Travelling through the beautiful woodlands of The Peak District by train or car on route to Y-Not? Is the perfect beginning to a festival weekend (look out for the cable cars at Matlock).

Y-Not? Festival…In a nutshell, has something for everyone. Starting with which camp site to pitch up your tent, the ‘quiet camp site’ or ‘rock n roll camp sites ‘are a few to choose from, and with helpful friendly staff on fire towers ready to point you in the right direction of a good spot you can definitely forget all that trudging around for an empty space. With multiple car parks surrounding the majority of the camp sites you won’t be making many lengthy trips back and forth to the car either.

Music ranges from Heavy Metal to Happy Swing - Acoustic to Alternative Hip Hop all weekend and if you’re the type that fancies keeping an eye out for something you haven’t seen before. Whatever your age, whatever your music preference you will be catered for at Y-Not festival.

When it comes to catering you won’t be short of options. The queue for PieMaster, Stone Baked Pizza and Chicken Katsu Curry showed no signs of slowing this year. And if your needs are that of a more specific nature, The Vegan&Veggie cafes in Octopus Garden had some pretty big spreads laid out for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with prices for food staying well below the usual extortionate festival rates and with generous portions, tummies and pockets were kept happy all weekend.

Oh yes and then there is the fine selection of ales, ciders and perry’s not forgetting the cocktail bar if you really want a lager.

When the sun goes down and it gets a bit cooler you can warm up with one of Grannies Teas! And if you were lucky enough to get word of the secret venue behind the book case this year, you might have found yourself creeping down a tunnel of foliage through to a late night rave!

By the time we arrived and pitched our tent we just made it in time for Razorlight back on the road again after a four year sabbatical, they attracted a huge crowd to The Big Gin Stage. Jonny Borell and the guys delivered a greatest hits set kicking off with In The Morning via, Before I Fall to Pieces and finishing with a rousing version America.

Over on the Quarry Stage Real Big Fish had the whole tent bouncing with circles breaking out here and there to their infectious blend of punk & ska. The set comes to a glorious climax with their cover of Aha’s classic Take On Me.

Now it’s time for a PARTY and there’s only one place to go and that’s The Giant Squid Stage for Andrew WK, by the time I arrive the tent is rammed. The music may not be to my taste, but who cares it’s the atmosphere that counts and this is where Y-Notter’s come to their own, as this guy really know how to have fun.

Feeling jaded it’s time to sit round the fire before hitting the sack. We wake to what seems to be the traditional Peak District welcome ‘driving rain’ but thankfully no lightning. 

We were supposed to shake off our morning blues with Mr Motivator but he had lost his get up and go from an injury to his ankle whilst filming a TV show. The Y-Not crowd however had other ways to entertain themselves, with the SoChill area, Roller Disco, Helter Skelter, Dodgems, Kids Tent, Ferris Wheel, Chair-O-Plane, (you must be mad), and the obligatory mud slide.

After grabbing a bite to eat it’s off to see Brighton duo Nordic Giants in The Giant Squid, their set of experimental mind blowing sounds and breath-taking visuals (screened on a monitor centre stage!), is truly something to behold.

Beans on Toast attracts a good crowd of all ages to The Quarry, he is on form with his usual combination of great banter and mixture of fun and political songs and of course the festival favourite MDMA.

This year’s festival season has been good to Catfish & The Bottleman going from strength to strength, and Y-Not is made for them, their brand of in your face rock goes down a treat on The Big Gin Stage and boy does frontman Van McCann know how to work a crowd.

Saint Raymond are among a wave of indie bands that have adopted the uplifting ‘jingly jangly’ sound inspired by the likes of Johnny Clegg Suva, Foals and Vampire Weekend. They have a great stage presence and wonderful interaction with the crowd.

Over on the Big Gin Stage The Fratellis, were doing what they do best a set of sing along anthems and getting the crowd warmed up for Dizzee Rascal.

