Anna Hyams

FRIDAY

In true bank holiday fashion, we have arrived to rain at the one festival that really requires sunshine to portray the appropriate Western ranch vibe. Sigh. Regardless, this location and this festival are just as beautiful as I remember from last year.

The grounds of Stanford Hall in Leicestershire are now the 4 time home to The Long Road festival and while it is funny to see Americana showcased on the lawn of a very English manor house, the team have done a spectacular job of injecting county fair vibes all over the site. The signage is a particular favourite of mine, all handmade wooden and gorgeously retro, there are plenty of backdrops to take your festival photo at here – but especially the TLR sign itself which is emblazoned with the words “Welcome home, old friend”.

Friday kicks off in the arena around 3pm making this a kinda, two-and-a-half day festival which leaves a nice space for a lazy morning in your camper with friends. Heading into the arena we are greeted so warmly by the gate staff (I have nothing but nice things to say about all of the staff this weekend, they were all friendly and helpful) and we head into the High Falloutin’ VIP area to take a look around. Sadly this year they’ve done away with those awesome wooden recliner/porch chairs along the front of the railings but the fancy covered sofa areas remain, along with a new bar serving fine wines and cheese platters – very bougie.

After a quick tour we head over to the Front Porch stage, which is just as pretty as ever – truly one of my favourite stage designs of all time. The chimney stack is smoking and despite the rain a decent crowd has assembled on the arced haybales and grassy area to catch some sweet early sets. Lil Possum County across the way doesn’t look to be up and running just yet, but kids have descended on the woodland walkway area in the trees instead. The O’Donnell moonshine bar looks like it’s already doing a roaring trade, and we grab some Cajun blackened shrimp from the Bayou outlet before taking a walk around the shopping area.

I nearly caved and bought some wellies disguised as cowboy boots. Then I nearly caved and bought some cowboy boots. In the end we settled for a cowboy boot ornament for our Christmas tree to represent TLR, but honestly I could spend a lot of money here if I went un-monitored.

Heading over to the Interstate stage we catch Jim Lauderdale & The Game Changers’ soft bluesy country set, “This is a dream for me, I’ve always wanted to bring this overseas” Jim says to the applause of a packed tent. It’s a pretty tight stage for that many musicians but they make it work, and before long the whole house is dancing along with them. Following up, First Time Flyers with a more modern pop country sound but an equally full stage presence bring the party up a notch, but we head off in search of a fire to warm ourselves by and a sweet treat.

Something I do really rate about this festival is the inclusion of sympathetic sponsors – the kind that actually are applicable to the theme and feel of the festival. This year we have the brilliant SoloStove brand who have put up their cylindrical stoves around the site (alongside the traditional firepits the TLR always have), but the real MVP goes to them for also providing toasting forks and all the ingredients to make s’mores. This is campfire Americana at it’s most stereotypical and I am so here for it. Now that the rain has gone, and we’re sitting on logs around a crackling fire eating strings of marshmallow and chatting to complete strangers in Stetsons and cowboy boots…

Returning brand Yeti have once again brought with them an array of corral games like cornhole, lasso challenges and swing-hook challenges, along with a massive store front selling every imaginable cooler and drinks cup in the world. It’s fair to say I think, that TLR’s clientele crossover with the campervan/camping/outdoorsy community is large, and this was a great partnership last year BUT this year they have truly excelled themselves and brought a laser-cutter inside a horsebox. You heard me.

Two extremely friendly Americans in Stetsons are on hand to engrave whatever you want on your Yeti cups… for free! They even put stuff on our existing Yeti cups from last year, and very kindly engraved a mini SoloStove for us for a Christmas gift, true gentlemen – and the definition of coherent brand integration at a festival which honestly is kinda rare.

Birmingham duo Gasoline and Matches over at the Front Porch have drawn a massive crowd now that the rain has stopped, and their set is absolutely brilliant and funny. “Let’s play never have I ever, you can buy us a drink” they joke, and end with a countrified Fresh Prince of Bel Air intro and the line “I’d like to take a minute just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I became the Princess of a town called… Lutterworth”,which really makes me giggle.

