Ents24 Stage Crowd at Guilfest 2008
For a festival that was predicted to be a complete washout, GuilFest 2008 defied the doomsayers and escaped relatively unscathed by the terrible weather that ravaged most of the south of England at the weekend. The only real rain hitting the site on Sunday morning was put to bed by the fantastic Dreadzone on the Ents24 Stage - making the massive majority of the weekend exactly what the crowd had hoped for; an unbelievable mix of sunshine, good vibes, great music and plenty of laughter and smiles!
This year's highlights were plentiful; praise has been finding its way to the GuilFest HQ for so many different acts. Steve Hillage's System 7 and The Egg were Friday's hits for many, but there were thousands of smiling faces at both the Levellers' gig and Hallucinogen in the dance tent, all clearly loving the atmosphere of this year's shindig.
Ents24 Stage Crowd at Guilfest 2008. Photo: Mark Sandom
Saturday saw rather brilliant performances from The Aliens, Dodgy and Kula Shaker - not to mention a fabulous, (some have said seminal) show from Blondie. Elsewhere on the site local band Wobbly Squadron delighted crowds with their own brand of psychedelic funk, whilst fantastic DJ sets were seen from Krafty Kuts and local DJ Agent Smith amongst many, many others.
The rain came on Sunday morning - but that didn't stop an amazing performance from Ents24 competition winners, The Rebs, who seemed to be thriving on the bad weather, and as the rain increased so too did the quality of their set. Great sets from Never The Bride, mad german rockers Boss Hoss, and Shihad were also highlights of the day, but the real stars of Sunday, if not the entire weekend, had to be the rather controversial booking, The Australian Pink Floyd, who performed an incredible mix of Pink Floyd brilliance and closed the show with real class - proving to the naysayers that they were worthy of the top slot.
The Rebs at GuilFest 2008
Tony Scott, founder of GuilFest was delighted with this year's festival, going as far as calling it:
'By far the best GuilFest ever! Musically absolutely brilliant - especially The Australian Pink Floyd. I thought that Farmer Giles' Barn Dance was particularly superb, but the comedy stage and acoustic stage also proved to be the best they had ever been - I can't wait for next year's festival!'
All over the site there were pockets of sheer brilliance, from theatre performances of James Bond in the Man In The Moon Theatre Tent to mass hula-hooping outside the Ents24 Stage, to the great bag-piping start of Les McKeown's Legendary Bay City Rollers - great fun was had in all directions all weekend.
'Best GuilFest ever - We can't wait for next year!' - Christian Phillips from Taunton.
