How moon is now? Lunar Festival’s on the way!

Now that the birds and the bees are finally getting it on it's time to think about festival season once more and one of the absolute gems, Lunar Festival, is just a few short weeks away. Taking place on the beautiful Umberslade Estate (Tanworth in Arden) you could be in the middle of nowhere rather than a mere spit away from Birmingham/Kings Heath/Solihull (delete as applicable depending on how posh you are), which makes getting there and (more importantly after three days of cider, booty shaking and sleeping in a tent the size of a postage stamp in my case) getting back home a bit of a doddle. This year’s line up is another wonderfully eclectic mix too including Tinariwen, The Bootleg Beatles (putting on a ‘66-‘70 set!) and Public Service Broadcasting alongside slightly more left field but equally spiffing choices as...deep breath...The Fall (frankly worth the admission price on their own), the cancer kicking Wilko Johnson, Julian Cope, Sun Ra Arkestra, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Robyn Hitchcock (a hugely underrated artist in my humble opinion) and Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin (quite what he's 'goblin' we'll have to wait and see). Up ‘n’ coming talent’s well represented too by Zun Zun Egui, Syd Arthur, Jane Weaver, Midnight Bonfires and...er...Mark Radcliffe, bless ‘im. There’s decent grub and booze, plenty of loos (kept remarkably clean last year...good work there toilet fairies) and a nicely chilled out family friendly atmosphere. Plus there are club nights, workshops, crafts, woodworking, Northern Soul Dance Classes (bring your own talc) and Nick Drake’s actual record player (!) which last year was set up in the woods for around 40 of us to listen to Five Leaves Left on. Despite the roaring log fires around us even our goosebumps had goosebumps, a truly memorable festival moment from a weekend that was jam packed full of ‘em. Here’s a link to last year’s review just in case you’re still not totally convinced. 

Tickets, a mere £89 for the whole ruddy weekend INCLUDING camping, right here!

And here's a trio of tracks from just three of the acts playing over the weekend to get you in the mood.