Canadian country queen Tenille Townes is lighting up the Interstate stage wearing the most extra snakeskin trousers and swishing her long dark hair. She’s such a bright powerful performer, and the tent is overflowing with people as she shouts “…this is a safe place to dance and sing, what I’m learning about the UK is… you guys know all the words! I appreciate you!”. We love the set, and the Alanis Morisette ‘Ironic’ singalong, but her song ‘The Last Time’ really got us in the feels tonight.

SATURDAY

Taking it easy today due to the extremely heavy morning rainfall, we opt for strolling around and taking in the atmosphere a bit in between downpours and hiding under shelter. Luckily the weather breaks and we get to see Tenille Arts hit the main stage, singing the very catchy ‘Wildfire & Whiskey’ in her folded denim boots. The juxtaposition of cuteness vs. power in her vocals makes for a great show, and once again I have to hail to the covers but who doesn’t want to hear country versions of ‘Oops I did It Again’ and ‘Party in the USA’?

We take a beat to indulge in the extremely silly but very good £25 cheese platter I mentioned earlier. It easily fed two adults and a toddler (who actually scoffed about half the cheese before we even got to it) so it’s not a bad price considering, but it did feel like quite a ridiculous choice. So to even things up and get back to our normal lane, we head over to The Showground to watch the Hot Dog Eating competition.

‘Brendan with the ginger beard’ is stuffing his buns into the water Joey Chestnut style while he scarfs the dawgs, one guy is wearing recklessly tight shorts for this kind of affair, and a small child has been enlisted into carrying a sick-bucket around “just in case”. The sun has come out, there’s a huge crowd, and even the disappointment of 2/10 being the winning number of consumed dogs can’t make this event any less fun to me. Wish they’d done a second round of tshirts this year, I’d have bought another one.

Josh Abbot Band are heating things up on the Rhinestone stage, the hazy crowd reflected in his mirrored aviators as he sings ‘The Luckiest’. It’s classic country, the lead guitarist has the coolest gold mosaic covered guitar and there are plenty of people up and dancing – this is what The Long Road is about. Having said that, The Colour Me Country takeover on the Front Porch is totally where the party is at today; Michael B Whit is absolutely smashing his set to a crowd who are quite literally hootin’ and hollerin’ along with him. It’s the most fun performance I’ve seen yet, and I love that The Front Porch stage allows everyone to actually just boogie with him like a party.

At the Showground there’s a Line-Dancing workshop in operation, through the woodland walkway Buddy’s Bar is the place for grabbing a drink and a sit down at the picnic tables (something else TLR do really well – offering heaps of seating), but we are heading back to the main stage for Margo Price.

Slightly late to the stage, Margo wows in a long fringed red leotard with white fringed cowboy boots and flowing blonde hair. Every bit the performer she whirls about the stage singing and laughing with her band-mates, and we love opener ‘Been To The Mountain’ and ‘Change of Heart’. I will also always appreciate a random cowbell solo, just sayin.

Blackberry Smoke are tonight’s main stage headliner, and are a band I first came across at Download Festival, so I’m excited to see them again in a very different arena. Starting out strong with ‘Fire In The Hole’ and ‘Good One Comin’ On’ this is pure sunset country, route 66 drive-time sort of music, and I absolutely love it. Their 70’s style purple and yellow backdrop billows in the soft breeze of the evening and the arena is full of people, those at the back just sitting and enjoying the music.

Other festivals I rate the standing crowd size comparable to the enjoyment of the set, but The Long Road is a different, more chilled out situation, and people are genuinely just relaxing and having a damn good time. “Thank you Leicestershire- did I pronounce that correctly?” laughs frontman Charlie Starr, before launching into the very catchy ‘Living In The Song’.  In case you’re wondering, yeah he did actually do a pretty good job of saying Leicestershire, he’d obviously had a practice.

Through the solos, the “Hey baby, hey mama” crowd participation and jamming, there runs a humble thread which is at the heart of this type of music I think, “The first time we played here was to about fifty people in Camden. If you were there, this one is for you” they reminisce. Playing through some of their hits like ‘Waiting for the Thunder’ and ‘Ain’t Got The Blues’ it’s clear they’ve been a great pick for the TLR headline slot, and the applause for encore tracks ‘Old Enough to Know’ and ‘Ain’t Much Left of Me’ absolutely seal the deal – what a fantastic night of music from Blackberry Smoke.

