Hop Farm Festival

08/07/2010

Hop Farm, Kent
2-3 July
4/5

A jingly jangly weekend in the Kent countryside

Bravely billing itself as a “truly unique festival experience”, the Hop Farm Festival chooses to set itself apart not by having the greatest line-up or most economically priced tickets, but instead sells itself on being free of corporate branding and sponsorship. Refreshing as that may be in this day and age, one nevertheless wishes that there had been some commercial outfit in charge of providing the water supply and toilet facilities. Big business might be evil in the eyes of the eco-friendly festival goer, but all ethics are forgotten while waiting in an enormous queue on a blistering hot summer's day.

Apart from the queues, there was a lot else to enjoy over the weekend, especially from the legendary headline acts. Indeed, much fun is to be had playing a 'Price is Right' game, guessing if the next singer on is older or younger than whoever just shuffled off-stage.

Blondie and Van Morrison on the Friday night would catch a lot of people out, Debbie Harry surprisingly being almost two months Morrison's senior. Turning 65 the day before, Harry has the miraculous ageless quality of a Greek goddess. Wearing a shirt unbuttoned to the base of her sternum, one of the sound technicians gestures that she might be in the midst of a wardrobe malfunction, unfazed, she has a quick check but decides she looks just fine. As the men in the crowd secretly contemplate whether they would or wouldn't (yes, they would) she bangs out a stream of hits from Hanging on the Telephone to Maria and The Tide is High that prompts a mass singalong.

As the sun sets, the mood changes when Van Morrison drifts on to stage in a dapper all white suit. Renowned for not often performing his greatest hit Brown Eyed Girl, he shocks by grudgingly singing it tonight, even if it is tossed out second in the set and the audience is allowed to do more of the singing than the composer. Jazzed up versions of Moondance and Into the Mystic follow and Have I Told You Lately reminds us that it might be one of the best love songs ever written. Closing with the spellbinding, In The Garden the audience is hungry for more but they won't get any. Van walked off before the song finished and there's no looking back.

Amongst the acts on day two, there are a couple of jokers in the pack, not least Peter Doherty playing a special acoustic set that revisits some of his Libertines material in time for a reunion with the band later in the season. The Magic Numbers, Laura Marling and Mumford and Sons show enough potential to suggest they could be headlining at Hop Farm in 30 years time if they keep at it, and all seem genuinely thrilled to be sharing a bill with such legendary figures.

Members of the Mumfords can be seen at the back of the stage singing along with everyone else as Ray Davies (aged 66) performs. Hits form The Kinks' back catalogue get the noisiest reception and in the baking heat, Sunny Afternoon is the perfect song to accompany the onset of stinging sunburn. Miffed at being told to end his set prematurely, he decides instead to act as if he was the headliner, deciding, “Fuck it, I'll play all night if I want to”. The crowd would have let him too if he didn't have to make way for an even bigger name.

Whether Bob Dylan's (69) uncharacteristic upbeat mood was down to the reception he received or the six figure sum he was rumoured to be paid for topping the weekend, the energy he exuded was palpable. Spending less time than usual hiding behind his keyboard at the side of the stage, he often ambles over to the front microphone for his harmonica solos.

His ragged delivery certainly testifies that he has been touring almost constantly since the late 1980s, but then Dylan's appeal has never about the tunefulness of his voice but what it was saying.

Tonight the diction is precise and subtle lyric changes are more deliberate and frequent in several of the songs, casting a whole new light on their tone and meaning. Workingman's Blues #2 from 2006's Modern Times is as great a song as any classic from the 1960s. About the honest travails of the working man, recent economic events make it even more poignant. Not that Dylan is a prophet of doom. The other stand out tracks Simple Twist of Fate and Blind Willie McTell might not be too cheery, but their beauty still has a transcendental power to uplift.

In a weekend where the value of age and experience was proved, it was only fitting that Dylan closed the event with the hopeful strum of Forever Young. With a roster of veteran artists proving they're still going strong, its wish that “may your song always be sung” could not be more apt or assured.

Steven MacKenzie