Have you ever been to Barn on the Farm?
If you have, we probably saw you there this year. After all, once you’ve been once, you’re almost certain to be hooked for life.
Maybe it’s the music: a lovingly curated blend of some of the best new talents and emerging artists in the world, sprinkled amongst intimate sets from bonafide stars and the occasional household name.
Or maybe it’s the setting. Nested within a sprawling farm in the middle of the Gloucestershire countryside, Barn on the Farm is almost certainly the only festival in the country – nay, the world – whereby an artist can simultaneously be playing a set and admiring a view of one of the farm’s resident ostriches.
But maybe – just maybe – there’s something special in the air at Barn on the Farm.
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One might imagine that it’s quite hard for a gathering of close to 5,000 people to feel intimate.
It may seem small in the scheme of things – but that’s definitely a sizeable number of people, isn’t it? Well, reader, we think you’d be hard-pressed to find a more close-knit audience than a Barn on the Farm crowd. Somebody you start chatting to while waiting for a Sody set will smile and wave whenever your paths cross throughout the weekend; the couple in the tent next door to you will become your firm friends by the end of the weekend; and you’ll be greeted with a warm embrace by friends you see only once a year, but whom it’s never less than delightful to be reunited within this corner of South-West England every year.
And as for the music? Well, for some of the stars on this year’s line-up, Barn on the Farm was as intimate as it gets. Where else are you going to see Bleachers – featuring eight-time GRAMMY nominee and full-time Taylor Swift BFF Jack Antonoff – rip through a rollicking main stage set in front of a mere few thousand people? Or Proper Pop Star Sigrid play a gorgeous and nuanced acoustic set in a 500-capacity barn? We don’t know about you, dear reader, but that’s not something we see every day.
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Of course, those weren’t the only musical highlights of the weekend.
Truthfully, there were too many to count: however, an honourable mention must go to Fizz, who transformed the main stage into a party hotspot with their quirky blend of pop, funk, and glitter; NOISY, who refused to let their 1pm set time get in the way of their transforming a stage in Gloucester into a nineties warehouse rave; Liverpool indie-punks Stone, whose instantaneous combination of sky-high choruses and Northern charm immediately endeared them to all within earshot; and Barn regular Plested, whose songwriting catalogue is fast growing to resemble a Now That’s What I Call Music compilation.
The most honourable mention of all, however, must go to the festival itself. When we say that it’s a special place, that’s not mere hearsay: it’s a fact. It’s a place of friendship, music, and the kind of genuine love that only comes about when a festival turns its back on corporate sponsorship in favour of nurturing a genuine, warm, and heartfelt sense of community.
So, bravo and thank you, Barn on the Farm. We’ll see you next year.