SUNDAY

Today feels very Sunday-ish, and the temptation to lounge around has hit us hard. The weather is looking a lot less suspect this morning so we drag ourselves up and out, and catch early opener Alana Springsteen on the main stage. She’s wearing black leather trousers, looks like a supermodel and is singing hilarious stuff about her exes. I may love her. ‘You Don’t Deserve a Country Song’ is a personal fave, but her cover of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ is also great.

Over at The Showground we join in with the hula-hooping workshop which is fairly chaotic but really good fun, another little thing that just pushes TLR into that category of thoughtful and experience-led rather than bog-standard music festival. We take a walk around The Lucky Dice Car and Bike Show, which is once again an absolutely brilliant part of this festival, it’s really fun to get to look at all these cars in person instead of in movies and TV shows.

Megan Moroney hits the main stage in a bright white bubble-dress, shivering “I underestimated the weather here, I can’t feel my fingers”. Megan’s songs are classic country in sound, but she’s a more modern lyricist, and her songs really make me laugh in a good way – her spiel on how she was up at 2am and saw her ex’s new girlfriend accidentally like one of her Instagram posts, had me rolling. The fact that she wrote a whole song about it is the ultimate petty crime and I sincerely love that energy, “I see you girl” she side-eyes, and the whole crowd roar with laughter.

“I’m from a small town in Georgia… at the salon everyone talks… you know, which preachers son is smoking weed or selling it, we hear it all” she says before dropping into another brilliantly funny track ‘Hair Salon’. Megan’s set is plagued with bad feedback throughout but she takes it in her stride, and jokes “The last festival I was at, I didn’t play this song. A girl DM me afterwards and said I ruined her whole weekend. We can’t have that again” so we also get the apparently hotly touted ‘Why Johnny’, putting Megan firmly in my festival highlights category.

Stomachs rumbling we join the food queues for smokehouse delights, and witness one of the most devastating events of the summer – a while side of pork-butt dropped on the floor out of the smoker. After a cheeky ask, one very lucky Sheltie named Oscar (because dogs are welcomed at TLR) is getting the most decadent lunch of his life.

In Lil Possum County, the kids activity area, a huge space hopper race is in action. Bigger kids have to hop backwards (which turns out to be nearly impossible and results in dire consequences) so the whole thing is a squealing melee of silly fun. Back at the main stage it’s the Colour Me Country takeover, with artists coming up to perform a song one after another or jamming together, and it is truly one of the best sets I’ve seen all weekend.

“Colour Me Country started as a show, it is now a non-profit, all the artists have been given a grant from us. We’re here to start a movement, because country is for everyone!” shouts host and founder Rissi Palmer, before we are treated to excellent music from the likes of Gabe Lee, Michael B Whit, Lady Nade, Sacha and the phenomenal Chapel Hart. Finishing up with country historical classic ‘Let The Circle Be Unbroken’ with a side of backstory about it’s African-American origins with Lesley Riddle, it strikes me that the work Colour Me Country is doing has a much bigger impact than just giving black artists a platform – it is reaching into the depths of history to educate a much wider, and let’s face it, a much whiter audience. I really appreciate them being front and centre on the TLR bill.

Up next it’s Caylee Hammack, stunning in a bohemian flowing red dress and her long red hair. Leaning right into it she shouts “Y’all got a few more redheads here than in the states, so here’s a song about redheads!” and careens about the stage. Taking a sideways glance at Stanford Hall she giggles “Wow you sure know how to party in nice places… we don’t have buildings like that at the county fair back home” before singing ‘Only Good Things’ which she wrote during Covid when “…not a lot of good things were happening in the world” as she puts it.

At The Showground things are hotting up with the Hot Wings challenge. Random names are pulled from a Stetson to see who gets to compete, and it’s an interesting line up – mainly because one very shocked looking man tells us that he actually didn’t enter, and that his cheeky mates seem to have thrown his name in as a prank.

