Event: Lemonfest 2013
Venue: Newton Abbot Racecourse, Newton Abbot
Date: 1st June 2013
Not much occurs in the small town of Newton Abbot in terms of festivals, but when they do, it goes off with a bang!
Lemonfest is a family-friendly one day festival held at Newton Abbot‘s racecourse; with a capacity of 3000 guests, it’s an ideal choice if you want to get away from the hecticness associated with one of the larger festivals. With a wide array of genres in the lineup, this festival has something for everyone, ranging from the folk/indie headliner Lucy Rose to the feel-good ska/reggae group The Skints and the many artists present in the Rinse:It drum & bass and dubstep tent.
“A temptingly cheap but tasty one-dayer” – The Telegraph
With just a £20 advance ticket fee (£25 on the door) you’d have to have a good reason not to make an appearance. The wide-spread layout of Lemonfest gave each corner of the festival a distinct characteristic. At the far end from the entrance sat the Rinse:It drum & bass and dubstep tent, a white dome showcasing the talent of some of the South West‘s biggest names in electronic music. Performances from such DJs as Sub Zero, Potential Method and Mr Nice kept the more active of festival-goers buzzing throughout the day, whilst receiving massive frontman hype from the likes of Harry Shotta, PacMan and Padman.
If hyper dancing isn’t really your cup of tea, then you could head over to the Elephant Moon Locally Grown Stage, an area consisting of a converted lorry trailer as a stage and a seating area surrounded by hay bales! From this makeshift corner of the festival, massive appearances were made by rock act I Divide, a stage-diving Owen Penrice (& The Kingskins) and youth rockers Hysteria (aged just 11-13!). A short stroll across to the opposite end of the festival led you to the Main Stage, where local stars Moriaty, Land of the Giants and Big Wave kept audiences in good spirits prior to the outstanding performances from the headliners: East London reggae group The Skints and Lucy Rose, the folk/indie singer who stole the show with her acoustic set.
Many other smaller stages were lively throughout the day. Lemonfest doesn’t stop with just the music though. Dotted around the site we found an array of clothing and art stalls, exotic food stands, two cider/ale bars and even a fun fair! The only minor inconvenience of Lemonfest was something you’d expect from most festivals: excessive queues for the toilets! There was a small amount of port-a-loos funneled into a corner beside the Main Stage, which rarely had a line of people less than 30 trailing from it – only really a problem for the 5-10 minutes you’re waiting, besides that, nothing negative stood out. The staff were polite and helpful and the vibes were good!
All in all, I found Lemonfest a good value-for-money festival, with something for all the family to enjoy. The vibrant, yet not so dense crowds allowed you to walk about freely and get into your desired position for the majority of acts. It was a showcase of exciting new and already established acts and there was plenty of raw talent to enjoy – I look forward to next year!
