Summer Sundae Weekender

Summer Sundae is what all festivals should be - small, friendly, clean, well-organized and pretty inexpensive. It cost us, for a full 3 day festival for 2 tickets what Reading/Leeds costs for one ticket. They sell camping based on the number of tents (£2 a tent), so they can regulate how full the campsites get. The beer is served at regular bar prices and the food is of a higher quality than most festivals, and much of it is organic and fair trade as well. They use the grounds of DeMontfort Hall in downtown Leicester, and the nearby University and a local college, so the second stage is inside the hall and you have access to the indoor bar and the clean, dry toilets. The main stage is a natural amphitheatre, so visibility is good, and because it's a small festival for hardcore music lovers and families, nobody camps out on the barrier all day, so you can get a good spot, leave to go and get food or watch another band and then come back down the front again if you wish.

As for the music - it was a lineup of up and coming indie, established indie, older bands like the Proclaimers and The Blockheads, and loads of odd and unusual world music and folk and country acts. It appealed to us for bands like Elbow, Forward Russia, Brakes, Belle & Sebastian, Boy Least Likely To and Isobell Campbell. Others were there for the likes of A Hawk and a Hacksaw and Joan As A Policewoman (yuck!). The sets were varied and enjoyable, and I even spotted Steve Lamacq of Radio 1 / 6 Music fame crowd-surfing during Forward Russia.

Overall, this was a brilliant festival in every way. It was friendly, safe, fun, cheap and full of great music. We'll definitely be going back in the future!

When you have a security guard calling you sir, and cheerfully directing you to camp, you know it is going to be an unsusal festival experience.

Indeed, such marvellous things as clean portakabins, clean and working showers, and cheap nutritious and diverse catering options, make for a thoroughly relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. They even use the main hall as an "Indoor Stage", providing all festival-goers with somewhere solid to shelter under, and with guaranteed clean and usable toilets.

Because De Montfort Hall is used as a concert venue all year round, the festival is not beholden to profit. This means you don't have to drink overpriced mass market lager, tooth rotting soft drinks, and eat from expensive botulism in a wrapper vans on-site. As long as there's no glass, you can take in whatever food and drink you want.

Another refreshing and innovative change, is the cheap child option, at just £5 a day for under-16's. This means there is a plethora of young families, so people naturally behave better than the toilet block incinerators that marred the last Leeds I went to. The closest thing that there was to trouble, was a security guard saying "that's enough lads" at about 2.30am to some people playing guitar, and astonishingly, they all went in!

This relaxed attitude permeates through to the acts, even a supposed curmudgeon like Patti Smith, beamed throughout and seemed genuinely gracious as she redefined what a headline set should be, with Smith rampaging through a greatest hits set, with the raw energy of a 20-year-old New York street punk. This sent the crowd into fits of delirium, and even had a cynic like me rushing forward to shake her hand.

Among other acts, rising stars The Magic Numbers, brought out the sun and their beautifully wistful brand of 60's-influenced harmony pop was absolutely flawless, with singer/guitarist Romeo Stoddart, seeming like the happiest man alive as he played. This relaxed, happy attitude was infectious among all bands, and even though I saw approximately 20 pro acts, not one of them disappointed, even the joke band Art Brut were thorughly entertaining.

My only quibble is with some of the scheduling. The clipped funk of Hot Chip should have been much later on in the day than half past one, but as Devandra Banheart and Luke Haines showed in their different ways, quieter does not mean duller. Both men charmed the crowd in their different ways - Banheart with his brand of ramshackle folk and country rock, and Haines with his mordant wit and pin-point social satire.

Another thing I enjoyed were the local acts that they invited on before the main event that day, and even the couple of these that I saw - the Coralesque Post-War Years, and the semi-pro bluegrass band Smoky Grass Mountain Boys, were acts that should be on more than just one festival bill.

In short, why are more people not coming to this? OK, there are not the "big" bands - but as all short people will attest to, "bigger" does not necessarily mean "better". And with more festivals sharing the same bill, why not try something a little off the beaten track?