Kelburn Garden Party 2010

It’s a garden party Jim, but not as we know it. Forget canapés on the lawn, straw hats and refined company – this weekend is all about waterproof trousers, bacon rolls, and neds and hippies coming together in shared appreciation of a good pounding bass beat.

Still only in its second year as a proper festival, Kelburn’s a long way from becoming commercialised or jaded, but sometimes the endearingly DIY schtick so evident in touches like the hammocks and magical fairyland stage decorations manifests itself more annoyingly as a lack of organisation: it’s fairly riling to find the band you were planning to see have already played on a different stage from the one you were expecting.

That said, the bands are great, if low-profile. It’s a diverse mix (hence the hippies and the neds, y’see) with highlights including Meursault’s epic bleep-folk, Hidden Orchestra’s double-drummer-powered funk masterpieces, Stanley Odd’s surprisingly effective Scots rap and Alex Cornish’s emotive acoustic folk and looper pedal antics. Topped off with samba bands, a fire show, a waterfall, alpacas and a selection of top DJs, you could say Kelburn is trying to be all things to all men – and not doing a bad job at all either.