Out Powys way, Julia Deli visits a country pile to boogie on down with pimped-out plastic ducks, bearded dragons in earmuffs and more psytrance than you can shake a rainstick at. This is Landed, a weekender keeping the authentic festival spirit alive…

“Don’t forget, take stuff to pimp your duck.” Last-minute advice from a friend and regular attendee of Wales’ Landed Festival, a small-scale gathering near Llandrindod Wells in Powys. Its meaning, I was assured, would be revealed in swift order…

Arriving at Landed Festival: the historic Doldowlod House

The main gate to Landed Festival is also the entrance to parklands surrounding Doldowlod House – the romantic-looking home of the Watts family, of steam power fame – and as you drop down, sweeping around the site on the broad valley bottom is the River Wye. First impressions are that Landed is small enough that people just naturally get chatting; big and rambling enough to be diverting.

Stalls are all reasonably priced, many recycling, with a ‘no landfill’ policy, and the Kids Area is a dedicated space for aerial circus, crafting and games. In the quiet healing area, under the trees on a bluff in the river, soundbath gongs look at home under the branches, with therapies from yoga to massage and EFT bodywork to be found.

With four live stages, three dance stages and artwork covering the site – political, bewildering, otherworldly – the biggest marquee has a stage either end, respectively named Khaos and Dragon’s Den, so one can set up while the other is running. Fiddle Bop, on the Khaos stage, transform gypsy jazz stylings into a welcome hamper of swing: a great warmup.

Landed Festival’s grassroots origins

Landed site manager Tiz, who grew up living in a van in the rave scene, outlines the festival’s 13-year tenure so far. “The founder and organiser, Grubby, had been working at festivals, putting on events and had a close relationship with the Gibson- Watts family [of Doldowlod House]. All the crew Grubby knew from mid-Wales, London and the road came together to put on the first event. They’re still the ones making it happen today, which gives it a special, family feeling.

“My parents worked here – when I was about 10, I’d be following my Dad around, helping him rig the site! Everything is home-made, punk, DIY in nature.”

At the Bardic Basement stage, I speak to Rufus Mufasa: a bilingual hip-hop poet, Hay Writer At Work and member of the Bando’r Beirdd. This collective goes out to venues and festivals helping people find a voice and build the courage to showcase it.

“We have young people from all over who’ve started finding success in spoken word or rap performances, and they come and visit us here each year to tell us that getting on a stage for the first time at Landed was what propelled them to go on and actually earn a living from their talents. It’s real sustainability, using the DIY ethos born out of deprivation.”

Celtic folk-trance and giant Welsh Ladies

Festival veterans Astralasia’s astral dub and euphoric trance induce passages of swirling and snaky arm-waving and others of semi-pogo and air-punching, before Celtic folk/rock/trance from Flutatious raises energies further. West Wales’ Monsterometer’s fuzzy punk and psychobilly surf spreads wild, anarchic joy and amazing first night vibes, and at the Psyde stage, Lost Element whips up airily spooky psytrance, preceding north Wales techno-wizard Psilocen Joe.

The Magus stage is the setting for Isonet’s late night slot, where Cardiff’s Thoby Davis plays electro-violin over complex keyboards and loops, with guest vocals from Verso. It’s a beautiful fusion of spacey trance, futurism, folk and classical influences, and the long set builds like a symphony to a spiritual crescendo.   

The Psyde Cafe are a cheery crew from Yorkshire with their own following and friends, many who’ve found Landed through them. Welcoming me at breakfast time, I asked how they all came to be here. One, Kenny, says, “There’s a family feel. The first time I came here, I felt the warmth straight away, and sensed everyone around me had the same lifted spirits.”

Adds Jane from Abergavenny: “This is my first, but I’ve known the Psyde crew for a long time and they said I’d love it here. I ended up arriving at 2.30am, but I haven’t been to bed yet because I’m still absorbing all this beauty. And now I’m cuddling a beardie!” That would be the bearded dragon which visits festivals with his heated tank, bespoke pink pompom ear-defenders, and his owners, a dedicated couple from Worcester. “He was plugged in behind the decks overnight! He loves the psy-experience – he can see loads more colours than us. It’s lizard enrichment!” his dad says.

If any sight is more outstandingly bonkers over the weekend, it’s surely dance trio Qwerin. Doing walkabouts in UFO-sized Welsh Lady hats and exaggerated ‘traditional’ dress, their monumental presence must be seen to be believed. Back into the bustle, the Magus stage fills the arena with the sunnily intricate guitar and Californian-style upbeatness of Cosmic Smiles, before Llanybydder’s Karen Gemma Brewer – poet, performer and singer – kicks off the Bardic Basement’s day with her truthful perspective. Sarah Louise Wheeler’s bilingual poetry, too, is profound and moving.

