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Raehills Meadows
13-16 June, 2024

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For every Eden there are thousands of Edenites, all bound together by a boisterously beautiful sense of community, but whose experiences are all different – like snowdrops or summat. OK, there might be your favorite bands, stages, tents, etc.; & there’s those folk you haven’t seen for a whole year & the inevitable Italianesque explosion of greetings when we meet each other. But each Edenite’s Eden is never the same – similar, yes, but always, always different… & so it certainly proved for my Eden 2024.

My Friday there began hundreds of miles away in Burnley, Lancashire – which not only has the best bingo & black puddings in the country, but also avoided the deluge that struck Raehills Meadows that day – ensuring the luscious vegetation of the estate would be thoroughly gorgeous this summer, but also setting up the conditions for a perfect storm of quagmireity… this was gonna be a muddy one. Indeed, my pals Linda & Jason, who I’d met in last year’s sunathon, would eventually message me…

Been looking out for you but we’ve just bailed. Too cold and wet. Have a good one – see you next year?! 

But there were thousands who would defy the weather, one of whom was chatting to me about the Friday… saying it was chucking down all day, then the clouds cleared & the sun jump’d out just as Mickey 9s hit the Great Mountain Stage – creating a treble boost of beautiful enthusiasm… Eden, the Sun, & Mickey 9s’ – let’s have this!

Compering the stage that Friday was David Blair, who posted the following;

Eden Festival Friday 💚 Mud. Compering 🎤 on the Great Mountain Stage again. Thank you to all our amazing team on and offstage there. Mickey 9s ⚡️ incredible set – well played Antony, David, Dougie and Ross – on the aforementioned stage 👏 Thank you to our M9s crew CJ McWhinnie and Taylor Takiwatanga Mair for all the help and support and to ma wee festival 💚 fairy 🧚‍♀️ Mairead 🥰 for being the yin to my yang ☯️ Thank you to all the Edenites who joined us in huge numbers for the post-funk-evil-disco main stage party 🤘

That was David, btw, on stage with the Mickey 9s, pulling off a Maradona-Bez !

Back in Mumble world, I caught the train from Burnley, getting to Preston in time to watch the Scotland-Germany game in the pub (not pretty), before catching the 21.40 train north.

Changing at Carlisle, I then caught the train to Dumfries, arriving just shy of midnight. The town was full of post-footy revellers, & I was the only Edenite there. Luckily, at the taxi rank, I met a guy heading a few miles in the direction of the site, so his tenner & my twenty got me to St Anns Bridge at about 1AM – result. 

I was now about 2 miles shy of the site, but I could hear it, & with every footstep the sounds grew louder, & with the moon shining low over the festival verdure, it was a wonderful sight – I was well excited.

Putting my tent up in the nearest green camp field space, I got in for the last couple of hours revelry – pass’d in disco delight at The Bodega tent, a newbie for 2024, whose line-up would be filled with events featuring cabaret, comedy, DJs and cocktails! 

I woke up Saturday morning in a corner of the family field, which reminded me just how family-friendly this festival actually is. There’s loads to do for the kids, & for those I spoke to, for many it was their first one. ‘In at the deep end,’ I quipp’d in regards to the mudpools, ‘if you live in Britain, it’ll happen again – get used to it!’

One Carlisle family I was camp’d right next to left on Sunday; all, that is, except for dad, who remained behind to catch some London DJ’s he was well in to. I saw him Monday morning after a ‘great night,’ – so, yeah, Eden is perfect for families, the kids love it & the parents can slip away for a boogie!

Back in the realms of Saturday morning, I promptly ventured into the campsite with my gin & tonics, mingling & mumbling & meeting The Back Green Singers, who were revving up for their midnight gig by simply jamming all day. Great tunes, great sounds, & great lads. I especially liked their Deep River Blues – a reyt bangin’ tune that, like!

An hour or two later my co-reviewer/band-mate arrived from Glasgow with a guitar on his back – the unirascible, irreplaceable Daniel Donnelly. Pitching his tent up next to mine, & explaining to the child-laden families about us that he was actually my son, just a little big-boned, we were soon hitting the party !! Talk about transcendent fiesta love vibes, I had an amazing time stomping about in the mud barefoot in various places, including the Boardwalk stage, co-ran by my Leeds pal, Gremlyn Hagan.

I have to say ‘co-ran’, cos last year I wrote that he was in charge, & he got told off by his posse for it (apparently). But if he’s not the boss, he’s definitely the hardest working among them, as attested by his everpresence on the cycles (inbetween DJ gigs), keeping the power flowing both electrically AND spiritually! Of Eden 2024, Gremlyn said;

Another great Eden Festival, although it was a bit soggy. Really proud of our stage, our crew that run it and the hard work Cam and I put into creating a brilliant lineup! Thanks everyone for sharing your talents. #theboardwalkstage

After the Drum & Bass stuff at the Boardwalk, there’s very little of the Saturday I actually remember, so buzzing was the atmosphere at Eden that night. Let’s say I get all shamanic on these occasions, like Ginsburg at Woodstock – it’s a part of the poetical vocation, I’m thinking. Whatever it is, luckily my co-reviewer was on hand to actually turn the experience into words…

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DANIEL’S FIRST EDEN

Whatever your reason is to turn up at a music festival in Scotland get ready for a big taste of life outside the box. The Dumfries Eden Festival shone for a day then took the guise of the great companion of life enhancing mud. This year was my first there and it has also been too long since I went to any of them. 

Not far into Dumfries we find the valley of Raehills Meadows where this most enchanting weekend had the look of to be honest something perfect, and as I set to my tent I really relished the fact that I was there to review some of this greatest of times brought about each year.

