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12 Things That Blew Our Minds At Standon Calling 2014

• 11th Aug 2014

Standon Calling once started off as a birthday party in a back garden and has evolved to become one of the best small festivals in the UK. This year was no exception, having grown even more it was still true to its roots and kept the party going all weekend, quickly working its way up to our favourite festivals list. Here’s a few highlights of things that our reporter Jess Kempner actually saw in a field in Hertfordshire.

1. Public enemy losing their mind. Yes their set was good, and it was a pleasure to watch them perform, but it was a little sad watching the rest of public enemy leave Flava Flav to his rants. It shows that the industry, or things associated with it, can lead to delusions; like his song for Michael Jackson, who was his friend, that he loved…which is available to watch on Youtube and buy on iTunes, in case you missed the plugs.

2. A Dog show. Yes, like Crufts but better. Sunday afternoon brought about the dog show, and there were some real beauts around. A dog friendly weekend, and surprisingly no sign of dog poo anywhere all weekend – dreamy!

3. Mexican wrestling. Yes, in the bandstand, with characters that we’d seen across the weekend. It fit in with the theme but mainly provided maximum entertainment, not just at the time when there was no music on the main stage or Big Top, but also then throughout the day watching young children and not so young stag dos attempting some of the moves!

4. Charli XCX showcasing local talent. Local girl Charli XCX bought a huge crowd to the Big Top, in fact, it felt like she was more like the Pied Piper of Hamlin – all the children from all around congregated in the tent. She did good, they seemed happy and she kept pushing for kids to follow their dreams and look at what they could become. Sporting an all-girl band she kept the feminist in me happy even if I was slightly bored with the material!

5. Paddington Bear and a Taco invited on stage. Amber Run opened the main stage on Saturday, and their music alone was beautiful. Their on stage patter left much to be desired, but they were aided in their display by men fully embracing the theme of ‘Lost in Latin America’ invited on stage. A man in a taco costume and Paddington Bear came on to dance to ‘Hurricane’ and took the prize for looking like fools, but they weren’t the only ones. Saturday afternoon meant the festival-wide fancy dress competition and the winners were crowned in front of everyone.

6. Frank Turner with the longest set imaginable. We at Glasswerk HQ are big Frank Turner fans and love pretty much everything he manages to touch. His set on Friday night was outstanding (as was his cameo during Beans of Toast’s set), but I’m sure that he said that it was his last song 5 times before he actually played his last! Great if you were loving every second, not so great if you wanted to go off partying and exploring but didn’t want to miss him doing anything spectacular.

7. Naives Glastonbury-worthy production. A band, second on the Big Top on the Friday afternoon, who had a sound that MGMT would be happy with. The production, visuals and costumes for the band were immense, something that they could have pulled off on the Pyramid stage in June, so all we can say is: watch this space for more Naives (let’s hope they work on the stage banter and chat between songs though).

8. A man making out with a rope to Grandmaster Flash. Yeah, that happened. Clearly enjoying himself, and hardly surprising when Grandmaster Flash mixed every track well, and played everything you’d want to hear! A real shame that he couldn’t play Saturday night, as the atmosphere was somewhat more lacklustre last thing on Sunday.

9. 5am in the Cowshed. It happened. We danced the night away, after getting bored of the mobile DJ duo ‘dig-it’ and getting bored of the D’n’B in the pop up shack, we found a tent in the seemingly middle of nowhere that played every 60s-80s pop hit you could want to hear, we ended up in the cowshed. We would have gone down earlier but the power had cut out, leaving the venue unable to operate – a problem that flitted across the site all weekend. But back in action and with corners to investigate and different themed rooms, the DJs bashed out the bangers until the sun came up. Never has there been a more painful or slow walk back to the tent.

10. So much dad dancing to DJ Yoda. So many dads that have left their kids and most probably wives at home. DJ Yoda smashed Saturday night with hit after hit and animated visuals that were stunning. 80s movies fan? This set was for you with the visuals from everything those dads not quite pulling off the moves could remember.

11. So many people in the swimming pool. Many people’s worst fears, but the kids loved it, the parents enjoyed the bars around, and there were many a drunk accident, but all was well with health and safety! It’s lovely to have a festival with an actual clean swimming pool too, what a perk in the beautiful sunshine.

12. Rockaoke from the quintessentially English Sipsmith Gin area. Rockaoke. The best invention. Not invented here, but brilliantly pulled off. Sunday afternoon, relaxing in the sun by the pool in the Sipsmith Gin area, with croquet, deck chairs and an epic gin and tonic was topped off with this fantastic aural sensation. The ‘inn’ by the pool housed a house band, where festival-goers were invited to come up and sing karaoke songs with a live band – hence the rock prefix. It’s ok, most of them sounded semi-professional, but the crowd was soon to tell you if they didn’t agree, if there was a boring song or too out of tune to deal with then they were quickly jeered off-stage. A thoroughly entertaining experience!

Standon Calling 2015 takes place 31st July – 2nd August 2015 and tickets can be found on their website.