Green Man proved to be, for the second year running, my music event of the year. Situated in gorgeous countryside at the foot of the Brecon Beacons, even the dismal Welsh weather and almost doubling the crowd capacity couldn’t spoil the idyllic musical enclave.
With the majority of the line-up erring on the side of the exploratory, the laid-back and, shall we say, the earthily authentic, this year some added beef came in the form of throbbing rock god Robert Plant and cranky, angular Steve Malkmus. Of course, ample soothing vibes were in available thanks to a sweeping set from elvish harp-plucker Joanna Newsom, folkey-dokey harmonisers Tunng (pronounced Toong, apparently) and beardy French pop geniuses Herman Dune.
The food is good and plentiful, and includes vegetarian Indian at in a cushion strewn tent overlooking the stage, the unfeasibly long queues for Pieminister’s pie, mash and peas combo, and a fresh mackerel barbecue. Woo! There’s also both a proper bar and a couple of tents just selling tinnies of Scrumpy quite cheap.
Add to that a uniquely friendly atmosphere, the ubiquitous bubble blowers, an open-mic milk float, a nightly campfire singalong and it’s the best fun you can have in a field in Wales without a sheep.
And then Robert Plant puts his foot up on the monitor and throw a classic Led Zep shape……awesome.