare breed burgers, we settled on a piece of homemade lemon cake from Caffe Mobile-it was delicious and had us coming back the next day to test out the banana and orange and coconut! All awesome, and if you are interested you can usually find the gents and their cake in Cambridge market square! 

Anyway aside from all this cake eating, there was some serious rock and roll going on! Fractures had some great riffs and a great look - all hair and denim - and they had every young kid wanting to be them. Kudos to one particular kid in khaki - Mick Jagger look out! 

Next was a mood change, a more urban group called Luminites who did some great covers and a couple of their own songs. A highlight was their take on the song from the Bing advert; the beat box guy was fantastic and they all interacted with the crowd really well! Then Glass Pear took to the stage, this was eagerly anticipated by me as their songs have appeared in a couple of my favourite TV shows like the OC and Gossip Girl. They did not disappoint as their great pop songs got everyone on their feet for a boogie in the afternoon sun.

As I mentioned before there was also a choice of alternative entertainment going on and Mum and I decided to check out the Cambridge Improv society - based on this experience I would thoroughly recommend it.  Random is an understatement but this is what makes it so hilarious!  The improvised situations led us to a story about an amphibious bicycle-loving unicorn and to a scene in a fridge were we saw a xenophobic condiment try to kick out Ketchup and Mayonnaise for not being British! 

All the laughing made us hungry so it was time for dinner – I opted for a hullomi burrito and mum for a rare breed burger (Hereford apparently for all you cow fans!) both quite delicious. 

Pleasantly full we took to the field to get ready for the 2 headlining acts. Katzenjammer and Sir Bob Geldof. We were in for a real treat! 

Katzenjammer are a Swedish girl band who play the most uplifting blend of rock pop and folk. They seem to squad rotate around their instruments each getting a go at drumming, violin, guitar and a hilarious looking instrument which I can only describe as a massive triangular folk guitar with a cat face on it!  (If anyone can enlighten me what this was please comment below!)  The fact that they all played the full suite of instruments was testament to their amazing musical abilities.  Absolutely loved their set as their energy was infectious – I even learnt how to say donkey bottom in Swedish – asna bakom (or something!!). 

Sir Bob was also really good, surprisingly so! I had heard that his sets can be a bit lazy but this one was certainly full of oomph. He played a mix of old boom town rats stuff and his own new songs. The band were on great form and Bob even changed the set in response to the crowd! The high light of course was the classic sing-along “I don’t like Monday’s” and also how my mum couldn’t understand why Rab C Nesbit was on stage playing the pennywhistle (it wasn’t him, just his doppelganger!)  We certainly went home happy. 

Sunday was even more laid back than Saturday and the all-female line up was perfect for sit in the sun reading the Sunday paper or sipping a G and T.  Highlights were Ghost of Samantha (whose own songs were very witty and her rocky covers of the Spice Girls and Red Ballon went down a treat!) and Rae Morris who seems like the loveliest girl ever, her awesome voice and awesome piano playing was a welcome change to the guitar based music of most of the rest. 

For the afternoon we had planned to head to the tent to see some of the comedy that had appeared on the Edinburgh fringe – this did not materialise which was a bit disappointing but did not take the shine of our weekend. 

Overall this festival was a welcome change from the bigger commercial festivals I normally attend. It was totally stress free and allowed me to experience different music and acts that I normally would have chosen. It is great for families as kids can safely roam free; the site is small, safe and has plenty of friendly stewards to keep an eye. Hopefully I will be back next year :-)

Review Sarah Sturgeon