“Take a deep breath.

Forget what goes on in the rest of the world.

For the next few days, the Garden is your world.

Have fun, and let go.”

The Gardening Crew, 2010.

SGP left me superlatively challenged in wonder and awe at its day glo visual cocophony. Founded in 2004 by four friends, it has swiftly swollen in numbers from an initial 1000 to this year’s 26000 per day capacity. Attempting to avoid and provide relief from a grey corporate culture there is no sponsorship and no branding apart from SGP’s own personality and you, the gardeners themselves. The land is owned by a very untypical Lord with the festival now taking great inspiration from Burning Man Festival in Nevada with action camps, events, mutant vehicles and a true participatory nature requiring and inspiring creativity in everyone who attends.

A little nervous that I had only heard of two bands on the bill I was hugely pleased that around every corner was a new sound that I wanted to explore. Themes of electro, swing, dub, Latin acoustic were heard from almost every tent flap but although the music is a major part of the festival the stunning visual spectacle of what is truly an arts festival is breathtaking.

You just can’t see it all but here is what found us:

Mutant vehicles: a motorised pink spitfire or a fire breathing pirate rib on the lake. Bizarre side acts such as the Scandalous Badger Casino or you could get your future told by the Astrologists, yup, they read your arse, not something I would personally want to do at a festival!

Synchrony Sticks ~ This bunch of wandering sadhu rastafari were the cherry on the muffin of Sunday afternoon. Beautiful boys indeed.

The Feast of Fools Stage: A vaudevillian stage nestled under ye olde oak tree serving fine spiced mead and providing deep heathen acoustic drums into the darkest hours around the warmest fire.

The Forum ~ In the rebels and intellectuals area on Saturday morning I met Lord Ramsey who owns the land that the Secret Garden is sited on, Ed Colville who manages the landscape and layout of the festival and a number of table members including Mischa Hewitt from The Low Carbon Trust and Blanche Cameron Director of RESET who discussed ‘Successful communities: are they built, grown or imagined?’ I think we decided it was all 3. Also pondered over was the future of the festival, the challenges brought when you decide NOT to be sponsored or branded by anyone but yourself and the wonderful concept of National Festival Day where festivillians everywhere take their festival spirit into their normal lives. Fire throwing at the bank tellers counter anyone?

The Big Burn ~ Preceded by the midnight release of 500 day glo balloons, then 500 candlelit chinese lanterns all full moon-bound on the night breeze the burn began. This year’s ‘Airship’ dance stage, which floated in the centre of the lake and required an Italian gondolier or a blow up boat to reach, was stupendously set fire to, fireworks streaming to the stars and flames glowing on every face. Loved it so much I cried. Silly journalist!

The people ~ I really am superlatively challenged here and cannot describe the amazing wonder and full blown participation that gardeners take on board. Participation and action are key for what the SGP crew call ‘YOUR’ festival. The theme of this year’s SGP was ‘Fact or Fiction’ which was clear from some outfits and none the wiser for others. A blind man with a white stick and a third eye, Insanity prawn boy of weebls.com fame, goat men, tiger women, a 7 ft avatar woman pushing a pram laden with mohawk children, drunken soap stars, meditating maharaja’s and dancing cows. As the boys from Synchromy Sticks said “This is the prettiest crowd we’ve ever had!”

The art is amazing: 50 origami penguins nestled under a bridge, a huge snake sand sculpture, the lost tree where you were asked to leave a tag written with something you had lost which was bizarrely fascinating or a 20ft cardboard igloo like structure coated in gardeners graffiti on which was written, “the only thing worse than people talking about you is no-one talking about you”…to which some canny soul replied, “the only thing worse is thinking about that weird!” Secret Garden is where you let yourself play, unencumbered by branding, system or thoughts of what do people think of you. It doesn’t matter as long as you think fondly of your freaky self!

It was busy if a little over laden on Saturday night, the security was a tad full on at arrival and the rubbish of used nitrox oxide bullets littered by the techno kids new favourite high quite astounding but I’ll be there next year with bells on, watch out for a four-poster bed mutant vehicle! But do me a favour, it’s called Secret for a reason, so keep it ssssshhhhhhhhhhh!

Look out for SGP live gig reviews of Dreadzone, Movits, Liam Bailey and Jackson Scott’s Manos De Dios.

10/10 Tori Green