Out to Graze , 11-13 June 2010
Set in the stunning Oxfordshire countryside 'Out to Graze' organisers most definitely have done themselves proud in 2010.
With the festival expanding to a three day event and a change of location from Shabbington in 2009 to Fir Tree Country Park in Warmington, near Banbury, the festival looked bigger and better. The views upon arrival were stunning. We had a short walk from the car park down to the camping area, but with all our camping equipment it seemed a lot longer (note to self, take less stuff). The caravans and campervans were situated mostly at the top of the hill, next to the car park, and camping at the bottom of the hill in the valley, as you walked down you had a panoramic view of the whole festival site and up on the hill a huge ‘Out to Graze’ Hollywood sign which looked amazing and a great focal point. The music arena was situated next to a beautiful lake and you were able to camp around the surrounding areas. Even the cows came out to graze during the day.
You were given a wristband in exchange for your ticket which enabled you to enter the arena and an occasional bag search to make sure you are not taking any alcohol into the arena which is fair enough being such a small festival, every penny counts but the security were nice and friendly about it all.
The Bedouin Cafe had returned, with its lush cushions scattered around and cool deco making it the perfect place to chill if you needed some time out and a bar for all refreshments. There were 4 music stages with sounds ranging from from Dub Step to Hard House and Hip Hop to Reggae, something for everyone with over 40 Dj's playing the duration of the festival. The actual arena was open from midday with systems closing down at 4am and the festival ending 8pm on Sunday.
On the Friday Night London based Z shed (Snatch Productions) had an eye catching green themed stage with an amazingly loud sound system, Dj's were banging out a mixture of upbeat underground grime, garage and wonky techno. The crowd atmosphere was amazing all night.
Dub politics stage was equally busy with some banging dirty house, breaks and hard trance from Dirty Audio's (Dj Melodize, James Condon and Ryan ASBO) Again a great atmosphere and had to be the highlight of my weekend.
On the Saturday day you had the chance to join in with the 'Out to Graze' Olympics which included a good old tug of war or you could play as a team on the huge inflatable human football table with a rather cool inflatable sound system next to it. As it was England’s first game versus USA in the world cup, they showed the game on a large screen in one of the dance tents which attracted many football lovers and despite the score everyone one was still making a great weekend. As the sun went down the arena filled with happy festival goers making a great atmosphere to party Saturday night away.
On the Simple/slide stage I managed to catch a collective with a 12 piece live dnb band. Later on I managed to miss half of Nextmens set which was one of the headline acts! What I did hear of them was great though and had a great vibe going off with the dnb and then slowly grinding down to reggae classics.
Zshed stage had jungle / dnb all night. A great busy crowd all evening.
Microclimate same as night before.
Dub politics stage with dubstep all evening. Not as loud as the night before but some great tunes being played by Document One and other Dub politics residents.
Only bad point to the weekend was the lack of organisation on dj times. No programmes or any info on times of acts were given out so no body seemed to know what was going on where or what time! Hopefully they will remedy this for next year.
The toilet situation had also improved on last year with plenty of toilets and lots of loo roll but they needed to be changed more often – I had to get that in, who doesn’t moan about the loo’s.
Well what more can I say with the closure of Glade I think Out to Graze is a fine replacement, the festival is getting bigger and better every year and hopefully they will stick with the new location and be back again next year, £50 per ticket, you get more than your money’s worth. The weather stayed great again, not a wellie in sight. ‘Out to Graze’ was the place to be, I think we can expect a lot more from the team next year and hopefully years to come.
The summer has officially started.
Confirmed acts included The Nextmen, Satta, Rebel Architects, 8 fold, Onlyjoe, Fridge and Bungle, Makating, Confidential Collective, Rebel control, Jack opus, Saine, Andy Burby, Em Williams, Rich Smith, James Weston, Tom Baker, James Condon, Ryan ASBO, Nev Scott (Audio Vandals), Andy Howarth, Dave Johnys, Si Yeats, Kostas G, The Artist formerly known as Kevlar, Pirate Soundsystem, Mustard, Gubb, Crappa-T, Black Massa, Absnif, Sketchy Nurse b2b Chewy, Flymo, Jamatix, Gervais, Romper, Vinyl Rich Tea, Squincey, Filed under K, DJ KO, Fubar, Raggasaurus Soundsystem, Laxx, DJ-ME, Document One, Grifta, Kidz with Gunz, Darkman, Dubba Jonny, Howie B, Asad Rizvi, Steve Proctor, White Nause, Alison Marks, JB, Maya Jane Coles, Simon Atkinson, Darren and Spencer, Alex Arnout, and DJ Bongo.
