Redfest 2014 Review

Robin’s Cook Farm in Surrey played host to intimate festival Redfest, for 2 two days this July 2014 weekend. Redfest is now in it’s 8th year, the festival progresses a little each time round. Altogether this festival includes many contrasting genres: Rock, Indie, Dance. Redfest is decorated in an creative fashion, with lot’s of great photo opportunities, in a beautiful sunny field (minus 1 near torrential, but well needed, downpour).

We were lucky enough to see The One Hundred‘s very first gig last year, it’s great to see them out on the festival circuit already. They played tracks ‘Breed’ their first released single. They also played newly released track ‘Downfall’ taken from their debut EP ‘Subculture‘. The One Hundred mix dance with rock, with metal, and with Jacobs unique rap voice. He told us later on that day that ““It shouldn’t work, but it just does”. Watch the full interview here.

The Struts were one of those bands you don’t think you would be interested in, but actually you stop what you are doing and watch them. Much more classic rock in a Beatles or even Queen sense. Lead singer Luke Spiller gives me a David Bowie vibe – which immediately makes me like them. We love all bands from the 80’s here at RAMzine, and it’s rare to find bands not from that era that mimic that 80’s rock and roll stage presence. I am sure a big factor is Luke’s flamboyancy. Their stage presence is amazing, and they are able to get some crowd participation going very smoothly. The Struts debut album ‘Everybody Wants’ is out now! We shall certainly be heading out to get a copy.

Heart of a Coward headlined the Total Uprawr stage on the Friday night, fully bringing some Metal to Redfest! They get the crowd pumped, ready for Skindred headlining over on the main stage. Skindred were the band of the whole weekend, everyone was talking about their set. They manage to fit in anywhere they play iv seen them go down very well with the slightly more mature crowd at Hard Rock Hell, a mammoth crowd at Download Festival, and a younger Agincourt in Camberley. They play a little urban and they play a little metal, they cater for many music tastes. One highlight of their set included them performing ‘The Newport Helicopter’ –  If your not sure what that is see our video interview, which includes clips of the gig here. During the interview Arya Goggin (Drums) tells us how they came to play Redfest saying “I came as a punter last year, I came to check it out, see what it’s like. I thought it was great, they asked us to play, dream come true right?”. Mikey Demus (Guitar) goes onto say “These little festivals are great, as people who can’t afford the bigger festivals, get to come and see the bands they want to see”.

Our Hollow Our Home rocked some melodic metal core on the Total Uprawr stage. This is a band who have really come a long way in which seems a short amount of time. Josh White (Guitar) says “Redfest was amazing for us, we are so humbled to be sharing the stage with such great bands. We had an awesome time, and the crowd were so good to us. Would love to play here again!”. The band have rumours of a new album on the horizon, so keep an eye out for that!

Derby 3-piece Lost Alone were on the Total Uprawr stage. Playing tracks such as ‘Getting What You Pray For‘ , ‘The bells!, The Bells!’ and ‘G.U.I.L.T.Y.’. We spoke to them prior to their set, to talk about the ’emo’ label, and how the negative view of the media has effected the band. (Interview coming soon to RAMzine!).

The Blackout put on a great show. They played their now classics ‘Children of the Night’ , ‘Higher and Higher’ , and ‘I’m a Riot? Your a fucking Riot!’. Singer Sean Smith jumps down into the crowd to party with the fans, and at one point just stands in the middle of the circle pit, watching it get faster and faster. If you have seen The Blackout before you will know that they like to get everyone to get down low at one point in the set, and when the music peaks everyone jumps up, resulting in one big mosh pit. They finished the night with ‘Start the party’  the debut single from their 2013 album, of the same name.

Redfest was very fun, and a comfortable festival. This year saw a big family camping area, as well as a standard campsite. This is a very clean festival, with nice local food and drink. With a range of bands playing and different genres, it really is a great festival that would cater for a multitude of different people, and friendship groups. The silent disco which was anything from silent (due to everyone singing their little hearts out to every song) provided great night time entertainment for festival goers.

Bring on next year! We had a great festival experience.
www.redfest.co.uk

Live photos (above) by Neil Mach ©. Facebook photos (below) by Victoria Purcell ©.