With 5 spice levels to get through, and a rule that the wing must first be rubbed onto the lips of the contestant, this could get spicy. Kid with sick bucket in place, the victims dive in, and two wings down one has already reached for the milk and… ahem… chickened out. Sorry. To everyone’s surprise the other contestants actually make it through all 5 levels and have to have their fate decided by a milk chugging challenge instead, so I put it to you TLR – these wings are sincerely NOT hot enough and need to be upgraded for next year.

On the main stage, hailing from New Jersey we have Breland – bouncing onto the stage wearing a ranch-print double denim outfit that I would sincerely like to own. He is so full of energy and joy that it radiates to everyone in the absolutely huge crowd that has gathered to see him – “This is my favourite country to play you know, y’all are so much fun” he grins. ‘High Horse’ and ‘Thick’ have everyone absolutely captivated, so it’s just the icing on the cake when he brings out first Alana Springsteen and later Kezia Gill for some epic duets.

After a quick trip to the cake truck for a truly decadent cookie cup thing, Eli Young Band take to the stage with the confirmed earworm ‘Saltwater Gospel’, shouting out that TLR has “…been on [their] bucket list for a long time now”. Once again there is a huge crowd (thankfully) bathed in sunshine just enjoying the music, and it’s a gorgeous sight, it feels like the last hurrah of summer, especially when they give us a huge Walk The Moon ‘Shut Up and Dance’.

Now, in place of hastily cancelled headliner (a week out) Jon Pardi which left a lot of diehard fans very upset, we are instead in for a night of country powerhouse singer-songwriter Cam. After the forum fallout of Jon Pardi’s cancellation, on the back of last year’s similar circumstances with a Long Road headliner, the announcement that Cam would be replacing was met with absolute delight, so however Baylen and team managed this, absolute kudos to them.

With a huge white draped curtain across the back of the stage, and a mini podium set up, you could be forgiven for feeling like we were heading to church this evening, and Cam comes onto the stage dressed all in angelic white herself. It’s 20’s flapper meets zoot suit, with a rhinestone bralette and she looks sensational, but when she opens her mouth to sing the first lines of ‘Redwood Tree’ she could have turned up in a bin bag for all I care. What a damn incredible voice.

It’s a cloudless and cool night, definitely the cusp of Autumn and Cam is practically radiating sparks. Shouting out “I said yes to this before I even knew if my band were free, because I just love how you guy are. I hear y’all were in a pickle, that’s what friends do right? If you call me, I’ll be there” she elicits a massive cheer from the appreciative crowd in front of her, spanning the depths of the main stage area. This is truly every single person on site at this point.

‘Half Broke Heart’ and ‘Slow Down’ are oozing with all the charm and summer warmth that I think romanticises country music for us Brits, it speaks of scenes we can imagine rather than those we’ve experienced, and there’s something quite escapist in that. “Here’s one for the lovers, who’s in love right now?” she says to a chorus of excited whoops, “Aww cute, just when you think the world sucks” she giggles. “This one goes out to my California brother who couldn’t be here tonight… I want him to experience what I’m experiencing tonight” she calls out before going into a cover of Jon Pardi’s ‘Head Over Boots’, which I think is a really nice thoughtful touch to the set-list.

We also get a cover of ‘Palace’ the song she wrote with/for Sam Smith in all it’s synthy-glory, which is a bit of an unexpected sound for The Long Road, but it works. However, it seems the one everyone has been waiting for is ‘Diane’ as Cam picks up a guitar, and the echo of thousands of people singing along hums across the site.

Patti Smith Group cover ‘Because The Night’ is kitschy fun, and encore acts ‘Mayday’ and ‘My Mistake’ are unmistakably beloved by this crowd. I truly believe this is one of the best accidental switches that could have been made because Cam was the perfect ending to this year’s Long Road festival, embodying the truest spirit of family and the sentiment ‘Welcome home, old friend’.

All around site there are still fires burning, country-oke playing and friends still laughing, the night is still young but we are heading home. It feels like the true end of the high summer, that we got one last bout of sunshine and carefree days. Until next year, Long Road, you’ll be missed.