DINEFWR LITERATURE AND ARTS FESTIVAL | LIVE REVIEW
Dinefwr Castle and Deer Park, Llandeilo, Carmarthen, Fri 20-Sat 22 June
Walking to the Dinefwr Literature And Arts Festival my partner suddenly bombarded me with questions: what will this festival be like then? How big is it? What is the place like?
This was the point, while dragging camping gear along a grassy uphill path in hysterically hot weather, that I didn’t really know anything about the festival that I had managed to convince myself and my other half to.
The sun was just starting to go down as we marched up a hill and I began to get nervous about what to expect. It was a literature festival after all, what if it was just full of thousands of boffins, sitting around drinking expensive liquor and all agreeing with each other on topics I’d never heard of? There were also celebs like Huw Stephens and Charlotte Church performing – so what if it was full of teens on their first festival outings, unaware of how loud and annoying they were being and not knowing how to pace all-day drinking?
Somehow I had managed to fit all of this worry into the 5 minuet incline, but reaching the top of the hill I was struck.
Down the hill, in the middle of a big green valley was Newton House (a subtly grand Victorian house) with two relatively small stage tents propped up outside. It was plain and simply a beautiful place, especially with the outline of Dinefwr castle sitting subtly in the background.
With a new sense of enthusiasm we rushed down the hill, eager to set the tent up and get on with sampling the shows that Dinefwr festival had to offer.
SPOKEN WORD
Largely because of a lack of train options we were a little late to the show, and had already missed stand up from Jeremy Hardy, a talk about modern feminism by Everyday Sexism founder Laura Bates and music from Sweet Baboo.
The night was far from over, however, as we fell into the Rhys Stage tent to catch the tail end of Huw Stephens’ Lyricism show. Rather than the DJ set I was mistakenly expecting Huw very much had his journo hat on, and was interviewing spoken-word aficionado Steven Camden (aka Polarbear).
As well as hearing about his life we got a sample of Polarbear’s work which included a poem about Biggie Smalls saving him from some peer pressured ‘seven minutes in heaven’, a tale about how rude rap saved his family from a dark day and a reflective piece about the woman he loves.
The pieces were fantastic, Camden had perfect pacing and his poems are the epitome of ‘write what you know’. Never before have I heard a performance poet with such a well honed sense of storytelling, and during each piece I was completed transported to Camden’s youth many miles and years away.
When I first leafed through the programme on arrival I hadn’t circled Polarbear’s interview, but I was so happy to have stumbled upon it. This was perhaps the best feature of this small but busy festival: the ability to discover.
From one performance poet to the next, I bounded next door to see the politically charged words of Attila The Stockbroker. This classic punk poet had all the attitude you’d expect with plenty of delighting sneers at the Tory government (Michael Gove got the worst of it with an insulting playground rhyme) but he also performed touching pieces about being the son of a war survivor, coping with his mother’s Alzheimer’s and a heart-warming tribute to his stepdad.
MUSIC
Welsh lovely Charlotte Church rounded off the first night with her electronic spacey maths-and-physics inspired songs. Very much making the decisions in her career now, Church was honest about the fact that she would be avoiding the hits of her youth but that didn’t seem to bother anyone.
No matter what songs Church is belting out her ability as a singer is undeniable. Her voice felt even more impressive in person and my partner and I agreed that she was, without a doubt, the most vocally talented person that either of us had ever seen live.
Aventpop due Trwbador did a great job of providing some chilled out, ethereal tunes to relax to on the Saturday afternoon and, back in the old laundry room of the house, Quiet Marauder belted out some quirky songs in a discussion about how writing and music inspire each other (with Ade Edmonson subtly hiding in the audience).
Edmonson was soon on the stage, however, as Adrian Edmondson & The Bad Shepherds headlined on the Saturday night. Their exciting mix of punk and folk was the perfect choice for the festival-in-a-historical-site setting , and they gave a small but thoughtful nod to the recently passed Rik Mayall.
LITERATURE AND DISCUSSIONS
The first boffin event on my list was a discussion between Charlotte Church and UK Feminista founder Kate Banyard that aimed to focus on sexism in the music industry (well we haven’t seen Robin Thicke wearing a see through diamond dress or Jay Z twerking, have we?)
Throughout the hour long discussion lots of topics were brought up, some of which I agreed with others not-so-much, but Church was able to give some fascinating insights from her personal experience. The most intriguing being that after a period of stress Church lost a lot of weight and slimmed down to near a size eight, shortly after she appeared on TV chat show and response to her from advertisers and magazines afterwards was immense. It put in perspective that all of her creative or musical achievements paled in comparison with her weight loss.
Another stand out talk was from Shaun Usher –creator of the website and book Letters Of Note: a collecting the heart-warming/funny/angry/insightful letters of all sorts of people, from celebs to everyday folk, and from throughout history. Clearly passionate about the project Usher explained how it all began and read a few of his favourites – including a sarcastic message to a priest from comedian Bill Nye, and a heart-felt letter to the family of a Lockerby bombing victim.
COMEDY
Bridget Christie performed her stationary inspired stand-up set, taking BIC’s decision of market a pen specifically at women as a jumping off point Christie keeps feminism at the forefront of her funny. As with any stand up show some of Christie’s jokes didn’t quite float (there were lots of funny noises and satirical impressions that didn’t always work) but as overall piece the show was great. One part in particular, in which Christie creates an interaction with an imaginary heckler, was fantastic.
Also hitting the mic was the increasingly famous Elis James. His set was enormously popular, with half the festival trying to squeeze in one tent. We tried to catch his wit but gave up when we realised we couldn’t hear him properly from the edge. The delighted laughter of the crowd, however, could be heard on the other side of the small site.
THE FESTIVAL
As much fun and the shows themselves was having a wonder round the site. A look around Newtown House quickly reminded us we were essentially having a sleep over at a museum, and a meander round the back of the house to the rose garden reminded you that the museum was in the middle of a deer park.
This beautiful part of the site looks out onto a valley in which you can see bambi-like deer. There were only a few quieter events held here and, more than once, we were able to enjoy the views without anyone else around.
In general the festival had a great atmosphere –the programme was diverse and interesting, the venue idyllic and the whole weekend had relaxed place with a friendly vibe. There was no VIP area, or special camp sites for the talent, as performers got to wander round the site with the same nonchalance as other festival goers (I appeared to be the only one un-cool enough to do the ‘omg look who I’m standing behind at the bar’ silent gestures).
There was a year’s gap between the inaugural Dinefwr Literature And Arts Festival and this year’s event, but people are talking about making this exciting and intimate festival an annual affair. We probably won’t know for a while if this happens or not but one certainty is that, whenever the next festival is, I will be back there.
words HEATHER ARNOLD