The Festival Family is back together to celebrate two decades of friendship and fun
Of all the festivals we go to (and we go to a lot of festivals), Beautiful Days is the one that feels most like an annual family reunion.
Those who came to the first event (twenty years ago this year)as young children now have kids of their own, so there are often three generations of music fans forming large groups of tents up on the green hills looking down over the Escot House arena, which is framed by waving flags and at night lit up like a fairy grotto, with illuminations in nearly all of the grand old trees that dot the site.
As the gates opened on Thursday lunchtime the wagons and wheelbarrows trundled through the site as everyone made their way to their favourite corner, and from overheard conversations it was clear there were old friendships being rekindled and new ones being made.
There were soon small queues forming at the food stalls and bars, and by the evening, as the sun went down on a glorious afternoon, the whole site was teeming and alive with people spilling out of bars, gathering around the fire performance circle, or getting in some early clothes shopping to get in with the spirit of the weekend.
As usual, we were out with our cameras, so take a look to see if we caught you as you prepared for another great weekend of music, theatre, food, drink, and merriment.
