Most Sundays recently have been spent curled up in a duvet, trying to coax myself out of a hangover and into doing some catch up work (but instead watching whatever pops up first on Netflix), so when I was invited down to host the Sunday Devorgilla Main Stage at Eden Festival last weekend, I could not have been more excited.
An expensive bit of car trouble sorted by a mum with a plan later, and I was on my way!
Eden is possibly the easiest festival to access, that I’ve ever driven to. I was a bit apprehensive, as I was driving down on my own, not in my own car, and knew I was heading towards the signal blackspot of the world… but I was straight down the motorway, cut off at Moffat (like the directions on their website said), followed the wee yellow “EDEN FESTIVAL” AA signs and drove straight into the carpark/field.
The friendliest festival ever – I obviously was wandering towards the gates with a look of sheer confusion on my face, because anyone I asked directions from stopped and gave me very detailed instructions, and after entering the Woodland gates, walking through an amazingly set up forest full of lights and secret stages, I found my way to the main stage.
I met so many lovely people in the Eden Festival team, and was totally looked after by the one and only Scottish Roger, and Lorna (who’s all pink outfit balanced out my usual Wednesday Addams black-head-to-toe look out a bit!)
The acts taking to the Devorgilla stage throughout the day all kept setting the bar higher and higher – but my favourite set of the day came from ‘My Baby’ – a three piece, Dutch band who’s music is totally transportive. Their music’s a mix of blues, country and funk and they had the whole crowd captivated for their entire set.
Other sets from Meghan Airle, Lizabett Russo, Awkward Family Portraits, Moove and Turrel, This is the Kit and Bombskare had crowds gathering from the get go.
I think this is possibly the biggest stage I’ve ever stood on (in front of people and not in a closed venue, kidding around, that is), and I was so scared to start with, but after the first introduction I got into the swing of things – it’s always the fear of the unknown with me for some reason – we’ll work on that one…
The people behind the scenes at Eden are the nicest group of folk you’ll ever come across – so welcoming, and Scottish Roger was my bestie for the day! We had as much fun (if not more) behind the stage as we did on it! I got the guided tour of the festival and saw all the stages that hadn’t quite opened for the day yet (mainly because they were still recovering from the previous night – yes, the stages, never mind the people..)
I highly recommend a wee trip down to Eden Festival for you all next year! It’s family friendly, really chilled and also a massive party at the same time… It takes a lot of work to achieve these three things in one forest but the team have managed to completely pull it off! I feel really lucky to have been invited down to host; thank you so much to Lorna and George for having me – see you next year!
gigs & glitter. 