Once again in the world of Psyde’s swirling-neon Kabbalistic decor, we dance to the deep, heartfelt trance and thunderous bassy groove of Electrick Blue, before being swept into the arena on the combined wave of Taiko Mynydd Ddu and Taiko For Pride. At the Basement, Rob Morris and his “activism from Ammanford” declares, “it’s oppression, not depression” as he fights back through the medium of straight-talking protest folk. Sonya Smith’s haunting love songs are the yin to that yang, her sensitive voice ringing out from the Magus Stage; Machynlleth duo National Milk Bar’s electro-pop has an 80s feel and postpunk lyricism. And Astrodruid’s first gig in six years sees their arresting, far-out spacescapes and deep ambience given a huge, loving welcome at the Psyde.

At the Magus trailer stage, The Johnathon Day collective combine fiddle, cello, bass and guitar in dreamy, open tunings with flavours of folk, medievalism and esoteric spaciness; Mushrooms Project, purveyors of psychedelia from Italy, blend tribal drumming and machine-engineered sound, oddly-lingering jazzy notes like an intergalactic zipwire to the nether regions…

Activist bards

Cardiff Bay poet Des Mannay’s portrayal of “hard-hitting social issues” is politically punchy and unafraid, and connects with all elements of the Bard crowd. Then, a tangible charge in the air as static builds up for Transglobal Underground, who are right at home here, blessing us with bass-heavy tribal fusion and channelling the power direct into our souls.

A coup for spoken word this weekend is the performance by Tredegar-born playwright and punk poet Patrick Jones, older brother of Nicky Wire; years of activism, involvement in literary projects, youth work and teaching have informed his material. His poem in support of Kurdish prisoner of conscience and musician Nudem Durak is being released as a track by Welsh protest singer Martyn Joseph.

With the river singing audibly beyond us, Bill Price – former ghillie and waterworker of 40 years, now manning the stall for Radnorshire Wildlife Trust – is positive about the hidden-but-accessible reserves in the district, but harbours real-world experience regarding the sensitive nature of the Wye Valley.

“When I started working with the river, it was said to be overstocked with salmon. Adult fish were electrocuted en masse – according to the policy of the time – fry caught and sold onto other river authorities, which led to the situation we’re in today. There’s reckoned to be only four more years of breeding salmon left in the river.” Price is lobbying for a plan to get breeding started again, for the river and the tourist economy, but is worried about the go-ahead given to site 24 million battery chickens in the area. “The river can’t take any more organochemicals or run-off. The only answer is linking tourism to education – support for the environment is linked to the economy.”

Landed’s foundation: nature, myth and holism

Later, on the bus ride back to west Wales, I speak to field botanist Wayne, who had also conversed with Price during the weekend about two rare plant species in nearby reserves, including Rhayader’s unique Fragrant or Bog Orchid. The plant seems an emblem of the special qualities found in that part of the Wye, as experienced by us living by the water, being bound about by the river all weekend.

The role the Wye plays in this yearly return of people is thus highlighted; asking Tiz about Sunday afternoon’s Duck Race (remember we mentioned ducks?), she recalls its origin. “It started as something for kids, but the adults wanted to paint and dress up ducks. So the prizes progressed from toys to things like a ticket for next year’s festival.” And so 2023’s Wye Valley flotilla of plastic ducks is released as further downstream, a team is making sure none of the little characters gets away, gathering them up to take part in next year’s race…

Back in the arena, Bournemouth’s nine-piece Latin funk band The Midnight Alliance soon whip up a mainstage frenzy, a tropical antidote to the cloudy weather, and Psyde is showcasing the teasing, cartoonish psytrance of Sheffield DJ One Million Ants. Beggars Buttons play uplifting, downhome folk with tinges of Americana, singing in four-part harmony, and rounding off the night there’s pulsating, rhythmic strangeness from Blackburn’s DJ Ashtafari.

We’ve been 700 feet above sea level, near a town settled for 5,000 years, surrounded by burial mounds and standing stones and close to the site of the rediscovered golden hoard of Rowena – daughter of historic Hengist and wife of Vortigern – placing us in the home region of real Arthurian figures. In 1988, a presumed cryptid plagued the valley: strange things go on in them there hills… and then there is Landed!

This festival doesn’t just stir memories of the non-sectarian, heady days of youth, but shows how seeds planted then continue to bear luscious fruit. The dream we had is alive and kicking; the values that created a self-supporting, inclusive community are at the forefront and people are still doing it for themselves. Proof, were it needed, that love for music, shared skills, artwork and empathy keep us all sane, healthy and rejoicing.

Cheers then, Landed, for a deep dive into homemade holism – and a toast and a wink to our secret tryst next year…

Landed Festival, nr Llandrindod Wells, Fri 28-Sun 30 July.

Info: landedfestival.co.uk

words JULIA DELI photos DOMINIC WILLIAMS