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The Green Man Festival

 

Featuring:

pg7: Interview with Jo from The Green Man Festival.
Illustrations drawn to Green Man Poetry: Rose Cook illustrated by Emily Robertson
Paul cook illustrated by Anna Vicente

Green man contributions:
pg8: Interview with Gareth from Misty's big adventure
pg9: Interview with Musician - John Smith - Illustrated by Becca Thorne.
 

 

 

The Green Man Festival is a small alternative music festival started by folk act, It's Jo and Danny.

The first event took place in 2003, at the Craig Y Nos Castle built by Madame Adelina Patti, but moved in 2004 and 2005 to Baskerville Hall Hotel near Clyro (Wales). The last couple of years the green man has been hosted at Glanusk Park. Each year the event has grown in size. The Green Man Festival has been labelled a folk music festival, but incorporates related styles of music too.

This year saw headline sets from Joanna Newsom, Robert plant and Ian Malkamus. Creature's highlights fromthis year inlcude Mistys big adventure, John Smith and the Broken family band all of which can be found within the festival edition.

Creature has been in attendance for the past two years, the atmosphere is relaxed, the music is good and the setting idillic, we would whole heartedly recommend this festival to any folk/alternative music fan. The organisers are proud that the event has retained its anti-corporate feel yet continues to thrive...

Creaure managed to grab a minute of Jo's time to ask her a few questions about this lovely little festival.

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What makes Green Man different from other festivals?

I think probably that we are musicians ourselves and we have always organised it out of love rather than a corporate event set up purely to make money. We've been copied by both huge corporations and small independents over the years - that's kind of wierd!

Did you ever think the Green Man would be as successful as it has been?

We were always so foccused and the growth has seemed so logical that we do have to take a step back every now and again to remind ourselves where we were five years ago!

Which artist do you think most captured the Green Man spirit most this year?

It's very hard to say, everyone always seems to play their socks off at the green man, I think there's a magic in the air that everyone feels. I honestly wouldn't want to highlight anyone, but seeing Robert Plant play A Whole Lotta Love was pretty special!

 
 

You have been organising this festival for five years now, what is your most treasured memory?

Again, very hard to say. I love every minute of the festival, even (when I look back) the stressful moments. 2005 was a very special year, seeing a buzzard flying under a full moon as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy played 'I See A Darkness' was pretty cool. Someone let a red smoke flare off and everyone went 'ooooh' that made me tingle a bit it's fair to say!

How much of a difference does the weather make for festival organisers?

Well, the rain can make things tricky from an organisational point of view. The mud made it difficult to move some of the heavy vehicles etc around, loading on and off stage etc. We were well prepared and everything went smoothly though.

Do you get to go to all the other festivals for free, like a brotherhood?
To be honest we haven't really gone to any other festivals recently. We have played the large ones as it's jo and danny and obvioulsy used to go to Glastonbury and Reading before we started the Green Man. We're thinking of going to Bestival next year, now we can relax a bit.

 
 

Whats do you enjoy most about running a festival?

It's a buzz booking the bands, seeing the whole thing take shape. The cinema and kids area are fun to organise too.

How do you think the new layout worked this year?

Very well. We'll tweak a few things next year, we learn every year.

Do you all work full time, all year round?
Yes, although this time of year we're kind of recovering and thinking of ideas rather than working solidly in a traditional sense.


What advice would you give anyone who is thinking of organising a festival?

Don't try and be flash by starting too big.


What bands are you hoping to book for next year
That would be telling!
 

 

 

 

As part of the Creaturemag Festival Edition and inspired by our trip to The Green Man Festival in Wales, we asked the happy people for their interpretations of The Green Man. Whether this was in the form of a poem, a drawing, anything at all,we were interested to discover the range of differing interpretations and have displyed our favourite ones here in our Green man Feature.

What is The Green Man? The Green Man is that spirit, energy, presence, inherent in every cell of the vegetative realm. The green man has many different faces and variations. Branches or vines may sprout from the nose, mouth, nostrils or other parts of the face, and these shoots may bear flowers or fruit.

The Green man can be found in many cultures around the world, primarily it is interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, or "renaissance", representing the cycle of growth being reborn anew each spring.

 

A poem by Rose Cook
Illustrated by Emily Robertson

 

 

Green Men at Exeter Cathedral
It seems only the green man's head
looks out from corbels and roof bosses here.
Is this because the green man wears no cover,
only leaves to shield him from our gaze?
Safer to decapitate him,
avoid the problem of his phallus;
which stands, fulsomely, for fertility after all.

 
 

 

 

Poem by Paul cook - Illustration (right) by Ana Vicente

old
It’s in the memory of birds this age
The post on which to perch to proclaim mornings glory
The spots of the past where the pickings are richest
The ancestors favourites the old places
It’s in the roots of the trees this age
As they suck, in the leaves as they fall
With some knowledge returning to earth, to roots
To nature, to nurture, to be reborn
It,s in the stones the oldness
The mothers bones exposed less
Where moss and lichens creeping pace paints steadily
And the bird song seems distant like fading memories