Three (Main) Stages. Three Days. Plus a few extra if you camp, for the line up and the price you can’t miss this up-and-coming festival!
With an obvious focus on electronic music and art, it brings something unique to the festival scene. From big names on intimate stages, to newer underground DJ’s as well as residents, with a variety of
genres; House, Psy-trance, Dub, Glitch-Hop, Techno, and more, there is something for
everyone here.
I get on my way with a flurry of activity, as dramatic clothes, camping equipment and festival essentials are crammed into a bag and
slung heavily on my back. The ‘far to real’ train journey starts my descent into all things “Noisily”.
When I arrive, the sun is beating down on the festival, which is beautifully situated in Noseley Hall Grounds. People start to intermingle, connect and share snippits of information
as a ‘BoomBox BassBin’ (Thanks to Wonkay Records/Duskky) fills the air with music, the mind-expanding vibes are already flying as strangers become friends.
The festival site (and camping area) is compact with showers and plenty of ‘porta-loos’, easy to get from stage to stage and
a really nice layout within the site itself, each stage had a definite individual style, however Noisily has its own distinctive ‘theme’.
With easy access to get to the front if you wanted, and usually a seating area around the stage, this gives people of all ages and abilities a chance to enjoy the music. Some festivals you spend most of your time having to fight your way to get to the front and see the DJ you’ve paid for! Noisily gives you the best access to the most current live acts around being able enjoy and discover new artist’s on intimate stages for the price and the line-up.
Noisily’s music goes on until so late that the festival stays open till six am (Food closes at 10am) ! Although a small capacity of 5000, you feel as if you have met everybody and know everybody, there was a real community spirit where people felt as if they had known each other for years. The people are like minded and have travelled from all over the country and some from different part of the world but all brought here by one common love, Electronic music. Mostly veteran festival goers, with a real old school ‘free-party’ feel. A Noisily community is born, strangers become friends, after setting up camp, everyone around me was sharing food, tea, stories and laughs.
Music starts at twelve every day (a great wakeup call) after finishing at six on Friday and Saturday but then finishing early on Sunday at Eleven.
Although a small site, there is plenty of different food with vegetarian options as well;
Piri Piri Chicken, Wood-fire Pizza, Curry, Cake, Smoothies, Game and more. Plenty of Bars on every corner, which means small queues! The cost of booze is average festival prices, as is the food, varying from £1.50-£10, however you can bring your own food and drink (don’t forget to decant into plastic bottles though!) but always nice to get some hot food in you at some point!
Hallucinatory eye’s erupt around me as the décor appears from the woods, this festival definitely has a psychedelic feel, with UV lights, jellyfish, UFO's, sculptures and ‘holographic’ art. As you walk around the site and start to look at the finer detail, you realize that a lot of creative ideas and work have gone into the décor itself. The crew have worked hard to construct seating areas within the site, from cute wooden benches, to sofa seating, the decorations are unique and create a great vibe, however the site really comes alive at night, with lasers and smoke machines creating the essence of the ‘rave’. Paths are well lit but some more light in the camping areas wouldn't go amiss!
Stalls are dotted around, selling some of the most beautifully unique handmade crafts ever! From textiles, to jewelry, juggling equipment and face paint! A real shame they were not on the main path, but plenty of people exploring their wares! By talking to a few stall owners, if you’re new to the festival scene there is definitely money to be made. Noisily stall prices are reasonable and with the right crafts you could make some decent money.
The systems are all Function One, except one Opus Audio sound system, however they all have achieved the highest quality sound possible. A lot of thought has gone into creating the perfect sound, on all the stages. Function One monitors for all the DJ’s shows the high quality professionalism taken towards the quality of the sound.. A variation of technological hardware used by DJ’s creating unique sets, and live performances, enhanced by their own unique mixing style and equipment, you not only see some of your favorite DJ’s but some of the newest and unique equipment available on the market.
There is a focus on Art as you see things develop around you over the weekend, you can defiantly feel the creative souls and ideas put into the decoration of the festival.
I really enjoyed seeing the graffiti work progress during the festival and I think they should get some more people to do more graffiti work, however the art work I saw around the festival was beautiful. All you artists out there should get in contact next year if you think you could participate, this will definitely give you some great exposure.
The Stages
Noisily Stage
The Noisily stage’s music floods the campsite and keeps the party fuelled all day long, it has a large dance floor and easy access to get to the front with a big bar at the back, as well as an awesome lighting rig. This stage is definitely one to watch, also, as it is the first stage you see, it makes an impact as well with the light show which cascades through the trees at night.
Liquid Stage
Liquid stage is fuelled by psychedelic flowers and patterns reaching high into the sky, this is also the Opus Audio sound system, however it again had a great light show that took over the stage, easy dancing access to get to the front or back and a great little sloping seating area on the right hand side of the stage, a real ‘free’ vibe up here, as well as lots of juggling dancers.
