Much like Secret Garden Party, Beautiful Days celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. I went to 3 of the first 5 of these but I felt that the festival was getting rather samey and so I hadn’t made the long trek to Devon since 2007. However we’d heard several glowing reports from friends over the past few summers and felt it was probably worth another go. When we arrived on the Thursday I was disappointed to find that the majority of the venues were exactly as they had been 5 years ago. The main stage, Big Top, Little Big Top, Bimble Inn and Tiny Tea Tent were completely unchanged in set up or location, despite a significant increase in numbers to an apparent 13,500 punters, and I’m sure that a lot of the inflatables are identical to the ones which adorned the site when I first visited in 2004. Heavy rain and a dearth entertainment on the Thursday night did little to raise our spirits and we retired early to a persistent patter on the van roof.

However once the rain stopped on Friday we were able to see that there has been some expansion of the site in the intervening years and a smattering of new attractions to enjoy. A theatre tent and a bandstand are the main features in a new area on the Eastern side of the valley, which was previously reserved solely for car parks, tents and campervans, and there was also a small but interesting water garden under the shade of the trees near the Big Top. Headliners on the main stage were Frank Turner for the younger punters and Public Image Limited for the older punks. The Sunday night slot was, of course, reserved for our hosts, The Levellers, who no doubt churned out the same predictable set of “Levelling The Land” based songs they have done for the last 9 Beautiful Days so we didn’t bother with them and watched Attila The Stockbroker in the theatre instead.

All the above sounds a bit negative but in all honesty I had a great time. The weather cheered up significantly throughout the weekend and we were able to don sandals and sit on the grass for the “hearts” themed fancy dress on Sunday. We discovered a couple of gems too, including Phantom Limb. It’s a pity that more people weren’t in the Little Big Top to enjoy their soulful set. There was an excellent selection of food stalls across the site and plenty of tat for the retail junkies. Toilets were generally clean, despite the mud, but could have been more plentiful for the ladies and there were even lengthy queues for the gent’s urinals at peak times. The local Otter brewery provided their usual selection of decent ales at relatively reasonable prices and there were a couple of quaffable ciders on offer as well.

But in retrospect it’ll probably be at least another 5 years before I return again to Beautiful Days. Despite generally excellent organisation, the whole thing feels very retro and unimaginative, especially with the phenomenal Boomtown Fair of the previous weekend still so fresh in the memory. It’s obviously still as popular as ever, having sold out in record time this year, and I would guess that it’s the one festival that has benefitted more than any other from Glastonbury taking a fallow year. Certainly the endless detestable rows of interlocked camping chairs, green wellies and picnic blankets on display in the main arena made it feel very much like Worthy Farm’s Pyramid Field at times. And that isn’t necessarily a good thing. If you’re not living on the edge you’re taking up too much room!