Best Festival: Krankenhaus

Krankenhaus continues to be my favourite festival. I seem to have become the festival’s unofficial ‘official’ photographer. Another great weekend with lots of friends, fantastic castle staff, and accommodating local pub. It strained me a bit this year. The Guardian asked the festival for photos for the morning after festival for half a dozen performances. I had to edit during the last day of the festival and into the early hours. The last day was a bit too much like work. However, this took nothing away from the joyfulness of the weekend. The festival creates such a glorious community bubble that you don’t want to leave. Outside our bubble the flag shaggers were imposing their idea of ‘Englishness’ across the country. Inside the bubble – the kind of Britain I want to live in. Every time I leave Ravenglass, I leave a little bit of me behind.

After the festival finished, we believed it was taking a year off. But then they announced a 2026 festival. Hopefully, I can find some accommodation in Ravenglass. I really don’t want to camp. But I will be there no matter what.

Best New Festival: Mutations Festival

SXSW London should have been a major milestone for the capital. The premier festival for discovering new music opening a London edition. Due to a combination of poor planning, an artist boycott and extortionate badge prices, the inaugural event fell flat on its face.

A new St Albans all-dayer made a good attempt of creating an indie festival for Hertfordshire. While it had an excellent lineup, attendance was low. I think with some tweaks, such as including local bands, they should be able to get the numbers up.

A new festival for me was the Mutations festival in Brighton. Think of it as a low key Great Escape. A multi-venue festival with a more concentrated lineup and smaller audience, guaranteeing easier access to venues and less chance of settling for watching a band I’m not interested in. However, because of this, it is a festival where I will only attend if the lineup interests me.

Best Gig: Jehnny Beth at Camden Festival

For a short time, the Savages burnt with an intense flame. The flag bearers of the post-punk revival. Then they were no more. But the flame still burns brightly in Jehnny Beth. From the first minute, she completely dominated Camden Assembly. The energy and passion she brought to the Savages were still there. Playing music from her excellent new album and featuring her long time collaborator, Johnny Hostile, she showed that she is still a force of nature.

Album of the Year: The New Eve Is Rising

Another year when my listening habits have been curtailed by daily meetings and listening to too many podcasts and audio plays when I’m walking around London. However, there were a few highlights.

Heartworms finally released their debut album, ‘Glutten for Punishment’. Maybe slightly less intense than her EPs. But it was a good debut album.

‘Constant Noise’ by Benefits, took the energy and rage of their debut album but turned down the noise and increased the beats. The perfect soundtrack for the revolution.

However, there was only one contender for album of the year. ‘New Eve Is Rising’ by the New Eves. Folk music influenced by the Velvet Underground. Folk music with angular guitars and cellos. I find there is something hypnotic about the sound they have created.

Most listened to albums

• Band of Holy Joy – Scorched Jerusalem
• Benefits – Constant Noise
• Big Special – National Average
• Goddess – Goddess
• Heartworms – Glutten for Punishment
• Jehnny Beth – You Heartbreaker, You
• Jim Ghedi – Wastelands
• Richard Dawson – End of the Middle
• Sprints – All That Is Over
• The Wants – Bastard

Best Music in a film: Sinners

Stunning use of blues and traditional Irish music. Miles Canton, gives a standout performance, both as an actor and singer, as a blue musician.

Favourite Photo: Heartworms at the Bedford Esquires

I keep coming back to this photo of Jojo from the Heartworms. I photographed her a few times over the last few years. I know that early in her set she plays a theremin and there is a point where she stares intensely. This day I only had my pocket camera and was shooting from the crowd. Although later in the year, I photographed her with full gear and from the pit. However, the combination of stage height, position and lighting meant this was the perfect capture.

So are their queues? Well I didn’t experience any.  Although I did hear there were occasional queues at the Prince Albert and Hope and Ruin. But that’s pretty good going. This is nowhere near The Great Escape levels of queuing. All good? Well kind of. So let’s get the negatives out of the way before I talk about the positives. 

When you look at the lineup poster, the bands at the top that have been highlighted in bold, basically play at the same time. You have to choose who you want to see. That’s how they achieve the queuing sleight of hand. If you are choosing this festival over all the other options around, be aware of this. This may seriously change how interesting you might perceive the festival. What made me attend was that lots of my favourite bands were listed – but they all played at the same time. On Friday, DITZ up against Dry Cleaning, IST IST and University. Saturday, Lambrini Girls, Big Special, Benefits and Courting up against each other. It meant some difficult decisions.

Despite these difficult choices, I managed to finally catch IST IST, who were everything I hoped they would be. Benefits and Lambrini Girls brought their own takes on the state of society. I discovered a few excellent bands. For some reason, I had never seen Aint. Their set was enough to convince me that they are to be added to my must see list. Sadly, the other band who stood out, Golomb are from Ohio, so it might be difficult to catch them again.

Overall, it was an enjoyable festival. With a late afternoon start on the Friday and with most venues finishing relatively early on Saturday, it felt short compared to the Great Escape. TGE is much better value for money. However, it was nice to not have to queue. And with the festival taking place in November, hotel prices were much cheaper. Approaching the weekend, as a short weekend break in Brighton with some music, it worked. I suspect I will be back. However, I will wait until the lineup is announced.