Friday 9 August 2013

Britain and Europe's poshest music festivals


(CNN) -- Is the music festival as scene of warm beer, ear-drum-shattering amplification and mud-splattered mayhem under threat?


With Britain's Eton-educated Conservative prime minister, David Cameron, spotted at Cornbury -- aka Poshstock -- this year, Glastonbury tickets costing upward of $300 and yurts and hempseed smoothies present at even the most ordinary events, all the evidence is there.


At these popular upscale music and culture fests in Britain (the country seems to specialize in them) and Europe, guests are as well-bred as the organic cows minced up for the burgers, the music avoids topics of social revolution and the booze may be bubbly, but it also tends to be French.


Cornbury Music Festival, Oxfordshire, UK

"A homespun melting pot where music-lovers share pies and a glass of champagne with superstars, toffs, rockers, crooners [and] Morris dancers."


That's how Cornbury describes itself.


Known as "poshstock," especially since British Prime Minister David Cameron was spotted there this year (albeit apparently hiding behind a pair of fake Ray-Ban sunglasses), the festival places great emphasis on comfort.


With accommodation options including yurts (yes, the surprise accommodation hit of the decade has even made it to this bastion of the British establishment) and fully furnished cabins, you feel as if you're checking into a charming little boutique hotel here, rather than attending a three-day open-air music festival.


Yoga workshops are available, should you suffer any back strain catching a glimpse of acts including Van Morrison and The Proclaimers.


The VIP tent has plush sofas and a hair salon if you get too out of sorts.


Cornbury Music FestivalFestival No 6, Portmeirion, Wales ; every July; day tickets from £15($23); +44 (0)844 581 0777

"Your weekend will be spent in the most stylish ... setting imaginable," declares Festival No 6 -- without modesty, true, but also without too much exaggeration.


Held in the achingly (literally, to some) quaint Welsh village of Portmeirion, a purpose-built resort modeled on an Italian village, venues include a ballroom and a "piazza."


Aphrodite Festival, Paphos, Cyprus

Accommodation ranges from Portmeirion Castle (now, a castle really isn't Glastonbury 1978) to, inevitably, "luxury yurts."


Among performance highlights at this year's "intimate, bespoke banquet of music, arts and culture," to quote the giddy festival organizers again, are the Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir, travel writer Jan Morris and harpist Georgia Ruth.


Held in the grounds of the city's medieval castle, Aphrodite is a global highlight on the opera lover's calendar.


Galtres Festival, North Yorkshire, UK

Singers might hit the high notes but you shouldn't get carried away by all the extravagant emotion depicted in the opera performances -- the prevailing mood here is genteel, just in the way it isn't at, say, the Bloodstock Open Air heavy metal festival in Derbyshire, UK.


Highlight of this year's Aphrodite lineup is the Donizetti opera L'Elisir D'Amore, performed by the Opera Future Verona.


"We British love our stately homes," says the 45-year-old director of this Yorkshire event, James Houston.


"Give us a fine tune, a glass of something nice to drink and a posh house, and we're the happiest folk in the world."


Thus is the posh-festival ethos perfectly articulated.


Apart from the venue, Duncombe Park stately home, the culinary approach here is about as starkly different from the lukewarm beer and equally lukewarm food of what some would regard as a properly grimy festival.


Øya Festival, Oslo, Norway

Everything is resolutely local, seasonal, "artisan" and Fairtrade, from the tea and cakes from the Deliciousness Tea Shop, to the Full of Beans coffee and the really rather annoyingly titled Boogie Breakfasts.



The Festival Outlook website calls Øya "boutique," which sounds about right.


You won't find soggy burgers, or even organic ones. All forest herbs and fungi, Scandinavian grub is front of the queue for discerning foodies at the moment, and Øya shows it off with pretentious elan.


Head chef at Oslo's Michelin-starred Maaemo restaurant, Esben Holmboe Bang is one of the culinary crew keeping hungry -- but picky -- festival-goers happy.


The festival venue is a historic Oslo park containing the ruins of a medieval church.


Tomorrow Land, Boom, Belgium

True, there's a camping ground -- but it has a pool and Wi-Fi.


With a nod to pre-organic-certified festivals of old, this year's lineup included graying rockers Blur and Kraftwerk.


Held in the aptly named Belgian town of Boom, Tomorrow Land is a three-day dance festival with a difference.


Henley Festival, Henley, UK

No doubt other substances will be consumed to augment the electronic beats, but the food is hugely different from the greasy takeaways that so often accompany a clubbing night out.


The pop-up onsite restaurant Maison Bru serves food by the eponymous Michelin-starred Belgian chef Wout Bru; there's a festival bakery; and gluten-free food can be ordered in advance for those sensitive types.


"Black ties. Sharp suits. Designer dresses. Generous servings of decadence, garnished with sophistication."


Thus the Henley Festival sets the scene for festival-goers "in the know."


Or, to put it another way, well off festival-goers.


Verbier Festival, Verbier, Switzerland

This posh Oxfordshire bash completes the Henley Royal Regatta every year, a rowing race whose entrants and spectators share a good concentration of blue blood.


You can spear moules frites and other French delicacies prepared by celebrated father and son chefs Albert and Michel Roux while listening to Madness and the Beach Boys, among other acts.


All pretty evening gowns and penguin suits, this elite classical music event takes place every summer in a little Alpine town in that home of all things pricey, Switzerland.


Big ticket performers have included Julian Lloyd Webber, Bryn Terfel and the young Russian classical star Evgeny Kissin.


Tapas on slate platters are among the superior servings at two pop-up restaurants.


Port Eliot Festival, Cornwall, UK

Interval chat could cover limited-edition time pieces and travel -- to other tax havens around the world, that is.


You won't find many camping enthusiasts here -- where would one hang one's designer gown? -- but there are plenty of upscale chalets to rent in the village and around.


The word "twee" inevitably suggests itself when describing this festival of music and the arts set in and around yet another stately home.


A sample of the non-headbanging performances on show include the poet Luke Wright, gentle satirist of yummy mummies and inbred aristocratic politicians, and a capella versions of pop songs from the 50 Degrees Choir.


Exhibits, when you tire of all that noise, have included a collection of dolls owned by various legendary fashion designers.


Metallica, watch out!


No comments:

Post a Comment