Somersault Festival

You can’t beat the combination of sun and surf, but when you also throw music, circus, theatre and host of lovely people into the mix you’ve really got something special. Somersault Festival treated us to a long weekend of all of the above, in the opulent green fields of the Castle Hill estate in North Devon.

Alongside a stellar main stage lineup and a host of smaller tents on the festival site, there was a huge range of excursions to allow people to explore the fantastic coastline and countryside in the local area, including canoeing, kayaking, mountain biking, rock climbing and, of course, surfing.

Montreal folksters Half Moon Run smashed their main stage set on the final day of the festival, playing alongside Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars (who we spoke to last week) and Ben Howard. We sat down with drummer and keyboardist Dylan Phillips to talk about the festival experience from the band’s perspective.

What’s your top festival survival tip?
It probably sounds kind of cheesy, but enjoy the small things. I’ve been on a lot of tours where I actually forgot the entire tour. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t have been some of the most positive experiences in my life but because I was so caught up in the logistics of the whole thing, so many opportunities passed me by that I can’t remember. You want to plan your tours so you can give yourself the opportunity to enjoy some moments and not always go as hard as possible.

What have you learned from your time as a band on the road?
There are big dramas and big problems that arise but I think because we’ve done it so much now our attitude has changed. In the past when a challenge would present itself it would feel like the end of the world, whereas now it’s just inevitable that you’re going to run into difficult situations. The only thing you can change is your attitude towards them. Sometimes ridiculous things happen and I just try and laugh about it. I used to absolutely freak out and you want to control the situation but after a certain point there’s nothing you can do. If it doesn’t happen you can’t blame yourself.

What was your biggest DIY or die moment?
There was a funny one when our van broke down in the Rockies between BC and Alberta, driving down the mountain and I rolled it into a garage in neutral. We basically had to bribe the mechanic to look at it. It was like 5.15 and he was ready to go home and he was pissed. We had cash, so we were like ‘you gotta fix it, do anything, we’ll give you everything we can.’ He fixed it a little bit but it was a three hour delay when we were already going to be late to the show in Calgary.

So that’s when I did something that I hate doing and that’s to drive really unsafely fast. I was doing between 160 and 180 on the highway through the rockies. When we got into Calgary we hit every single green light on the way to the venue and just rolled up on the stage and played. It’s kind of fun to remember but in the moment you just think like hell has descended on earth and there’s nothing you can do.

Check out Half Moon Run.

 

We spent a good few hours chilling out at the O’Neill bus listening to some great High Tide acoustic sessions from some immensely talented emerging artists. Jumping onboard the bus we caught Nathan Ball recording an exclusive filmed session. Stay locked to O’Neill for more sessions in the series.

The Surfers Against Sewage tent was jam packed all weekend as the guardians of the ocean kept the crowds flooding in with an engaging series of talks, screenings and activities. While everyone had a great time, SAS were doing important work spreading the message of respect for the marine environment (which goes far beyond just fighting against sewage.) Read our interview with chief executive Hugo Tagholm here.

 

Catch you next year at Somersault Festival 2015!

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