Nestled in the Kent countryside, with a backdrop akin to what you’d expect from a “Darling Buds of May” set, is the quintessentially English and delightfully quirky Lounge on the Farm festival. The weekend left us gushing with exclamations of “I love it here!” and “…isn’t it cute?” despite being splattered with typical English downpours.

Only a ten minute taxi drive from Canterbury West train station (the organisers cancelled the buses last minute but didn’t do much to inform festival-goers of this), Lounge on the Farm is located on a cow farm and a rather charming one at that. The surrounding fields and hedgerows look like they’ve been manicured for the occasion and there’s a certain boutiquey / village fete feel about the place. It attracted a very mixed crowd from families galore, to London yuppies popping outta town, to local senior citizens taking a day trip.

After getting our bearings, we discovered that this little festival packed a lot in. The festival had a good mix of established headliners, whilst showcasing emerging local talent across the event. 

On the charming Farmhouse stage which was surrounded by haystacks and recycled glass bottle lamps, Sarah Devlin sung us sweet melodies of everyday life encounters, in contrast to High Tide, a blokey trio band, who were having the time of their lives providing hilarity and great sounds.  

The Farm Folk tent provided a welcome respite from the sun/rain where we heard awesome expression-filled songs played out on the guitar and drums from newcomers Rudy Warman. It was their second ever festival performance on Saturday (their first one being elsewhere on Friday) and they oozed that feel-good humble buzz about performing for a crowd, which is so rare to see at festivals these days. For those into beat and bass, the roof of the Hoe-Down tent was pretty much being held in place by pegs with the likes of MK and East-End Dubs pumping out to the crowd. 

The main stage was adorned by “headline” acts from the rather unorthodox Seasick Steve who really tickled the crowd with his vocals, ending the evening with some cringe-worthy audience participation; Jessie Ware who managed to attract the biggest crowd of the weekend with her pitch perfect vocals; and Soul II Soul who sent tingles down the spines of the crowd as their gospel choir carried their epics across the Kentish countryside drawing the festival to a close.

There was also plenty to keep them occupied in between the stage appearances, with Playhouse tent offering top comedy from acts such as Stephen K Amos and Richard Herring, and a rather bizarre but very entertaining Bingo show from Timberlina and Hey Baylen’s. Traditional non-tacky fairground entertainment kept the kids (and adults) smiling whilst the Orchard Spa was on hand to help you de-stress if for some strange reason you had a problem doing that in such a setting. 

Lest not forget the food stalls that make LOTF a culinary delight to munch through. - With Merton burgers from the local farm, Kentish cider and ales, lip-smackingly good sausages. Even the exotics did fantastically well (Chinese dumplings and delicious Thai noodles) spoilt for choice. 

We left the Lounge on the Farm with our bellies full of delicious food, but mainly of content; content at having been able to listen to humble bands play to small civilised crowds in beautiful fields where there was zero risk of personal-space-invasion. “Sounds perfick” as ‘Pop’ Larkin might say…