I really don’t know where to start when it comes to reviewing a festival as astonishing as the Beat-Herder..!
In this particular review I am going to write about my own personal experience throughout the festival and that of others that I was sharing the experience with – I have also gathered evidence from individuals I knew that I stopped to interview and ask about their experiences throughout the weekend. On this particular occasion, I really cannot express the amount of gratitude I have to have been a part of the weekend; there really isn’t one negative thing I can say about Beat-Herder 2014.
I and my fellow campers arrived around 4pm on Friday afternoon and I was acknowledged by a very pleasant selection of staff at the press office, which was used as an old damaged 60s campervan that had been turned into a press office, issuing various press and staff tickets over the course of the weekend. I found out that we were staying close to lots of friends, which made it a much more relaxed affair to find and see everyone when it was dark during the night time. This can tend to be a struggle at larger festivals.
The location of the festival is absolutely spectacular! You could see for a great distance. It was set in a very beautiful rural location on the outskirts of Clitheroe in an area called Gisburn. From where we were situated in the three of hearts camping area, the outlook of the hills and the landscape positioned at the back made it very picturesque when the sunny weather was in appearance during Friday and Sunday. Although there was a small amount of thunderstorms on Saturday, this didn’t prevent the amount of enjoyment that was to be had.
What I really found unique about the whole camp site was that it was small and was very close to the central festival area where all of the attractions & stages were.
Another key factor is that it’s within easy reach of most major North West towns and cities, such as Manchester, Liverpool and Preston. From these places you can connect via public transportation such as first Trans Pennine trains direct to Clitheroe.
So looking more into the festival at the acts and DJ’s that were on throughout the weekend and some of my most favourite performances… Grum was definitely one of my favourite DJs of the weekend. His style involved the more progressive house twist on things. Hybrid was great for a mixture of house and breakbeat, and they played in the fortress area of the festival, which was undoubtedly one of my favourite areas; this is where I saw the most talented DJs anyway.
Lisa Lashes was brilliant for those that prefer the harder and darker spin on things with psy trance. In my opinion this really worked well in the fortress (pictured), which was an open air castle with borders and platforms around the main dancefloor zone. The lighting in the evening was absolutely incredible – it really did amaze me the amount of effort that went into the production at the Beatherder.
When it was getting later on into the evening on Friday, Slipmatt played a various selection of old skool tracks, which really did get things started.
I’d also like to mention that I really enjoyed Justin Robertson on the Saturday and my friends that I was with at the time also really enjoyed his set. In all honestly I was fairly disappointed with James Lavelle on the Sunday night. He was one of my most anticipated DJs to see throughout the whole of the weekend, but I just found the tracks to be too short and far too many effects for me personally. 2manyDJs were also outstanding on the Friday night at the main stage. I have never seen them before, but the variety of different styles during their set was remarkable.
So, moving on from the DJs that were on at the festival, the diverse array of backdrops was phenomenal; there were so many different areas within the festival, including: Toil Trees, The Fortress, The Main stage, The Ring. My favourite two areas of the festival definitely had to be the Fortress and Toil trees.
Toil tress was excellent but more so at night. The lighting that was used looked awesome when it reflected off the trees. It consisted of a main stage in-between the trees, a village area which was, well, how can I put this?!… WACKY! Deep into the village there was a church with DJ’s playing throughout the weekend, a barber’s shop, a post office – it really was amusing when I first discovered this particular area on the Friday evening. My first memory of Toil Trees was dancing to Michael Jackson on a broken car.
The bands that were performing at the festival consisted of the likes of: Boney M, ABC, The Happy Mondays and many more… The music finished at around 4am every each morning and started again in the early afternoon, but if you were more of a hardcore festival-goer you would probably continue the party when you got back to the campsite.
I’d also like to add that the festival had a very relaxed feel, partly because it had a relatively small capacity of people, yet the crowd consisted of all ages, including very laid-back families with children. I thought it was a great that children were allowed to come along too as this meant that families wouldn’t have to miss out and people of all ages got to share the same fantastic experience.
It really was one of the most enjoyable weekends I have ever attended so if you can get the chance definitely take a visit to this festival as you won’t regret it!
