Now in its fourth year, Doune the Rabbit
Hole is bucking a trend that has seen small, boutique festivals bite the dust
in the last few years. Moving to a new location and taking place on the
Cardross Estate in Stirlingshire, the festival was also hoping to move past the
troubles of years past and having heard some scare stories of last year’s
festival, I was prepared for the worst when I left on Thursday afternoon.
Thankfully though, things were running much more smoothly this year and the
festival went off with very few hitches.
Opening up the festival on the first
evening to the early arrivals were Honey
and the Herbs with their lounge psych instrumentals on the Jabber Wocky
stage. Their tunes are the right mix between soft and funky to warm the crowds
up for who are to follow. The festival, being on a small site, worked with a
staggered schedule between their two main stages – Jabber Wocky and Baino –
meaning there was less noise over noise (though there were still issues with
the Inspire stage having loud music almost drowning out quieter bands on Jabber
Wocky). The Fast Camels opened up
the Baino stage for the weekend with their power-pop show and gain new fans
aplenty with their stage banter and funky tunes. But they were not to be the
funkiest band to play the evening as Orkestra
Del Sol closed the Jabber Wocky stage on the first night with a powerhouse
show, leading the crowd in a mass polka and leaving everyone with smiles on
their faces as they headed back to the campsite, or the bar.
The festival site opens fully on Friday
morning allowing punters to sample more stages, stalls and installations. There
were ample activities to keep the kids busy at the Kids Area, and all your
possible alcoholic needs were served by the main bar, Cairn O’Mohr wines bar
and the Jeremiah Weed truck. And the lovely people at Jeremiah Weed also
brought with them a table tennis set and the Liverpudlian band, Man Get Out. The latter band weren’t to
be found on any schedules or listings but prove to be a great find.
The first day of the festival has many
highlights and interesting stories, from bands playing in honour of deceased
past members (Lady Bird Killers on
Inspire stage) and the loud and proud catchy hooks that only We Are The Physics could provide. I was
a bit disappointed to not find Esperi on
the Inspire stage at the scheduled time, with no notice of any changes but this
proved to be the only real scheduling disruption I found over the weekend. Rick Redbeard plays melancholy folk to
bring us all down (his words) on the Baino mid-afternoon, and his songs prove
to be even more powerful live. He is an early contender for highlight of the
festival, quickly followed (in the standings and on the schedule) by Meursault on the Jabber Wocky. The
Baino stage is packed out for PAWS’
rock show on Friday evening and their energetic show is exactly what we need to
send us further on into the night. Miaoux
Miaoux are the days main stage headliner and their synthy pop gets the
crowd dancing the entire hour and even longer as the festival continues into
the night. The Baino stage runs right into the early hours and before calling
it a night for day one, I was able to see the stunning Trembling Bells put on a powerful show perfectly suited for this
time of the evening.
The second full day of the festival begins
with an early afternoon dance party in the Baino provided by Bar Room Crawl’s apocalyptic funk. It
was impossible not to be caught up in it and they certainly started the day off
right. The Baino also played home to Beerjacket’s
heartfelt songs and strong vocal, as well as Stealing Sheep’s soft-pop that packs the tent and spills out into
the main arena. It is one of the biggest crowds of the entire weekend. But the
highlight of the Baino’s schedule was the return of The John Knox Sex Club, who prove to be as tight a live band as
they were before their hiatus and frankly if you weren’t excited about their
return at this festival then you missed out. Getting a hug from lead singer
Sean Cumming during their final number is one of my favourite things that
happened over the whole weekend. Meanwhile over at the Jabber Wocky, Washington Irving brought their strong
live show and folky vibes for the mid afternoon and noted that this was a
special show for them as it’s their last live show for the next three months. Panda Su’s soft pop gathers a crowd of
young to old on a sunny Saturday afternoon. The Monochrome Set bring their post-punk show for the early evening
and the revelers are more than ready to party hard by this time. There was a
three-way clash at 10pm on this day with Nevada
Base’s stripped back set at the Fruit Stand stage, The John Langan Band on the Inspire a night after having played the
Jabber Wocky but with a crowd of as many or more people to enjoy their folk for
all and Clinic’s noise rock to close
out the Jabber Wocky for the day. They are the first band to properly pull a
crowd close to the main stage and they put on a complete performance that
everyone will remember well beyond the weekend itself. Doune being a small
festival, I was able to catch parts of all three sets in this clash and see all
the bands I wanted. However my Saturday highlight had to be when I was walking
the site looking for a band to fill a free hour and came across an impromptu
drum jam at the big tree in back area of the site. Musicians on the site as
well as revelers made up the twenty or so strong drum band, seeing everyone
from kids to seasoned musicians playing together on site is definitely my
favourite thing I witnessed all weekend and certainly something you would not
see at a bigger festival. Small festivals has a special atmosphere all of their
own.
