Alchemy was the 3rd completely new festival for us this summer. Only in its second year of existence, it really is a proper old school grass roots hippy festival and if it weren’t for the dance tent and copious lasers it would have been very easy to have believed that we had somehow been transported back in time by 30 or 40 years. The main “Philosopher’s Stone” stage appeared to be held together with scraps of rope, which was refreshing in these days of excessive H&S regulations. In fact when we arrived we were rather concerned that the festival had more of a village fete feeling to it but once things got going it turned out to be an absolute little belter.

The sound on the main stage was actually pretty patchy but there was plenty more in the way of live entertainment on the “Liberty Stage” which could be found in the beer tent and the Kaplick Stage which hosted predominantly acoustic acts and was based next to an old double decker bus. The “Mushroom Stage” dance tent had a fantastic sound system and also lasers and lighting that would easily have graced a bigger event. There was further late night trance and techno to be found in the Psychedelic Breakfast Tent.

There were plenty of activities to keep the kids entertained, a good smattering of clothing and jewellery stalls, a fairly impressive variety of food on offer and the obligatory healing area among the trees. Toilets were plentiful and generally clean and despite some fairly heavy rain on the Sunday morning the flat site (this is Lincolnshire after all!) remained virtually mud free. Security was very low key and police presence was non-existent.

In fact the only major moan I would have is about the bar. We were led to believe by friends who attended last year that there would be an excellent selection of real ales. But the only beers on offer turned out to be lager & John Smiths! There was some decent cider available initially but this was all gone by Saturday lunchtime. Thankfully we’d brought sufficient supplies of our own!