As I drove west into the pouring rain, I wondered, “why would you hold a festival in Wales”. “The weather makes it untenable”, I thought, but as I arrived into the valley the downpour cleared what I saw amazed me.
Landed Festival is set in what could be the most beautiful spot in Wales. Situated between two great green forested hills alongside a beautiful pebble bottomed stream, the site itself serves to soothe your soul and relax you just through your presence in it.
It isn’t even all that difficult to find, literally being beside the A470 while nearby Llandrindod Wells has a Tesco Extra if you need to acquire extra supplies.
I worried driving in that my exit would be tractor assisted, but thankfully, this wasn’t the case- ten years of putting on festivals in Wales has clearly ironed out the kinks.
The other logistical elements of a good festival were all in place too with plenty of toilets (except on Monday morning) and varied and relatively affordable food vendors, alongside ample camping space for both vans and tents.
The security and stewarding team were hugely polite and friendly, with interactions with security being amongst the best I’ve ever had at a festival.
One customer described them as: “doing a fantastic job at taking care of us without needing to exhibit power.”
Even more impressively, the bar was reasonably priced and stocked with a very impressive selection of craft cider and beer, with a pint of anything costing you only £4. They even had decently priced tinnies if that was what you’d fancy.
The music was split between four stages. One stage, The Other Psyde, played entirely psytrance DJs, dugga-dugga-ing throughout the day and late into the night, while another, Doof Doof Stage, held techno and drum and bass, doofdoof-ing in return.
These stages were placed far enough apart that they didn’t interfere with each other and often held pretty lit crowds, especially at night. The Doof-Doof stage was even covered, giving an opportunity to avoid inclement weather.
Despite the lively crowds at the dance stages, the main stage was really where it was at. Delivering a steady stream of mostly bands late into the night whoever was doing the booking struck multiple veins of gold.
On Friday, Cartoon Violence showed us what to expect from the weekend playing a lively ska set, which was much heavier than one would expect from their recorded work. Opaque put on an enjoyably morbid and timeless feeling gypsy-swing show, and rounding out the night was the enchantingly psychedelic Astralasia, playing their unique mix of Astral Dub and Euphoric Trance.
Saturday’s highlights began with the 4 piece Welsh natives Packet Racket playing high energy Ska Punk. They were followed by Beat Jugglers. Now, I feel like Beat Jugglers took it as a challenge to make the most fusion fusion music, anyone has ever heard, with Jazz and classical elements paired with tech-trance and even some jungle, all backed up by live instruments. Carrying on the dance music and live instruments jam were Zion Train, a long venerated live dub act that has been gracing our stages since 1992. Following this, we were treated to the ultra high energy acoustic set of 3 daft monkeys, who have been described in the past as the “Highlight of Glastonbury”.
However, on this day Landed really saved the best till last. Coming on slightly delayed at 3am, as a reward for all the dedicated party people, were the amazing Spacehopper. Spacehopper are a veteran festival band that combine live instruments with a DJ to create a unique live sound. The trance-like pulsing music kept the crowd moving late into the night, with transcendence (seen above at Maui Waui 2019) being a particular smash hit.
Sunday was opened by Bunkerpop, a white jumpsuit and clerks visor clad psychedelic desert rock band well worth checking out. Following them were Deadly Lightshade, bringing a glorious Punkabiliy vibe to the main stage.
Later that evening the Chalk Outlines brought us back to ska, with their brass ensemble making the most danceable sounds of the weekend. Landed closed the main stage with a final blast of damn good psytrance from Oood and Lorraine Psilocybe, reminding us that this was a proper hippie festival!
It is worth warning that this is a family friendly hippie festival, so if children freak you out, I’d suggest avoiding it, at least prior to 9pm. However, if you’ve never attended a family friendly festival and are concerned, I would strongly recommend it. Having children about brings out the best in many party-goers without killing the vibe or the mess.
If you have kids, there’s quite a lot for them to do, including a duck race and aerial workshops, but it isn’t constant and they will have to find some of their own entertainment. Saying this, the festival is in a wonderful countryside spot with many responsible adults keeping an eye out so they can essentially roam free.
Landed is an extremely well put together festival, with amazingly curated music, set in a jaw-dropping locale. If you like Ska or Psytrance it’s probably unmissable. Even if you don’t, the good vibes and variety of music means that there is something for almost everyone, even if it is just the view.
To keep up to date with Landed Festival and find out when tickets for 2022 go on sale, make sure you’re following their official pages:
– Facebook @landedfestival
– Instagram @landedfestival
– Twitter @LandedFestival1
– Official Website LandedFestival.co.uk