Can you keep a secret?

Secret Garden Party is an unconventional festival, slicker or slacker than your average depending on preference. While the music policy is slightly questionable, it’s difficult to not be drawn in by the festival’s Wonderland-like aesthetic.

Set around a lake in the Cambridgeshire countryside, the festival area is decorated with enchanting lights and quirky sculptures. There are a lot of spots that lend themselves to simply lying down and chilling out. There’s also an impressive selection of “stuff” to wander in and out of, ranging from theatrical performances to mud wrestling to mini science fairs.

The festival harbours an ambiance of mellowed permissiveness, not quite as all consuming as the organisers’ crackpot ramblings would have you imagine, but certainly more so than other festivals. Seemingly insignificant additions like being able to swim in the lake without the bother of some abrasive safety warning make this all the more noticeable.

Fittingly, for the unrushed dynamic, the musical acts this year weren’t the type to get you frantically arranging meeting times. Of course this itself wasn’t an issue; in fact it’s very refreshing to go to a festival where there’s no pressure to see a performance. However, rather than ‘up and coming’ many of the artists were more ‘down and going’. The ‘big’ names that did perform – Blondie and Alabama 3 – managed decent sets despite poor sound quality on the main stage. A few favourites put on a great show: XXXY, Mosca, Dark Sky and Marcus Nasty. Besides this, the general trend was middle-of-the-road indie-folk by day, distinctly inaccessible techno by night.

In short, going to Secret Garden Party is like ordering a Sunday roast and only being served the trimmings. It’s good fun - but come next year if you can find a picturesque lake that doesn’t cost £160 to hang around for a weekend, go with that.