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| Festival Preview: Green Man - Glanusk Park, Wales (UK), 15-17 August 2008 |
| Written by Beck Kingsnorth | |
 The UK's prettiest fest is upon us In few days' time Twisted Ear will be at the 6th annual Green Man festival. And of all the wonderful fests up and down the country that we get to go to, this one might just be our favourite. Its setting in the Brecon Beacons, with the misty Sugar Loaf Mountain looking down on the site, is probably unrivalled. The site sits in a natural amphitheatre so if it's sunny (okay, beggars can't be choosers - if it is dry) you can lounge about on the slopes watching the main stage. It's relaxed and low-key and going from stage to stage is never a trek.
As well as the live acts there are DJs till late; a children's area in Victorian walled gardens (with arts and crafts, storytelling, face painting, music workshops and more); late-night jamming sessions; literature; communal bonfires; film and theatre. You can also go and get yourself healed in various ways or get pregnancy advice from the Association of Radical Midwives. Or see a clairvoyant.
Green Man has a great range of food stalls, too. You can get outstanding pies (nobody does them better than Pie Minister), curries, falafels, salads, pasta, paella, barbecued fish, stonebaked pizzas, locally-sourced sausages - and we do mean local, from sheep raised on the festival site! - cakes, fish and chips and all sorts. The local school, Cwmdu School, also has a stall selling home-made cakes and sausages to raise funds to help save the school from closure; we haven't tried the sausages but we do speak from experience when we tell you that the cakes are incredible. The festival even has a Science Tent, where you can see two physics shows - 'Rock in 11 Dimensions’ with its rock guitars and mind-bending animations will get audiences thinking in multiple dimensions and take them back to the origins of matter; and ‘Top Ten Myths’ which uncovers the truth behind some urban science myths. Outside the tent the Institute of Physics will be 'busking' with their messy and sometimes noisy science demonstrations - well worth watching. We'll bring a full festival review next week, but in the meantime, here are the stage times:
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This year Spiritualized, Super Furry Animals and Pentangle headline the main stage on Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively. And whilst people loosely refer to Green Man as a 'folk festival', it's more than that - so although you'll see plenty of proper folkies like James Yorkston (who seems to be at this festival every year) you can also hear anything from psychedelic acid rockers Black Mountain to fellow Canadian electro-poppers Junior Boys. It's this eclecticism and the feeling of never quite knowing what you're going to stumble upon that gives Green Man much of its charm. 
The festival is geniunely independent and - here's one of the best parts of that - it runs its own bars. So instead of watered-down corporate lager you can get real ale and proper cider. If you've been to Green Man before you might like to hear that they've expanded the drinking establishments on offer for this year; there are three to pick from. There's The Pub near the main stage, The Green Man Café - which opens on the Thursday night - the new 'End Up' piano bar, which stays open til 6am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There will also be a cider bus selling hot spicy Somerset cider.
FRIDAY 15TH AUGUST 
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