Sunrise Celebration Festival 2015 | Preview

Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Sunrise Festival springs back in May to kick off the festival season with a bang-on, quality line-up and a wealth of other wholesome treats in store.

The last few years have seen big changes occur for the festival; moving to the beautiful current site in Wales, gaining a new director and respectfully curtailing the capacity, always taking great care to stay true to its ethical, sustainable roots. In doing so, the Sunrise gathering has gone from strength to strength, winning green awards left, right and centre and drawing praise from some of the biggest name festival acts to appear on its stages, as well as an extended loyal family of fun-seeking patrons.

Spread across five stages, the festival is hosting an impressive line-up of alternative, underground acts (Deekline and Ed Solo to name but two) as well as a mixture of folk, bluegrass and local acts on the popular Spit and Sawdust stage (the rising talent of bluesman John Fairhurst definitely being one to catch). The main indoor stage will keep the sound varied across the weekend, mixing up roots reggae vibes from Omar Perry and Homegrown, the energising ska/dub of King Porter Stomp, global jazz-infused funksters Kalakuta Millionaires, dirty rock and rollers Johnny Cage and the Voodoo Groove and the mesmerising vocals of Sian Evans/Kosheen highlighting the bill. Add to that a 10th anniversary electro-swing extravaganza on the Saturday night from legendary festival DJs Chris Tofu and Tall Will and it looks like you’ve got yourself a PARTY. Did I mention fun lovin’ criminal Huey Morgan’s doing a DJ set?

Besides the top quality music, there’s a plethora of performance art, educational workshops, crafts, healing and inspirational talks that take place all over the site. You’ll quickly find your way around this relatively small 4000 capacity festival with ease, which is great to be able to take in everything on your must-do list whilst still constantly wandering into quirky, random happenings that feed your curiosity and satisfaction at the same time. The beautiful thing that keeps people coming back for more isn’t just the quality of the entertainment, but the feeling of co-existing within this microcosm of unselfish, forward-thinking idealism which champions creative expression and organic values. If you’re looking for a place to free your inner child and trust in the benevolent forces at work in the universe, Sunrise festival is definitely the place to try it out. Speaking from experience as an attendee of Sunrise 2012’s epic ‘sea of mud’ fest, I can say that I have borne witness to the way this festival glows with happy hearts, come rain or shine.

Despite my fond memories, I’ve decided that this year I’d rather play like a cat catching butterflies in the sunshine than a bone-headed seal sliding gleefully headfirst through the mud, so let’s keep fingers crossed for the sun-ripened event that 2015 looks set for.

Check out ‘King Porter Stomp’ right here: