Looking Good: Festibelly 27.08.11

British summertime has arrived once more, and we all know what that spells. Substandard weather, a brief price hike in fruit based ciders and a barrage of music festivals both big & small, fascinating & turgid, value for money & daylight robbery. A festival which has grown steadily since its debut weekend four years ago is Festibelly, situated near the town of Lymington in the New Forest. Free from the corporate sponsors and brand based visual assaults you will have seen many a reveller hanging barely conscious from at the larger festivals (potentially as they just attempted to add up the cost of a round at the main stage bar) Festibelly prides itself on a laidback, slightly spaced out and friendly vibe and this year looks set to be no different,

The lineup thus far is as across the board in terms of genre it is possible to be. The ridiculously over the top goodtime electro vibes of Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, a DJ who in the last 12 months has seen his stock rise almost as fast as national debt through numerous high-profile remixes and performance slots at some of the UK's most crucial club night, is a perfect example of the fun loving tone of the festival. Alongside the leftfield hip-hop of Ghostpoet, whose debut album has made the grade in many "albums of the year thus far" lists over the past few months and the psychedelic club beats of audio alchemists Psychemagic it is fair to say that there is something for everyone at this one day festival, and in the case of the last act, possibly in the space of one track.

As well as bands such as the stripped back blues duo She Keeps Bees, the haunting folk melodies of Oh Ruin and the dramatic balladry of Kyla La Grange there is also the far less sensibly behaved DJ selection, with the Greco-Roman Soundsystem team in attendance, veteran crew Reggae Roast flying their flag and the always joyous Sombrero Soundsystem to name but three. Alongside all the audio treats there is also a selection of circus shows, cocktails, speciality foods and classy booze (as we are in Hampshire darling). Oh and there's also the excessive construction showboating of the Treetop Stage, which, as the name suggests will be dispensing audio treasure from the lofty vantage of the New Forests treeline.

So shelve those plans to re-mortgage the family farm and sell your grandmother's ashes so you can buy half a Glastonbury ticket, for under forty of the Queens finest pounds (which is less than the cost of the newest rubbish Xbox game you regularly ignore your loved ones for) you can drag yourself out the house and down to woods for drinking and dancing with other real humans in front of one of this years most diverse line-ups; product placement & Bono free! Hurrah!!!