Wickerman Festival 2010

There’s not too many music festivals around that have a single idea or event as their central focal point. More often that not it tends to be a case of the bands on the main-stage being the priority, with any quirks and format changes being tweaked at the edges.

The Wickerman Festival - deep in the gullies of the Scottish borders - reverses that completely. It’s quite simple really: take a big field in the midst of some empty farmland; erect a giant figure ontop of a hill to be burned at the apex of the weekend; get a whole load of people in to drink and listen to some music. Brilliant.

Based on that rather awful movie (and the better, but predictably American remake with Nicolas Cage) where a policeman is lured into a strange pagan community and eventually burned atop a makeshift wicker man, this oddity in the festival landscape began in 2002 with the festival’s Artistic Director Sid Ambrose - a bona-fide veteran of the alternative sub-culture(s). Since its inception, it’s gathered a remarkable amount of credibility in a relatively short time. For those tiring of the corporate monoliths in the ilk of T in the Park and Leeds, the Wickerman has become the destination of choice. There are plenty of small festivals to choose from of course, but few have its excitement or ‘danger’ on offer when there’s a fire to be had.

Not that it’s not safe mind you. The first thing in conversation that a Wickerman virgin commented to me this year was how nice it felt in comparison to other events she’d been to. The rafts of kids that were milling about the site was testament to just that feeling. People passing by each others tents would greet each other in a friendly fashion, and were all (in general) just up for a good time in a field. Despite the fire-raising aura of the whole thing, there was never any suspicions that your tent may be set on fire by some moronic youth in the wee hours.