I begin my Sunday at the Inspire stage
watching young Charlotte Brimmer who
performed original songs with her beautiful vocals. She proves to be a
brilliant raw talent and will hopefully go onto bigger and better things in a
few years time. The Inspire stage also played host to The Rag’n’Bone Man’s one-man guitar and drum show, which shows a
level of talent and showmanship I was unaware it was possible for one person to
wield. It was an incredible show and I must thank Mark from The Girobabies for the recommendation
to catch him. Jo Mango brings her
heartfelt alt-folk to the Jabber Wocky on the last afternoon, playing tunes for
the crowd enjoying a sunbathe and a sleep with soft vocals and easy listening
tunes as the perfect backing. Following on from Jo was Randolph’s Leap with their indie-pop show fitting in perfectly with
the summer’s day and going down a treat with the afternoon revelers. Hidden Masters’ good old rock’n’roll
show gathers a large appreciative crowd in the early evening before Samba Sien & Diwan provide funky
African beats that get the crowd dancing in ways that only such delightful and
soothing tunes could. For a second headliner band on the final day of the
festival, they are a wild card choice but prove to right in with the festival
atmosphere and are exactly what we need on the final night. The Jabber Wocky’s
final band for the weekend is the excellent Horn Dog Brass Band. It was an absolute joy to see a brass band
with such incredible showmanship and originality headline a Scottish festival,
and I wish this happened more often. They certainly deserve to be playing to
bigger crowds. Sunday was the day where I spent a lot of time at the Fruit
Stand stage at the back of the arena, with its intimate offering some
highlights on this day alone. Banana
Sessions, another recommendation from Mark of The Girobabies, get the early
evening slot and they are perfect summer festival music from talented musicians
that gather a crowd in and around the Fruit Stand. Siobhan Wilson’s set could have easily been hampered by a power cut
at the stage but instead turns into a totally memorable experience as the
talented singer resorts to going fully acoustic for two songs whilst the
equipment is fixed, and these two songs have such power and beauty that I was
actually disappointed that the power returned for the end of the set. As sun
went down on Sunday evening I caught Rachel
Sermanni for the first time, her strong vocals and funny stories were
perfectly fit for this festival and she gains many new friends during this set.
My festival came to an end with the musical and comic stylings of Shambles Miller, choosing to watch him
over what he perfectly describes as Super Mario on acid over the side of the
arena. He gathers a crowd as his set goes on and his original songs and banter go
down a treat, and for a guy who’d been at the festival himself since Friday and
suffered a bug bite, he played a very strong set. A superb end to my first
festival.
Also available over the weekend was the
Low End dance tent, though I never found the time to get there myself.
Doune the Rabbit Hole’s fourth year may
have been their most successful yet, certainly in terms of the running of the
festival. With so many volunteers and musicians on site for the full weekend it
did become hard to tell where the paying punters were but I do hope there was
enough to make doing this festival again a viable option. The site they chose
this year was also much better suited to a festival experience than previous
ones and the locals in the area were apparently all happy to have everyone in
town so let’s hope that allows the festival to stay put for the long run. As
for the rest of the site, there could have been a few more food options (though
I appreciate as a boutique festival they want to offer a different experience,
and therefore different food options) and some more lighting over the arena and
site itself to make it safer for people moving around at night. There were also
more wasps than I’ve seen in my life over these few days but that’s more out of
the festival runners’ control than everything else. Overall, this was
definitely a successful festival and Doune seem to be on the right track to
providing a fully functional, one of a kind festival.
Fresh off a SAY Award winning second album, RM Hubbert returns with his third release which sees him once again return to his solo guitar roots. Running at thirty six minutes for ten tracks, it is short and sweet but a gentle reminder how extremely talented Hubby is.
