Eden is a new one for me but having missed our beloved Knockengorroch we couldn’t go a whole summer without our Scotland fix, so with Lisa having traded there and coming home with a ringing endorsement last year, I didn’t take an awful lot of persuading. And I have to say I’m really glad we made the effort because it’s an absolutely wonderful little festival and totally worth the long drive to get there.

Barely 30 minutes’ drive from the border the site isn’t as rugged as Knock but is nevertheless beautiful with lots of mature trees enhanced by plenty of imaginative site art. Despite its relatively small size there are several distinct areas and moving along the narrow paths to the next venue always felt like a journey of discovery. The main stage is a rustic affair constructed of wooden poles rope and canvas, which made such a delightful change from the ubiquitous silver monstrosities we see at most festivals nowadays. Saturday night headliners De La Soul remained in the States but were replaced at the last minute by King Charles who proved to be an excellent stand in and I understand that the festival sold out for the first time ever with 3,500 tickets apparently sold.

The second “Furry Chillum” stage was housed in a tent with a reasonably priced cocktail bar and there was also a stage playing live music throughout the weekend at Rabbie’s Tavern. In addition there was live entertainment at the Melodrome Theatre, a cycle powered reggae tent, a “Sonic Henge”, Kids workshops, the Garden of Eden greenfields area and a separate healing field. At night the main Ghile Dhu dance tent had a variety of DJs including Bez’s Acid House while next door the Voltan Stage banged out Psy Trance. The Vishnu Lounge was more chilled with hammocks for the weary limbed while the outdoor Lost Disco had a 70’s illuminated dancefloor accompanied by gas fired flares from a mini Steam Punk version of Arcadia. There was also an outdoor cinema complete with “drive in” cars from which to sit and watch the movies.

There was a good selection of beers available from the Williams brewery plus a couple of ciders to boot. Plenty of food options and tons of festival shopping opportunities. Toilets were relatively plentiful and regularly cleaned throughout the weekend. The weather was changeable with a heavy downpour on the Friday and further showers on the Saturday making conditions underfoot a little mucky but never inconvenient. In fact the only real letdown was the fact that no programmes ever turned up and what with having to rely on blackboards which either washed off in the rain or didn’t run to time I’m afraid a lot of the names of the acts below may be incorrect or simply passed me by altogether. Any assistance filling the gaps would be greatly appreciated.