With the UK festival circuit resembling a homogenised circus where the same acts follow suit every weekend trudging the same well-worn path, it's good to know there's at least one event totally separate from all the rest. Step forward Festival No. 6, named so due to it being situated in the Welsh village of Portmeirion, home to cult 1960s television drama 'The Prisoner'. Designed and built by Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 (he actually has a stage in the main arena named after him) and largely inspired by ornate, picturesque Italian architecture, Portmeirion is centred around its grand piazza and comfortably wins the award for most unique setting not only in the UK, but anywhere Contactmusic has previously dared to venture. Its elegant woodland overlooking the delectable White Sands Bay, the village itself provides ample respite from the usual surroundings where bands play in strategically sited tents situated at various corners of a muddy field. Add delights such as the guided village tour; participants hold various pieces of a bus together like a jigsaw puzzle while strolling merrily through its paths and roadways; and numerous impromptu performances from jazz-themed marching bands to Welsh choirs, and it's plain to see this is anything but your stereotypical music festival. (DG)
Nevertheless, this year's line-up does stand out as one of the UK's most enticing, and Temples set on the quaint Estuary stage which overlooks the beach serves as a timely reminder why they're one of 2013's most hotly tipped bands. Money also overcame technical problems to deliver an intense, if occasionally traumatic, show over on the iStage in the main arena. 'The Shadow Of Heaven' is one of this year's finest debuts and songs like 'Hold Me Forever' and 'Letter To Yesterday' leave all and sundry with goose pimples regardless of the miserable weather outside. It's left to Aussie combo Jagwar Ma though to steal the headlines on the first day. Playing to a jam-packed tent, their acid drenched beats and monolithic rhythms proved taut and insatiable to a rabid audience that devoured every last note. (DG)
There was originally a plan to see bands on the Friday night. Honest, there was. But in the end, travelling complications mean that we don't arrive on site until after Neon Neon's 6pm start, so we end up wandering through the beautiful surroundings of Portmeirion - taking in the otherworldly buildings and the seemingly enchanted colourful walls. But it's deep in the woods that we find ourselves - over at the Audio Farm DJ booth - buried away in the branches so that all we hear is an enticing beat through the trees, leading us closer like some musical Pied Piper. We spend some time there listening to an eclectic mix of deep house, disco, funk and techno until we return to the main arena and spend the evening dancing away to Content DJs and Frankie Knuckles until the early hours. The first day at a festival where I haven't seen any bands and I'm already intoxicated with Festival No. 6 - a testament to how much there is going on around the site. (DE)
Continue reading: Festival No.6 - Portmeirion, North Wales 13-15 September 2013 Live Review