Tree House Stage
Tree-house stage was up in the woods – a great stage – with a disco-ball in the center as well as Urban shamans laser box. Also nice seating areas to relax in! It’s a hidden Gem at the top of a wood chip path, however it was obvious from the line-up most people came for the psy-trance artists, however all weekend the Tree-house stage had some awesome beats pumping out.
In addition there was also two mini stages, one was the ‘Boombox’
and one was the ‘Taurus’
The Boom Box was a great idea, submerging the DJ in the box itself, and when it lit up at night it looked awesome. There were also some great DJs playing on it at random times.
Taurus Stage
Taurus stage was a mechanical bull – it reminded me of the Midas bull story where they put a human inside a metal bull and heated it up! The DJ was encased in the metal – it must be an awesome stage to play on! The Taurus spat flames and had an unfinished but amazing feel as the flames pump hard into the night.
The Line up had some time changes etc so you had to keep checking on the information boards, however they were updated regularly and festival was small enough that if you needed to run to a stage, or from the campsite, you could.
Daily Break-Down
Friday
Friday was all about Noisily stage which was also broadcasting on Bassport.Fm (http://bassport.fm/) which I thought was a great idea to not only get more people aware of Noisily but give the DJ’s more promotion. This should defiantly be adopted at every stage next year! Bringing the music community together in a bigger way this means it can reach a big audience etc and promote underground radio stations.
Starting off the day with M.O.M, Bunkle
& Dusky, Terrorbyte, Krymes, William Breakspeare, Your Niece, Head of
State,Tom Bull, and others vibes were flying as the dance floor fills up although other artists were playing today’s line up was all about Noisily
The evening kicks off with Skope, Joe Ford, Gaudi, Far Too Loud, Atomic Drop, Free
Fall Collective. This stage kicked off as the dance floor went mental the first night was a raging successes. With curt de solely girls spitting fire to Joe Ford you couldn’t miss this stage it defiantly started noisily off with a bang.
Joe Ford’s set and Gaudi’s set were my favorite of the night however Far Too Loud knows how to get everybody moving.
This stage captivated me on the first night and I think a lot of people felt the same!
However on Liquid stage on Friday was Alex
Story, Renegade DJ, Neuroplasm and more. So depending on your personal preference their was plenty to see!
Renegade DJ played a wicked set and was nice to see a female DJ giving the boys a run for their money!
However I have to say the Treehouse stage was a secret Gem on Friday every time I went up their some awesome beats were flying, when Groove Assassin, Ben Mccabe and Seascape celebrated (seascapes) birthday in style!
Saturday
Saturday was all about Liquid this stage had a huge following every time I went up their the same smiling faces, dancing to the beat of trance, with Brainiac, Avalon, Lucas, Master
Blasters, Antispin, Scorb, Beardy, EVP, Psymmetrix, Sasha.
Avalon’s set stood out much like the shiny blazer he was wearing! However the mixing was spot on at liquid every time I was there and as the night drew in people continued to stomp into the night.
As the sun beat down the skin started to show as people enjoyed and relaxed in the summer heat! However the heavens opened at midnight but this did not dampen spirits as people made a quick change and continued to party in the rain. A euphoric moment at the psy-trance stage when the heavens opened and the tribal dance continued.
Although the site became very wet the crew had pre planned plenty of straw to make it safer but again more couldn’t of gone a miss!
The Mud added another angle of fun as people danced barefoot and became one with nature.
Saturday evening on Noisily had with Nanoplex, James Monro, Neurodriver.
Neurodrivers set was talked about by most of the people I spoke to and was defiantly another big hit.
Tree-house stage had: Elphino, 2562/AMUS Low Steppa, Kashi, however big shout out to Want More who played on Saturday they played an awesome set when I was up at the stage, although I was only their briefly they deserve a mention.
Sunday
Although it had dried out quiet a lot the mud was hear to stay but to be honest most people didn’t care. The Tree-house stage needed more straw to say one thing however you could still enjoy the music on Sunday. People put it all into Sunday I could feel the anticipation of not wanting to go home, as people continued to party hard to the music all day long.
On liquid stage you were blessed with : Monk3ylogic,Hedflux,Bad
Tango,OOOD,Lurker,Dexter, 2CBEEBIES, to be honest it finished off the night with a bang. Noisily stage finishing off with SYMPHONIX and PHAXE Treehouse finishing off with PANDA and TEED however I am not sure what time TEED played as I think they did not get on until later than planned!
As I pack up my gear and head off I feel sad to say goodbye to Noisily and the people I have met this is definitely a festival to watch this is only going to snow ball with bigger names, more people, more stalls, I can see this becoming a gem in any electronic music lovers festival crown. I cant wait to see what they plan to do and how they plan to expand next year.
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