Leopallooza 2012: A Festival Review
By Charlotte Gay
The echoes of music, fun and laughter have been replaced to the gentle lowing of cows as Leopallooza VII draws its 2012 festival to a close. Their story began seven years ago when four avid music lovers wanted to create a festival with genuine intentions, fair prices, volunteering friends and a great atmosphere. Leopallooza mark 7.0 proves their core values have not changed. They’re getting recognised for their work too with the Guardian this year naming it as a favourite boutique festival and one of the cheapest at that.
The DIY weekend snuggled away in The Wyldes of North Cornwall has left their followers with a warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia as many didn’t want it to end with requests for next year’s early birds tickets. It has been by far the biggest and most successful Leopallooza so far. Expanded by popular demand, music lovers were treated to an extra day with bands like BackBeat Soundsystem and The Adventures Of making the Friday night.
With everyone settled in by Saturday, the music was ready to kick the crowds into gear starting with Brother & Bones performing to audiences holding aloft unconventional crowd surfers in rubber dinghies. Later on the main stage saw the Man Like Me boys absolutely smash it, getting the crowds bouncing hard to their set and calling for encores whilst they clambered over the speakers and each other making full use of the stage. Of course the headline act Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip really made the night special and later tweeting and posting to Facebook “Leopallooza was dope, not sure we’ll play at a nicer festival for a long time!”
Of course the night couldn’t stop after the headliners retired. The Tree Line, this year’s open dance tent, kept the ravers going as long as they could last with eclectic remixes of chart toppers and popular new genres such as electro swing.
And if the music from the main stage, Beaver Bandstage and The Tree Line dance tent wasn’t enough, this year had another stage, The Rooks Nest, erected and playing home to Holland, DJ Godden and The Goodtime Boys. Another surprise to welcome to the Leopallooza fields was the roller disco, with adults and children alike revelling in the seventies nostalgia alongside the tunes of today.
As often comes with Sunday mornings, a hangover is much lovelier to nurse with chilled out music and great food. With a wonderful surprise guest of Newquay’s singer song writer Ruarri Joseph audiences munched on gourmet homemade crumpets and luxury crepes. Lucy Rose headlined the main stage with her delicate voice drawing the festivities to a close but it has to be Charlene Soraia who stole Sunday’s limelight. With only a few hours’ sleep, the dedicated performer chatted like friends and astounded audiences with her incredibly high vocal range.
The only complaints heard were of the energetic few wanting to party even harder into the early hours of the morning instead of sleeping. With memories of the iconic burning car, the bands and the audiences alike will not be forgetting Leopallooza in a hurry. We can only hope that Team ‘Pallooza keep delivering as they have each year so far.