Its cleverly concealed from view aside from a small sign on the road you wouldn’t realise it was there, this level of cherished carefulness sprang from the fact that the whole festival was family friendly. This detail proved highly significant as to its styles and prowess’s of the awesome carved inlets, big top tents and street like softly lit that led you through the multi facetted layout.

This is its blessed 14th year for Eden in its journeys where musical progression is internationally recognised as sincerely one of the best. Moving in its atmosphere, created entirely by volunteers, the powerful presence of participation wrapped up in folk lore and legendary revelling.

Much of the magic of moving through the mud helped turn reaching each venue it was the joy of a dry floor accompanied with the sheer marvel of mastering treading through such frank nature. 

We sidled up to begin with a tear jerking jovial taste of total disco having found the famous Lost Disco stage, deep in the woods it seemed, to the beats of that most enlivening sound from Missed Your Disco and Shakti Mama Disco Diva & Friends letting loose the musky jives, clean disco licks and toe curling percussion.

The deep involvement arrived in waves and flourishes we found ourselves at a small venue called Bodega to find a conversational talk that at that moment happened to be concerning anxiety. A large tent sat the circled audience clearly embroiled in what he was saying. It turned out this venue was a new idea had by this great creative organisation that held the very fate and responsibility of being the beloved festival it now is well entrenched in.

I had the great advantage of going with a seasoned Eden Festival guide who enjoyed the greatness of the site that as I said led you around. You came to a kind of main street, I will here again mention mud, in its state because it made this journey of wonder into an epic journey almost feeling that you’ve traveled far.

Coming into their main stage that with a drum roll I can loudly announce its name Great Mountain stage how good is that and who doesn’t want to go there immediately! Carved from the finest wood and with the very finest of artistry sound boomed from the stage into the revelling crowd, it all looked like the power of love. 

Another impressive flourish was the atmosphere and thriving willingness to make time for every kind of music from choir music of Dumfries’s own Community choir, singing like angels sent from Eden. 

The relish of each tent and big top span by while we danced through the mud. The other famous Rabbie’s Tavern was clearly as heart warming as you’d expect, it nearly reached big top size with a nice large stage and music you could actually relax in.

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MEANWHILE, BACK IN DAMOWORLD

Sunday dawn’d, I was in my tent, my stuff was miraculously with me & I was revving to go. It was about 6AM, & I went to the fire, now placed on a hill above the site outside the entry-gates – a fantastic relocation. I took Daniel’s guitar with me & entertain’d the last of the Saturday partiers – a dozen or so folk to whom I performed a few INTERSTELLAR BLUES CRUISE numbers (mine & Daniel’s new band, first gig July 20th, Brodick, Arran). I then headed back to the site, woke Daniel up with a few spritzers, & took him into the campsite in proper troubadour fashion, pretending I was his agent on 85 percent.

After each song, applause & bravos erupted in a 200 meter radius, the first tentative whispers of the global appreciation I.B.C. will be getting on the release of their debut album, already entitled 2025 (recorded in the Autumn).

Dropping off the guitar, we then hit the main site again – even muddier than before, making the bar a base (bar tab not too bad – decent prices). This area has the Vishnu Lounge, Rabbie’s Tavern (Blue’s band were amazing, well play’d pal!) & also is close to the Melodrome Stage where, in the evening, there were two bands in a row which I really wanted to catch.

But first I bumped into Angie, who met me like an old mate & of whom I only had a vague recollection of meeting the previous ”magical, both trashed meeting “, so in love with the universe had I been. It was quite interesting to hear her reply to every bit of my chat – ‘you told me that last night Damo.’ Yeah, proper shaman, me! Her mate, by the way, Andrew Richard Jackson, provided a lot of the excellent elongated photos in this, can I say objectively, bangin’ review – cheers man!

So, to those two bands – first up was Tam Treanor’s YEAH!, an amazing ride through his, & bandmate Joey’s lyrical genius & astral soundscapery. Perhaps not the danciest in the world, but I was having a reyt boogie. Can’t wait to hear their album, should be a gamechanger.

Then came Motopia. Wow! What a transformation. I’d caught their first ever festival gig at Eden last June, & let’s say Joan Baez was in the house. Roll on twelve months, & I swear down we’ve got a new Janis Joplin on our hands, via Skunk Anansie providing the Britpop link. A classic four piece, whose guitarists are exceptional; whose drummer was genuinely dancey; & whose singer, Mairead Feagan, is a reyt retro swerveball of energy. She makes us smile, makes us think, & makes us dance – I’m totally looking forward to recording her further progress, for musically that was a pretty stratospheric rise this twelvemonth past.

It was finally time to hit the Lost Disco, 19 hours too late. Against all my best instincts, I’d never gone the previous Saturday night to catch the 10th anniversary of Shakti Diva Disco Mama’s headline act – I was in my kip. Best laid plans & all that. But in the dwindling Sunday daylight, I had a good hour stomping barefoot on the light-emitting dancefloor, after which my Eden 2024, a quality do by the way, was over… of which David Blair gush’d;

Eternal love and respect for everyone involved with the festival and for all their hard work to create such a beautiful Garden of Eden ☀️🌳🍄🌿🌻 paradise for us to festival in 😃 Thank you very much 🙏 to all the Eden family and to George Campbell for having me back on compering duties 🎤  An honour and a pleasure 🫶

What a festival family! 😍 Love ye’s all ❤ And sooooo good to see all the friendly Edenite faces again 💚

See ye’s back in the Garden next year!