Green Man fest 2015 pics/review Pt. 1: Hot Chip, Dan Deacon, Viet Cong, Temples, Gwenno, Hookworms & more
photos and words by Rachel Juarez-Carr & Christopher Jesse Juarez
Hot Chip / Gwenno / Sun Ra Arkestra @ Green Man Fest 2015
The Green Man Festival has been taking place in Wales’ beautiful Brecon Beacons for the past few years, drawing an increasingly impressive line-up of worldwide and Welsh musicians to the sprawling Glanusk Estate. The 2015 edition happened August 20 – 23 and added enough extras (Hot tubs! A cinema! A beer festival! A science garden!) that you didn’t really even need to see any bands at all. But that would be silly, because the bands are great. Read on for some of the best bits from the first two of the four days.
First three-generational dance parties: Dan Deacon. Grandmas love Dan Deacon. (No word on what the wild-dancing toddlers made of Mr Deacon describing playing on the Thursday night as like being invited to the pre-party the day before Simba’s Baptism in the Lion King.)
Best outfit: Multi-lingual singer, DJ, dancer, radio presenter and all-round over-acheiver Gwenno‘s glittery elegance on Thursday night complemented her shimmery soundscapes.
Best thing overheard from a security bloke’s walkie-talkie: “Er, what’s our policy on bongs? Over.”
Shortest journey: Seren the Heron, teenage provider of acoustic loveliness who opened the Green Man Rising stage, who’s from just down the road in Crickhowell (you could walk there from the festival). The stage also hosted finalists from the festival’s unsigned band competition, with winners Hunck opening the main Mountain Stage.
Hardest rocking with the least amount of notes: Hookworms:
Hookworms
Most life-changing festival food: Bloody Mary crumpets, blowtorched. Thank you, Strumpets with Crumpets.
Best sounding session: Glasgow’s C Duncan. A handful of bands ventured behind the crumpet truck each day to record exclusive Green Man sessions, and C Duncan’s was so good people kept nipping in from the press tent to see who it was.
Most attractive to insects: Englishman Bill Ryder-Jones, who had to halt Wild Swans mid wasp-attack, and own Natalie Prass, whose bee-battling struggle was rewarded with a break in the clouds, a burst of sunlight and huge cheers. (Prass also had the best unofficial introduction from a lady in the front row, who explained to a tiny child that “she’s a beautiful girl with beautiful brown hair with a beautiful voice and a beautiful guitar.”)
Best Green Man-related tweet: Matthew E White, the day before he played — “I passed @deepthroatchoir a note that said “will you sing with me tomorrow at @GreenManFest, check YES, NO, MAYBE” #fingerscrossed”
Coolest drummer: Sarah Jones, for Hot Chip (who played all the hits and made everyone very happy) and – directly before that – Atomic Bomb! The Music of William Onyeabor, a tour-de-force supergroup playing all the hits from an alternate reality in which Nigerian funk recluse Onyeabor is as well-known as Hot Chip.
Best security staffer: The nice man assigned to the rum bar (aka ad hoc press tent on the other side of the site where all the drinks are doubles) every single day. He came back to hang out when he was off duty and everything.
Pictures and review of Days 3 & 4 coming soon. Meanwhile, check out lots more pics from Days 1 & 2 of the 2015 Green Man Festival, below…
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Gwenno
Dan Deacon
Leftfield
Hunck
Seren the Heron
Zefer Wolves
Briana Marela
Sweet Baboo
C Duncan
Tom Robinson
Bill Ryder Jones
Natalie Prass
Viet Cong
Villagers
Calexico
Sun Ra Arkestra
Atomic Bomb! The Music of William Onyeabor
Emmy the Great
Temples
Hot Chip