Just back from a five-day rigging and sound marathon at Winterwell festival 2011. Held in a ’secret’ location in the Cotswolds, this is a small boutique festival with a capacity of only around 1500.

It was my first time at this particular event, and it has a great atmosphere – there’s none of the large officiousness of big festivals, just a bunch of people having a great time in some beautiful surroundings. The theme for the event was ‘board games’ and there was fancy dress a-plenty to enhance the party wonderland vibe.

I was working on the main stage providing monitor mixes via a Soundcraft MH2 and EAW microwedges. FOH was dealt with using an EAW KF730 line array (perfect for these smaller events) and a Digidesign Venue SC48 console.

These weekends are always a bit of a blur of acts, but the one that sticks in my mind is Rockaoke – a chance to live out your rock god dreams live on stage – although next year we may need to pack the autotune…

On stage (in no particular order) were:

Badger Badger
The Nextmen
Man Like Me
The Milk
Rockaoke
The Milky Bar Kid
Lianne La Havas
Ellen and the Escapades
Urusen
Chapa
Life in Film
Peter Conway
London Afrobeat Collective
Barny Scott
Manos de Dios
Half Light
Underdog
The Scenes
Skinny Lister
The Music League
The Bookhouse Boys