Blimey – what a great little festival. If ever a festival deserves to succeed through the sheer intensity and commitment of ordinary folk then Surplus should go from strength to strength. It’s simply because Surplus Festival is a true Old Skool bash;  a proper grassroots affair with Music For The People – By The People. Forget corporate sponsorship and prancing Prima Donnas; Surplus has a raw edge, a vitality, a passion and vibe that you simply can’t buy at a festival no matter how many Pimms Buses, cash machines and mobile charging points you throw at it.

Surplus Festival is a genuine community a few hundred strong – everyone is a player here. From the organisers, the stewards, the bands, and not least the punters, there is a life affirming shared vibe at work to celebrate good people, good music, and good times. The festival is pretty basic – and that’s no complaint. As relatively seasoned reviewers we actually found it quite refreshing and a welcome antidote to some of the more sterile mass produced festivals-by-numbers that we’ve experienced over the years. People make festivals – everything else is secondary. It’s an old cliché but this was one of the friendliest events we’ve had the pleasure to attend. With a strong Traveller community and like-minded souls makeup to the audience we were, well, overwhelmed by the love radiating out of that field in Wales.

There are so many ‘Big Ups’ to hand out we don’t really know where to start – firstly the organisers for having the commitment, resilience and sheer bloody-mindedness in managing to actually stage the event at all. (The beautiful Vale of Glamorgan location was their second relocation in a month following a couple of let downs); The sound guys who provided uniformly excellent acoustics across all the stages and put some larger events to shame; The good folks over at Carla’s Kitchen takeaway who provided good food at good prices for 18 hours a day – and still kept a smile on their face. Bar prices that reflected hard economic times with cans starting at £2.50 and a pint of killer-brew Black Dragon (ask my wife!) at £3.50. The list could go on and on. Just as a ‘fer instance – I recall one particularly prim & proper mainstream festival where the crowd leave the arena and camping fields an absolute shithole. Compare and contrast with Surplus. The arena was spotless and the camping fields equally so on Monday morning. Big up Surplus Folks.

Although all rather home-spun, yer fifty five quid buys a hell of a lot at Surplus. Two stages, a bar tent with live music, a pounding dance scene in a large dedicated tent, and a cutey teeny tiny dance shed, no bigger than a B&Q gazebo, that laid down some of the best beats of the weekend. With a smattering of stalls and takeaways plus Ye Old Traditional Bonfire it was weekend sorted.

Not only that but organiser Torrie and his team also laid on, at no extra cost boys and girls, some scorching sunshine and an Air Show! There were breath-taking aerial displays, loop-the-loops, and vapour trails throughout the weekend – and that was just the Surplus punters.

Musically there was a strong hardcoresque and post-punk shenanigan element to the live line-up but with enough Psychedelic, Reggae and Rock input to satisfy most tastes. It was Techno Beat City in the dance tents with some awesome mixes and wild scenes. Surplus served up around 70 acts and DJ’s and we saw loads, missed even more, lazed about chilling and generally had a spiffing time sat in the sunshine. Where did those three days and nights go? … you know the score. Here are just a few of the FFA highlights in a weekend packed with some great acts and beats. It’s not intended to be comprehensive – if you were lucky enough to attend you will have found your own space – this was ours….

Friday was full on party time – not least ‘cos of the footie. Too far to walk to the nearest boozer we thought we were done for. Then we found some punter with a 26in telly set up outside his van! Absolutely 10/10 atmosphere and, once again, marvellous Surplus people. Wonderful hospitality from our Welsh hosts – even to unreconstructed Mancs! Cheers mate. One Eyed God played a great set. Think a punkier Gong family with Trombones and you won’t go far wrong. Brassy dubby psychedelia – excellent stuff. FFA bounced between a cracking vibe in the Stumble Inn bar tent and some splendid beats around the increasingly surreal cutey dance tent until we managed to get ourselves lost (no. seriously). Time for a managed retreat.

Saturday we lazed about, wandering between the tents and stages. The sign of a great festival is that the music and entertainment are just another facet of the overall vibe – it all just melds together as part of a crazy hazy day. With no printed programme and the blackboard listings incomplete or mere aspirations – it proved to be the best policy. We just enjoyed the wall of sound. Deviant Amps hit the spot with some damned fine psychedelia whilst another highlight of note was the excellent D-Teez over in the Solar Tent. Passionate political driving garage punk bursts of energy and really entertaining. So hard did they drive that broken drum sticks literally filled the air. Sendelica produced arguably the set of the festival in this reviewer’s humble opinion. Majestic, sweeping psy-rock with horn man Relfe dominating the stage and Theremin Meister the inimitable Lord Sealand adding the flourishes. A great performance for the early evening crowd.

All roads across the Universe led to Here & Now as far as FFA were concerned, and the gentlemen did not disappoint. Mr Keith tha Bass was his usual laconic sartorially elegant self and Mr Mark Robson excelled on joint keyboards. The band as always are bi-polar – one set may be laid back trippy, the next a psy-rock extravaganza. It was the latter at Surplus to this reviewers ears at least. A resounding closer of Opium for The People nailed it. Splendid.  It was difficult to establish who manned the desks on the dance stages but the quality of beats going down was pretty much uniformly excellent over the entire weekend – sorry not to name check guys – but you know who you are.

Blisteringly hot Sunday was a great day for music. We caught Reality Attack in the Stumble Inn early doors. Crackin high energy hardcore punk with some neat lyrics putting the world to rights. The place was buzzing and rightly so. Radioactive Bones were a gentler, more considered affair over on the main Levitation Stage with some fine musicianship and a particularly rich sound from a three piece. An excellent listen in the summer sun. The good-time reggae of The Majestic lit up Levitation later and they got a great reaction from the dancing crowd. Given the punter reaction FFA were surprised that more reggae, ska, and dub did not feature across the Surplus bill but hey ho.

Nik Turner. An iconic elder statesman of the British music scene for more than 50 years. What can you say. The man is a legend and graced the stage with a fine collection of musicians performing as Nik Turner’s New Space Ritual. What followed was a master class with Turner picking favourites from across his myriad musical incarnations. From Hawkwind to some of Turner’s more obscure Jazz flourishes (he is, after all, honorary patron of Fishguard’s Aberjazz Jazz ‘n Blues Festival no less :) ). The voice may be a little frailer now but Turner did not miss a beat with some fine Sax and flute. An atmospheric Steppenwolf and the almost self-titled Master of The Universe did for FFA. Wonderful. Unfortunate timing clash with Back To The Planet – but even Surplus Festival can’t always deliver.

So… there you have it. I’d been thinking of some clever line to close off this review. Something that would pull all the threads together. Something to define the fantastic attendees, the very ethos and essence of this bash. Then I remembered the comments of a guy as he packed up Monday morning - “I’ve had a great weekend; how could I not – these are my people”. Nuff said.

Article & Snaps by Barrie Dimond