The forecast was RAIN…..and lots of it leading up to the 3rd year of Mucky Weekender, a festival hosted by Dub Pistols and involving many of their musician friends who, along with the festival goers, were eager to see the weekend go with a bang.

We were getting daily weather forecasts and apart from some low cloud, things were looking favourable so we packed up the van and headed off on Saturday morning to the site.

Arriving early afternoon, we setup camp and headed into the production area to collect our passes and chat to the super-friendly crew, most of whom we knew already from previous festivals and events. We had a wander around the beautiful site, checked out all the stages and returned to the ‘saloon’ (bar) for a beer and a well earned sit down.

The main stage (aka The Ashworth Mad House) was where the main bands were performing, The HMS Seanie Tee resembled a small ship that housed a number of DJs whilst The Crazy Diamonds Club Stage was another big top with more DJ’s to enjoy. There was another stage at the top of the festival site, I can’t remember its name but it featured some really cool DJs and when the sun went down, they projected some awesome visuals onto a variety of spheres and walls which looked great with shadows of dancers weaving around on top of them. 

Sadly, owing to work (boo…hiss) we were only able to attend on the Saturday but I had heard great things about Emily Capell, Altern-8, Leeroy Thornhill, The Hempolics, Woody Cook (cannot think who his old man might be!), Don Letts, Krafty Kuts and Dreadzone who all performed incredible sets and really set the scene for day one of the festival.

After taking as many photos as humanly possible of the colourful, crazy and mucky attendees who had congregated onsite, we focussed on catching some of Saturday’s acts. Terry Farley, Stuart Patterson and Lulah Francs played some great house classics form back in the day, I was fortunate to see (and have a boogie) to Just a Couple of Mums who were at the HMS Seanie Tee and later on in the day, we managed to catch Too Many T’s (aka Not Enough T’s as one of the rappers fell ill with Covid on Saturday morning) but I will add that the one rapper that did perform did a sterling job of keeping the audience in check and performed an awesome live show which was really well received. Ragga Twins feat DJ Krucial surprised me as I thought these guys were relative new comers to the scene but no, they’ve been at it for years and after checking out 15 minutes of their set, it was clear that these guys were here to please and please they did, they were incredible. I interviewed Hollie Cook a few weeks back and I after bumping into her backstage, I chatted to her briefly about her club nights that she’ll be playing in Mexico later in the year and waited for her to take to the stage to showcase tracks from her recently released album ‘Happy Hour’ which sounded sublime, a real summery sound tinged with reggae and soulful vibes that created a sound that you just had to dance to.

As the evening wore on, it was soon time for the main act, the act that so many had come for, it was time for Barry, Seanie Tee and their crew of merry men to take to the stage and do their thing, yes folks, it was time for Dub Pistols. The Ashworth mad House was rammed to capacity, I honestly can say that as after watching their set for 30 mins from the side of the stage, we walked out into the main arena and people were standing on their tippy-toes to get a look at what was happening on the stage.  

Their set consisted of all of their classics which guaranteed a great time was had by all but what made it that extra special was all of the guests that they invited to the stage to join them, Winston Williams aka Horseman took to the stage to perform a new track which will be featured on The DB’s forthcoming record, others came and went including Ragga Twins and more that I have forgotten (It was a mucky night!)

After another visit to the Crazy Diamonds Club Stage to check out the undeniable sound that is X-Press 2, we went for some food, sat and ate and decided that it was time for some sleep as we had been up, sat in traffic for 5 hours getting to the site (we’re getting old) so off to the van it was for night-nights. 

I have been to many festivals this year and Mucky Weekender was BY FAR the cleanest site, the staff and security team were really friendly and approachable and the food and clothing vendors were happy to chat and pose for photographs for us. Chatting to both Barry Ashworth and Seanie Tee earlier in the day, they were both amazed as to how the event had turned out, they were so appreciative that people had bought tickets and came in their droves to see what was, a superbly curated list of acts that catered for a variety of tastes but were all there to have fun and after all, that’s what it’s all about!

We’re looking forward to 2023 already - See you there!