Lounge On The Farm 2013 - Music Festival - Canterbury Kent.

[Aberlour]

Lounge On The Farm is a family friendly music festival that takes place each year on Merton Farm, just outside of Canterbury in Kent. Here are some photos of the 3 day event, plus a little look at some of the bands that we listened to via youtube.





About us - Lounge On The Farm

[Aberlour]

The site opened at 6pm on the Thursday, and that's when we got there. The farm is only a couple of miles outside of Canterbury but it feels like you are in the middle of nowhere, which is nice.






Setting up was a complete mission, and I heard many many people complaining. It must have been at least 1.5 mile round trip from the car park to where we set the tent up, and I did several trips to get all the gear in.

This length of track was about half the total distance from one to the other!!




We set up the tent somewhere in between here:



And here:



But there were still a handfull of twats that couldn't control their volume in the early hours of the morning. Words were had twice.


Just when I was almost ready to give up and finish off in the morning, a woman asked to borrow my air bed pump. Wasn't a problem, especially as she had one of these meaning my last 2 or 3 trips could be done in one hit.



Three hours after arriving and due to the silly distance between car and camp, we still weren't quite done.




Finally got finished and had a well deserved beer and watched the sun go down.






Next morning we woke up to a lovely sunny day and had 3 great days ahead of us.






A girly cider for breakfast, to go with my girly wrist band.





Me and my son, ready to rock. Well, I'm more ready to folk myself.

[Aberlour]

On the way to the Arena we pass the posh tents that are available to rent. These people didn't have to lug camping gear 12 miles when they got here, that's for sure.








In the campsite, a creche, a little shop and a food van.











In to the Meadows. Friday morning so the place is deserted still. Good time to take some photos. One of the best thing about this event was the food. The variety and quality and price were outstanding. Very impressed.






















These were the best srawberrys I'd ever had. I think I payed for this blokes next holiday over the weekend. I couldn't get enough.








By far the most popular food van was the pizza truck.






A lovely bacon and egg sandwich to get the day started.

[Aberlour]

Also in the Meadows was the Farm House Bar and stage, my favourite area.












The first artist of the day on the Farm House stage. Pretty much the first slot of the whole event, 10am on the Friday. He was playing to about 10 people the poor sod.

He was actually prety good. His name was Oliver Grant.






There's not much of him on youtube. In fact this is the only one I could find.




Also in the Meadows is the little fun fair, or the 'pound a minute area' as I think of it as, because that's what it costs me every time we walk past it.






And a rum bus bar.




Next we have the main arena. Lots more food stalls and other stands.






















Another poor bastard playing to nobody.










A reminder that you are in fact on a working farm.




Up in the corner was a Thai bloke selling Pad Thai on a blinding converted tuk tuk.






The bloke recognised my misses. It turns out he was living on Phi phi at the same time as we were.

[Aberlour]

In the Paddock area there was the little lounge, a brilliant area to keep the youngens happy for a while.






The misses was doing some yoga, while my son played some drums.



When I heard her say "Now everybody give yourself a hug" I was out of there!






Plenty for the kids to do.









While my son was doing some art I found my self a nice comfy seat in front of the stage because I could see some musicians setting up





The art teacher:




The art gets packed away and a few more people turn up to listen to the band.




Noahs House band: They were a bit of fun more than anything. The wife turned up with a coffee for me and I was in a comfy chair, so I wasn't going anywhere.










Here they are: One of their more sensible songs.





Showing my son what a flanker I was. No, that's flanker!



We only went in here once and there was some lesbian on stage talking about her girlfirends period or something, poetry I think it was supposed to be. Sharp exit.











Some arial views from the ferris wheel.

The Paddock and the kiddies area empty in the morning.



The posh camping and our family campsite behind that.



The riff raff in the general camp site. Way too old for that shit. Jesus 20 year olds these days are dumb.




The Meadow with the main stage arena behind the trees.



The Farm House Bar and stage.

[Aberlour]

We had a storm Friday night and it was a bit damp Saturday morning so the wellies were out, but over all we got very lucky with the weather.




Hands up who likes porta loos? No, didn't think so. Actually, they said on the web site that they were going to have cleaner toilets for the family camping area and they were true to their word, they were spotless.




Breakfast number one was the way to go. Great value for money IMO.






On to the Farm House Bar for a few drinks.




I went for the Lemon, absolutely gorgeous. Although I could taste it every time I burped for the next 3 days.


















There was comedy as well but I was never in the mood. Was very unfunny the snippets I heard anyway.




This lot just kept popping up all over the place. They got some huge crowds when they did, and got every body dancing.




Back home for a relaxing beer.




These vans were 24 hour which came in handy a couple of times.




Lucy Rose on the main stage.












Here she is.







Head lining on the Friday was Seasick Steve. Here he is having a chat through a fence with some fans.






None of my other shots were much good. Too dark.





Here he is:

[Aberlour]

The pizza was home made in front of your eyes and cooked in a proper pizza oven. Brilliant!











Matt & Sueleen. Nowt special but I had a pizza to eat so I heard them out.












The only stuff of their on youtube is when they were on a show called 'The voice'







Later that night on the same stage.



The dance tent where the misses spen a fair bit of time. Not for me thanks.




The cider is definitely kicking in!



That's it, no more cidre for me! I'm starting to trip.




Willy Moon on the main stage.









Here he is:

[Aberlour]

Spade and Archer.














Here they are:






Another comedian, even less funny than the last one.





Gentlemen Of Few. I loved these guys, so young but very talented. Reminds me of the first time I heard Mumford and Sons when they were about at the same stage of their career. Don't know if they will push on like Mumford did, but I hope so.














Here they are:

[Aberlour]

Some more tasty very well priced tucker. paella and homemade lemonade with mint.




Mic Righteous. Not my cup of tea but pretty good at what he does.





Here he is:







Police Dog Hogan.












Here they are:









Sweet Baboo.










Here they are:

[Aberlour]

Dub Pistols. Absolutely blinding, got everybody jumping.












Here they are:








I took a walk up in to the corner of a field and stumbled across the local student radio station making some videos. I was the only person there so I had my own little personal performances, which was cool.













None of the ones I listened to have been put on their website or youtube yet which is a shame. But here's a couple that I didn't see. Quality's shit considering they're a radio station. All be it a micky mouse one.

[Aberlour]

The fantastic Aswad.























Too loud for a five year olds ears at the front so after a few songs we slipped off to the back.





Here they are:








The highlight for me and the headlining act on the Sunday was the fantastic Soul 11 soul. Unfortunately it was too dark and I only got two usable photos.






Here they are:











Monday morning it was time for my workout, getting all the shit back in the car. All in all a great fun long weekend.

[patsycat]

Great thread, looks like a good place for all ages. I love Aswad and Soul2Soul, those vids brought back memories for me!!

[Loombucket]

Excellent thread with some good pictures. I used to love sleeping out under the stars and collapsing in a heap by the cider tent. Great stuff!

[wasabi]

Well put together ,a lot and time and effort compiling this,thank you for sharing.Enjoyed the Tuk Tuk food van,an idea I have not seen before.

[peterpan]

What an outstanding photo / vid collection! thats my entertainment sorted for the rest of the day.

[t.s]

excellent thread mate, looks like a very cool festival

[charleyboy]

Fantastic thread Arbers. Thanks for sharing.

[natalie8]

Enjoyed the Tuk Tuk food van,

Isn't that great?! I love how he has the street signs too. Amazing, Aber, that you and your wife know him.

I echo the compliments from everyone else. Looks like a great festival, with nice food and good acts. You're so lucky you had good weather too.

[Aberlour]

Thanks for the nice comments. For a music lover with a young family like me, it really was a great little festival. Obviously the artists are either has beens or up and coming artists that most of will never make the big time, but when you love music it's all good.

Being done on a relatively small scale meant that you could just grab a pizza and a beer and plonk yourself down in front of a stage, and eat your dinner while you're listening to decent music. It was very laid back, no queues, crowd issues or problems seeing the acts at all.

As mentioned the food was fantastic, healthy decent and imaginative dishes, and they weren't taking the piss with the prices as so many events do. No BBQ's were allowed on site, so to have nothing but burger vans selling dried up pieces of shit for £7 would have been pretty grim.

All in all it was great fun and the event does a fantastic job of catering to literally every age group there is. From people with babies, toddlers, teenagers, groups of people in their 20's and 30's right up to grandparent aged people. There's something for everyone. A festival with a creche for babies, a dance tent that's open till 3am and everything in between. Can't ask for much more than that.

[Latindancer]

It's great to see the other, more human side of you, Eggy. And thanks for going to so much trouble to share all this with us.

[terry57]

Great thread mate, still looks foking cold to me though.

[Aberlour]

It's great to see the other, more human side of you, Eggy. And thanks for going to so much trouble to share all this with us.

Thanks, I think! This "side to me" as you put it, is the normal me reserved for the normal members of the forum. Most decent people on this forum don't have a hard time understanding that mate, only the predictable few seem to struggle.

Great thread mate, still looks foking cold to me though.

Not this time mate, I even managed to get sun burn on my feet and shins it was so hot!
The clouds were deceptively moody but the weather was actually roasting.

[nigelandjan]

Good thread mate ,, wouldnt mind doing it one year