A glorious summer’s day in the Surrey Hills was the perfect setting for the Magic Summer Live Festival. An afternoon and evening of great music from some 80’s and 90’s soul, disco and acid jazz legends with a bit of Joss Stone and Ocean Colour Scene thrown into the mix for those under the age of 40!

The main stage saw Soul II Soul, Beverley Knight, Chic featuring Nile Rogers, Ocean Colour Scene, Joss Stone and the little fella named Jay Kay & Jamiroquoai. 

The More Music Stage saw Joe Carabine, Gwen Dickeys Rose Royce, Loose Ends, Aswad and somewhat surprisingly Alexander O Neal R&B / Soul Legend who like a naughty child must have done something wrong to be relegated to the second stage – his set however featuring classics such as 'If You Were Here Tonight' and 'Criticise' was one of my highlights of the festival – he was absolutely superb. The set from Chic was also brilliant with man of the moment Nile Rodgers treating us to a back catalogue of their hits, superb.

The Surrey Sessions Stage (kind of like a bandstand stage at the edge of the complex) held the lesser known bands – one of which – The Salts – deserved a bigger audience than those people just seeking out shade by the hoardings at the edge of the festival – they produced some foot stomping music that got the small crowd to its feet. 

The festival seemed to aim itself squarely at the family market and I think overall was a great success. There was a wide variety of food from burgers and pizza to more exotic fare. 

For adults there were good bar facilities, Beer, Cider, Pimms and Champagne – all as reasonably priced as can be expected. 

For kids there were some facilities to keep them amused between acts such as a bouncy castle, big inflatable slide, face painting etc. Along with stalls providing body art and henna tattoos.

One stall had a company demonstrating bushcraft skills which kept the kids enthralled for an hour and they helped them to make dreamcatchers from willow and other natural materials – the people running the attraction were brilliant. 

On the hottest day of the year so far the festival organisers provided free drinking water and sunscreen for visitors – which was a nice touch. The only sun related downside being that there was very little shade on-site / the upside of that being that we got to listen to The Salts. 

Headwear was dominated by Jay Kays most recognisable feather headdress (and I must say thank you – in case he is reading – to the chap who in the middle of the afternoon came up, plonked a straw hat on my youngest daughter and walked off smiling telling us it was a spare one he had – that’s the sort of festival it was). But Jay Kay takes the plaudit for walking on stage in his green trilby looking out at the crowd and hundreds of headdresses and starting his set “The only time I come as a Cowboy you lot come as F**k*** Indians” if he needed an extra reason to get the crowd on his side then that was it – brilliant!  

And really that is who everyone was there to see and he did not let them down one bit – a true music legend – his set was absolutely brilliant and that band still has one of the best sounds and he one of the best voices I have experienced – utterly brilliant music – brilliant stage show and laser show and a great way to end the evening.   

Overall Verdict - An incredible line up of acts, glorious weather, great setting, everybody smiling, everybody dancing (including lots of mum and dad dancing) it was the first festival we went to as a family – and we couldn’t have picked a better one………….

Article: Dave Wayne