Tea Dancing By The Lake

The 6th in Miwsig's summer festival series takes in Northamptonshire's unique Shambala

Emerging from its beginnings in 1998 as a stage on the back of a rusty farmer’s trailer, the Shambala festival is winning an increasing reputation as a secret beauty, its low-key stylings and creative ethos coming across in the press release as a breath of fresh air. There are many festivals this year that cater for a whole range of music and culture lovers, but none that do it with such an esoteric charm.

This year’s Shambala will take place on a secret site amongst the ornamental lakes, mature woodland and landscaped gardens of Northamptonshire, promising it’s usual output of grass-roots charm and quaint creativity, while also gaining a more outlandish air with a number of additions that’ll make you smile from ear to ear. The organiser’s are loath to give clues as to too many of the acts playing, but they do boast of such grand plans as a Medieval Sports Day judged by gurning world champ Tommy Matisson, a Field of Hot Tubs, an Audio Visual Woodland Space, and lest I forget some Friday Night Speed Dating at the Caberet, where Miwsig will likely be paired with the closest creature to the woodland lice.

The Shambala organizers convey a natural passion and feeling for the Festival as an exciting and spontaneous event, pointing out that they like to keep it moving, keep people guessing and keep it fresh to the best of their abilities, an admirable notion for sure in an era of wearing a price-tag on one’s head.

Scraping around for some clues pertaining to the music, past bands to play at the festival include The Bees, The Egg, Ska Cubana, Vjamm All Stars, Dj Die, Cassette Boy, and Zimbabwean mbira player Chartwell Dutiro, and the one act I am at liberty to reveal will be playing this year, (whisper it…) Flipron, certainly fit in with the kind of junk-shop brilliant ethos that the other names evoke, but giving up on pursuing the line-up any further, you’ll also be able to learn classic tea dances, Jive, Swing and Hula dancing in the Dance Workshop Space, join in with some intelligent jousting in a life size Medieval Debating Tavern chaired by acclaimed writer and columnist Tom Hodgkinson, sing and dance along to a range of cutting-edge caberet, and peer thoughtfully at 30 international artists working in the surrounding woodland and lakes at creating a breathtaking audio-visual installation.

And there’ll be a Dance Dome hosting a blistering program of electronic live acts and DJs, a Rebel Soul Village (an area constructed to house campaigns, cinema, practical workshops and more), a tantalizing Black Out Arts Cinema that promises a multimedia feast of film, music and weird experiments (including live film scores and live streaming), and a fitting enigma that goes by the title of The Wilderness, for which there’s no explanation whatsoever. If your imagination’s fittingly piqued, then tickets are disappearing fast at ｣79 for the weekend with camping. I’d get in before the drawbridge is pulled.

Miwsig Festival Rating: 10

© 2007 Neil Jones

© Miwsig