Friday 18/08/06 Secret Garden Party @ Huntington, Cambridge

The lack of Glastonbury this year has drawn those needing a slice of muddy hedonism to the lesser-known British festivals dotted around the countryside. Much like its contemporaries such as Glade (three days of beat-driven madness), the Secret Garden Party has been born out of a small chunk of the most famous of all festies. Anyone who has witnessed the all-out weirdness of the Lost Vagueness field at 4am, will have an idea of what to expect from the Garden Party, as flamboyant characters and ridiculous ideas collide in a field to celebrate that great English attribute, eccentricity. The fact that this festival captures that particular atmosphere makes the whole experience that bit more bizarre.

Walking over the bridge from the campsite into the fray, you are flanked on the right by a picturesque lake, only to walk on and find a jetty full of ravers dancing in front of a pagoda. A hotel reception nestles in the trees with bell-boys selling the ever popular laughing gas to the already muddy hordes, and making requests for potential candidates to enter the running for the ‘End of Days President’ to lead us all into oblivion.

This is just a snapshot of a dizzying array of sights and sounds, from the Grannies selling legal highs to the wrecked cars converted into seats outside the ‘**** Yeah!’ bar. By the time everyone has settled into Friday, it becomes apparent that the music takes a back-seat to the revelry. The main stage lies at the farthest end of the site, somewhat neglected by the organisers in lieu of the antics happening elsewhere, but still a whole host a quality groups battle with the sketchy sound, from the wild skanking of Babyhead to the feel-good reggae of ska-legend Prince Buster.

Saturday is when the festivities really start to take hold as the Lost and Found Olympics get into gear, with impromptu badminton games springing up before en-masse skip-rope and tug-of-wars. This rag-tag bunch of festival regulars go to town on adding their two-penneth to the SGP, with the brilliant Excuses Booth where you can buy a reason not to be in work on Monday, from doctors’ notes to x-rays of dogs with homework inside their stomachs.