If you read my comments on the 2010 Secret Garden Party you may remember I started out with a bit of a moan. Well I’m pleased to report that the situation at the entrance gates was vastly improved this year and, although we weren’t able to get there until the Friday lunchtime, we never saw or heard of anything like a repeat of the 4+ hour queues to get in, so the complaints from last year were obviously heeded by the organisers.

The site was expanded to cope with a small increase in the number of punters. A couple of new stages popped up and others were shifted around a bit to make use of the increase in space. The wobbly bridge wasn’t wobbly anymore but there was still the usual swimming in the lake and an enormous dragonfly which formed the focal point of this year’s fire display. Special mention has to be made of the “Where The Wild Things Are” Stage which was beautifully decorated with interwoven tree branches. But I have to say the sound on the main “Great Stage” was very poor. Blondie’s Saturday night set was barely audible from a position close to the sound desk and we gave up on Leftfield after 3 numbers because it was so quiet. There were however some excellent performances, especially from Martha Reeve & The Vandellas for which we made our way to the very front on Sunday night and enjoyed a great show from the septuagenarian Motown legend.

As we discovered on our first visit last year, Secret Garden Party has far more to it than just the music with lots of little & interesting environments to explore and plenty of sculptures and site art to admire. The “Electric Spectacle” was bizarre but very cleverly done. You could handle snakes, scorpions, chameleons and giant cockroaches at the Science tent & Lisa was very proud of her origami cat. Arcadia made an appearance with a human crossbow firing people into the lake and there were the usual bizarre sports in the Collisillium & the Wonky Races. We somehow managed to miss the annual paint fight but the craziest moment was the “Last Aid” crew, a demonic and blood-soaked bunch of paramedics, who woke a sleeping girl by chucking her onto a stretcher & waving a running chainsaw over her head!

The food was again excellent with several of our festival favourites like the Tibetan Kitchen, Goan Fish Curry and the Roaming Rotisserie making appearances. The bar prices were much the same at £4+ a pint and the choice of beverages was very limited, but an additional wristband for us campervanners allowed us to take a reasonable amount of alcohol onto the site each time we entered, another improvement over last year. There are plenty of urinals for the gents but still not enough portaloos and lengthy queues ensued at peak times. But the few shortcomings aside, Secret Garden Party really is a wonderful event and with the possible exception of Beat-Herder it’s right up there at the top of the pile for my favourite festival of 2011 so far.