My Chemical Toilet

In-Tents Questioning: Green Man Festival – Katie Lee

Katie Lee kindly completed our questionnaire a couple of months back on her return from Glastonbury. Last weekend she took her big green Katiemobile to, appropriately, the Green Man Festival in Brecon, Wales. Here are her opinions and conga experiences.

1. Kindly tell us your name, age and where you’re from. Now.

I’m sure we’ve been through this... oh well, never mind. Katie Lee, 28, London

2. Which festival have you recently attended?

The Green Man

3. Have you attended this festival before? If yes, how does this year compare?

Yes, I have. It was still excellent, but busier and bigger, which is a Bad Thing. It’s not that I don’t want it to be a success, it’s just that I don’t want it to be spoiled like Glastonbury.

4. Which act gave the best performance, and why?

Victoria Williams (famous only for writing a song that Pearl Jam covered – Crazy Mary) absolutely blew me away. I thought she was amazing. Joanna Newsom and The Earlies were also excellent.

Green Man - Muddy Man

Another wet weekend calls for another festival and this week it was The Green Man Festival’s turn to be pissed upon. While less discerning musical goons travelled down the middle of the road to V Festival, more serious musos flocked in their masses to Glanusk Park in the Brecon Beacons to enjoy the likes of Vetiver, Devendra Banhart, Vashti Bunyon and Robert Plant.

Since its beginnings only four years ago in 2003, The Green Man Festival has gone from a small day long festival attracting only 350 beardy hippies to a whole weekend with 6,500 mellow folkies tapping their Jesus sandaled feet to folk royalty including Incredible String Band in 2005 and Donovan in 2006. Set beneath the somewhat magical sounding Sugar Loaf Mountain in the Brecon Beacons, The Green Man Festival is the perfect antithesis to the over-priced, over-hyped gash that a lot of the major players of the festival season have to offer.

Posted by Laura Silver on August 21, 2025 1:49 PM in Green Man Festival
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Festivals round up: Lily Allen, Foo Fighters and flying men

The rain may have come down but the weekend’s festival action was a rousing success. All the goss on Lily Allen’s Bush-slating, Dave Grohl’s Mum and daredevil festival-goers below.

- Channel 4 are calling this year’s V Festival ‘the best ever’. The unlikely duo of headline acts Snow Patrol and Foo Fighters stormed the event, and even made friends – with Grohl visiting Lightbody onstage for a kiss. It was a lovey dovey affair, with Grohl’s mum also joining the Foos onstage.

Up-and-coming acts - Nancy Elizabeth

If you're going down to The Green Man Festival, then, apart from the wonderful Arborea, another act you cannot afford to miss is the fantastic Nancy Elizabeth (now without the Cunliffe). Nancy is the queen of the folk torch song... the torch song with balls as big as King Kong's.

A huge hit at last years Green Man, Nancy wowed crowds with her delicate pickings and her voice... what a voice... a voice that lies somewhere between Thom Yorke and Sandy Denny (if your mind can cope with such a thing). With a batch of killer tunes that ask you for an ear then bowl you over into next week. Due a debut LP in September, Nancy is making all the right ears prick up and will surely be playing bigger stages in the coming years. Buy her EP before you have to cough up £100 on eBay in the future. Click here to visit Nancy's website.

Secret cave gig by Gruff Rhys at Green Man 2006

Here's a short film of a performance by Gruff Rhys and Gwyneth Glyn in a cave in the side of a Welsh mountain during the Greenman festival 2006. A unique and stunning performance.

Voice of the Seven Woods @ Green Man '06

With the Green Man Festival around the corner, it's worth looking at one of my highlights from last years festival. Voice of the Seven Woods performed The Firefly Dusk and got a big ovation for Paul Blakely (who is a pal of mine... so you, give him some applause as well!).

Tangerine Fields provide pre-pitched tents for lazy festivalgoers - bookings still available for T in the Park, Latitude, Carling Weekend

If you got to Glastonbury on the Thursday full of smug happiness you'd bagged a bargain on your tent, and left on Monday a soaked-though, mud-coated, cursing mess, then you'll think Tangerine Fields is a great idea.

They're a tent company who'll rock up early to your chosen festival, pitch your tent and it'll be all warm* and cosy* by the time you arrive.

*inside, at least. They're not magicians.

Up and Coming Acts - Arborea (Green Man Festival)

All this years festivals will have a myriad of great new bands to watch and fall in love with. However, by far the finest and most awe-inducing, in my opinion, are the amazing and incredible Arborea, who are due to take the stage at the 2007 Green Man Festival.

Arborea are everything that the Green Man Festival stands for. They are wild-living (in a pastoral sense as opposed to the Iggy Pop sense, you understand) and masters at tunes that have a rugged beauty like the rolling hills of the Brecon Beacons which surround the festival. Even though they hail from Maine USA, Arborea manage to hone in on the beautiful pastoral side of seventies Brit acid folk (think a stripped down Island Pink release from the early seventies), with a sniff of the dustbowl balladry of Guthrie and Leadbelly. This is a band that will reprogramme your mind and leave you flailing in a sea of aching beauty. You must see this band. Click here to visit their MySpace page.

Devendra Banhart to play Green Man

Beautiful weirdo Devendra Banhart has confirmed that he'll be playing the Green Man festival this year on Sunday the 19th of August.

Reknowned hippy-fest Green Man takes place between Friday 17th August and Sunday 19th, and will feature other chill artistes such as The Aliens, the Battles, and Victoria Williams as well as a few others - click here for full details.

Should you feel like making the trip to Glanusk Park in the Brecon Beacons, where I once spent a miserable family holiday in a three-man caravan (this will probably be better), head here for the full line-up. Tickets cost £98 per adult (including camping), with children under 11 going free. Those with a penchant for emptying their own toilets can bring a motorhome for £35 extra.

Green Man Festival adds more acts to already impressive line-up

The Green Man Festival - which is taking place at Glanusk Park, Brecon Beacons, Powys, Wales from Friday 17th to Sunday 19th August - has confirmed more acts for this year. Newly announced are Battles, Fridge, The Aliens, Malcolm Middleton, Clinic, Seasick Steve, Misty's Big Adventure, Nancy Elizabeth, Charlotte Greig, Jane Weaver and Pete And The Pirates.

They join the already announced acts of headliners Joanna Newsom, Robert Plant, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks... not to mention Vashti Bunyan, Gruff Rhys, The Earlies, Euros Childs, Tunng, Arborea and many, many more - click here for the full details.

Tickets are on sale, with adult weekend tickets costing £98 including on-site camping and parking, and entry is free for under-12s. There's an additional cost of £35 for those wishing to bring a live-in vehicle. To buy tickets, click here.

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