My First Festival: Solihull Summer Festival

For a couple of years, I have been wanting to go to a festival. The question is which festival would be the best to go to as my first? V Festival? Glastonbury? Thankfully, the answer came in the form of the Solihull Summer Festival.

I decided to go to this one as it is small and easy to get to from where I live. Also, the line up wasn't too bad. It had well known bands, Toploader, The Noisettes,  Andy Bennett, from Ocean Colour Scene and The Pigeon Detectives, as well as new bands: Chasing Deer, an indie band from Solihull, and 2 Weeks Notice, a group who do covers of Indie Rock bands.

So...what did I think? Well, considering it was my first festival I thought it was good. In fact, it helped me discover new music, in the form of Chasing Deer. The songs were quite good and they had a certain indie rock band feel, which is always a plus in my book! They even did a great cover of Mumford and Sons' I Will Wait. I just hope that in the future they become successful because they deserve it.

Another highlight for me was 2 Weeks Notice, who did covers of popular indie bands. Their covers included Coldplay's Yellow and The Killers' All These Things I have Done. However, the most popular cover was Oasis' Champagne Supernova, which got everyone singing. In fact, the act was so popular that the DJ hosting the festival got booed when he said that the next act had to come on stage. It also led to one guy yelling at 2 Weeks Notice to come back and sing Supersonic...and no in case you're wondering, unfortunately that guy did not get his wish.

In terms of the festival in general, I thought it was really good. It is definitely the best in terms of going to your first festival, if you are unsure what to expect. It is a nice family friendly festival as well. It is also very accessible, which for me is very important, as part of the set up is it has a wheelchair viewing platform for the main stage, providing a fantastic view. The only problem was that the viewing platform just so happened to be directly in the sun that day but I didn't mind because I would rather the weather be sunny instead of rainy for my first festival!

So...overall if you are wanting to go to a festival then I definitely recommend this one as your first. It is also extremely child friendly. The best part is it is not too expensive and any money from the event, such as ticket sales, goes to local Birmingham charity, Help Harry Help Others.

Now, to decide my next festival, as I have definitely caught the festival bug!

Em x