It seemed that the 90% of the record 14,000 attendance were crammed into the Arena for Dizzee Rascal and he did not disappoint! His set was high energy from start to finish as he bounced around the stage with smoke canons, confetti and a massive laser show.

From parents to small children everyone was up dancing and singing regardless of age, there were mosh pits appearing everywhere and I have it on good authority that he set a Y Not record for the numbers crowd surfing.

A few recycling bins made for a perfect view for the younger ones. The set included Bassline Junkie, Dance Wiv Me, FixUp and the climax of Bonkers.

After that there was only one thing to do, Grannies Tea and the secret venue for a rave.

Sunday the weather held out with sunshine in and out of the clouds all day. After a leisurely start we popped along to Geofest were one of two tents set up on site this year where you can go along and put your skills on show! You can learn to juggle or even engage in some poi throwing (without the fire for beginners of course). It’s not all about emptying your pockets on food stalls or spending your pennies on the Big wheel to have a good time at Y-Not.

Yorkshire CND and Greenpeace were also hanging out this year providing us with some knitting needles, paint pots and lego kits to get creative with and also to keep us well informed on some really important current environment topics.

If a few strokes of ready mix classroom paint doesn't quiet do it for you, then there’s always the epic paint fight which happened on Sunday due to the weather. Hundreds seemed to turn up, the air was full of colour and late arrivals grasped handfuls of paint from the grass, or just rolled in it, children made angel shapes on the floor and it was time for the first conga of the day and Y-Not!.

Having watched Essex band Stealing Signs since they were in year 9 (they were called Spudwinkle in those days), I had to see how they performed away from home on The Allotment Stage. Their pop inspired indie went down well with the audience and front man Nick Acton’s jovial approach was ideal for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

On The Big Gin Stage King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys big band sound attracted a large audience of all ages, getting everyone up dancing, as they rolled back the years performing classics from a bygone age in the afternoon sun. Tequilla was the excuse the crowd needed to start another conga, the set is wonderfully relaxing and could not be further away from what was to follow: Baby Godzilla!

To put it simply Nottingham’s Baby Godzilla are a force of nature, think Iggy Pop times 4 and then you are getting close to the adrenaline shot that this band delivers. If you want metal with crowd participation this is it, the set culminates in the drums being played in the middle of a mosh pit, guitar in another, bass on top of the speaker stack, oh yes vocals outside on top of the tent. But with all this going their performance was still very tight.

The Big Gin stage played host to the Palma Violets, their post punk Libertines’ esq set took time to get going but by the time they got to Best of Friends they were on top form. Rumour was rife that Jarvis Cocker turned up to see them and we can confirm he was there.

A new addition to the festival last year was the Saloon bar in which you could literally spend the whole day without ever leaving and some do!. We caught the set from Mr Moon and Grace from Canada who seemed to lose themselves in their music. A group of guys in party hats danced along entranced and shared some banter and a beer with them. We left after a lovely rendition of Love And Affection

The finale of the weekend was Frank Turner dubbed ‘the hardest working musician’ in the country and it’s easy to see why, this was his third festival of the weekend but it did not show. His set was full of banter, and some of the best folk rock you are likely to hear, kicking off with Photosynthesis, culminating with I Still Believe and Four Simple Words, with a fireworks display which was a fitting way to end a great weekend.

Following the festival, Festival Director Ralph Broadbent said:

After 3 years of knee deep mud I was pretty delighted that the rain, for the most part, stayed away! I really love Y Not, it’s a proper music festival. There’s great music, great people, and it’s affordable. We smashed it this year – people had an awesome time. I couldn’t ask for more!

So if you haven’t managed to get amongst it down at Pikehall this year then book that date in your diary for next year because Y Not Festival really is a festival for all.

Review: Catherine Ryan, Photographer: Chris Poots 

If you want to party with the turtle next year and help them celebrate their tenth anniversary be quick, tickets are now on sale and it’s going to be one hell of a party.