Sleeping in a field? Must be that time of year again. Yes, it's festival season cats.

24 hours after returning to my humble abode from The Hop Farm Festival I went through the motions, being able to eat more than bread and sliced faux cheese, drink other liquids than beer and warm water, sleep on that oh-so comfortable mattress, go to an actual bathroom, and then the eventual desire to return to that place, the centre of the universe, the place where all people come together for the sake of music and happiness.

Friday; with only a Camping ticket and a Saturday Arena ticket, I spent the Friday in the camp site, drinking lager and watching the world go by, the mix of cultures, backgrounds and future's passing by in their various levels of intoxication. Hop Farm is a festival that grabs a wide range of audience, from families with small children to the ol' codgers there to see Bob Dylan or Van Morrison, the teenagers and young adults to witness the bursting folk-bluegrass scene. My friends and I encountered a French lady at midnight who had seemingly lost her tent amidst the sea of tents, so she spent the night with us, talking Bob Dylan and romance, she ended up staying in my friend's, who for secrecy shall be dubbed The Instrumentalist, tent and asking him if he had "ever made love in a tent", to the hilarity of myself and my friend, who shall be named The Artist. The Instrumentalist summed the musical weekend up, "This is the true blues and folk festival still in popularity", I agree with this as it has stuck to festivals true roots with the message organiser Vince Power sticking to the motto of no branding, no sponsorship, they could have gone the way of Glastonbury or Reading and Leeds, and with this line-up you'd understand if they did. But that is why Hop Farm is so special to us festival-goers it continues to impress in its third year, progressing from a one day festival with headline act Neil Young, to a 2-day festival in 2009 and in 2010.

Saturday; awoken at 7am by what seemed the snoring of what only a lion would be capable, instead was The Artist, whom I was sharing a pillow with. I stumbled out of my tent to feel the frazzle of the burning summers day, emptying the bottle of now warm water I made my way over the guy ropes and around the various tents to the taps where I refreshed myself for another day of anecdotes and anticipation. Refreshed from this I returned to my tent to talk events of the day before and what the immediate future held for us and our Hop Farm Festival counterparts, gossip ran through the camp site about the impending set from a musical idol of mine and many others, Bob Dylan. The arena doors opened around midday and we decided to roam around before the acts we were keen to see began playing, The Instrumentalist bought some liquorice and I purchased some mint green and many other coloured hippy trousers, as my black skin tight jeans were feeling the burn of that sunny ol' day and they're now my favourite purchase of the summer so far.

Then the lady of the day stepped onto the sunny stage, Miss Laura Marling, indie-folk queen was one of the best acts I have ever seen, her smooth and stormy singing and tentative acoustic guitar gave me a chill through my spine, aged only 20 this is the sign of a huge future for the lovely caring goddess of modern folk. Playing songs from both of her stunning albums and a couple of new songs she converted those who were unaware to fully fledged Laura lovers within a 45 minute set, I can confirm I will certainly be following her for a couple of dates on her next tour, and I suggest you check her out.

Whilst Pete(r) Doherty played a teenage-pleasing set of Libs, Shambles and solo songs I decided to listen from a distance and head to the camp site where I was greeted by our neighbours cooking burgers and talking to Irish women, joining them, we shared banter about The Artists snoring and their discovering of his beaming unique personality.

We then all made our way down to the arena to catch Seasick Steve, smuggling beers into the strict arena we hugely enjoyed the enigmatic performer, several songs in he plucked one lucky lady from the audience and serenaded her with his song 'Walking Man'. He was the unexpected performer of the day, I did not expect a man of his age to impress me so much but I am now willing to travel the country to see this man in action again, his banter with the crowd and his unique talent to make a crowd dance to a one string Diddley Bow or a guitar made from parts of a Morris Minor, this is a man that struggled through life and has come out of the tunnel smiling and with "a whole lotta spare change now", pleasing the crowd ranging from boys and girls to the elderly, this act certainly caught the attention of the majority of Hop Farm.

Next to appear were Mumford & Sons the latest band to penetrate the mainstream with the folk-bluegrass sound of banjos, double basses, Marcus Mumford's ability to belt out a song whilst smashing she drums or playing the guitar and an excellent keyboard/backing vocalist, these boys only have 1 LP so far yet were the band of the weekend to attract more and more of a crowd with every song, mixing hits such as 'The Cave' with unknown 'only found on 'Youtube' songs such as 'Lover of the Light' the crowd responded in high fashion and sang the surprising anthems of the weekend (along with a couple of Ray Davies/ Kinks tracks, but we'll get to that). The nu-folk kings are beginning to establish themselves as a beacon of hope in the dreary nature of artificial pop acts. The audience gave Mumford & Sons their hearts and they received the same back, as there was a mutual bond between strangers due to the love and soul in the music, and I believe this is what music festivals are all about, they are the essence of bringing people from every aspect of life together through the beauty of music, a place where people forget prejudiced thoughts and come together for a big explosion of love, music and a fantastic time.

Now we arrive at the joint headline acts, firstly Ray Davies took to the stage beaming with a smile at the crowd he had gathered to hear his classics from The Kinks and solo, and by gosh did he perform. He had the anthem of the weekend in 'Lola', a controversial song at the time, turned crowd-chanting tune, the song 'Sunny Afternoon' had strangers in arms, children dancing and couples jiving around, then a climax of the set was The Kinks' 'All of the Day and All of the Night', this was another song that Ray Davies truly summed up his appearance as this was a song that every single soul in that audience belted out along with the singer, he made everyone get up and dance with strangers, share drinks and meet new friends, this created an atmosphere that will never be forgotten in my heart, it just created every reason to return to this or other festivals even when they become inexplicably expensive.


Finally, the last act of the day had arrived, the anticipation was over, Sir Bob Dylan graced us with his presence. The musical God split opinions with his set as he lost crowd members, however I believe even the disappointed members of that crowd are still feeling the luck of having seen Dylan on what could seemingly be one of his last dates, only time will tell, but I can tell you he shocked me with his now Tom Wait's croak and a superb backing band, he delivered classics such as 'Like a Rolling Stone', 'Just Like a Woman' and 'Stuck Inside Of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again' and stuck to his classic stubborn self by trying to get his new album out there, rather than tirelessly play the same songs over and over again, and I feel within all the disappointment everyone in that crowd understood and were still amazingly grateful to have been a part of Dylan's only UK performance of 2010 and will be able to say "I have seen Bob Dylan live" words only spoken by those who can care for music and let music care for themselves.

We then returned to our tent where we crashed immediately after a tiring day of having a good old boogie to some of the best contemporary and classic musical acts. Then came the price to pay in the morning, the lug back to the meeting point, still reeling off how amazing the weekend been we watched the crowds go by once more and simply understood that if you want to head to the centre of love and music, you head to a festival, and why not The Hop Farm, it certainly provided us with an excellent time, and I'm sure it will provide the same for yourself, so I may see you at The Hop Farm Festival 2011 or another music festival this summer or in the future.