Beautiful Days Festival, Devon; August 16th-19th, 2024

Beautiful Days is a lovely, family friendly festival with great music, founded by The Levellers. The downside? It’s in the middle of nowhere, hard to get to (and especially get home from) on public transport and with no phone reception whatsoever. I had a great time nonetheless and saw some amazing artists

Thea Gilmore was the first of the artists on my radar to announce that she would play the festival, but it wasn’t enough to convince me. The Jess Guise announced and I still decided to stay away. Only when Grace Petrie said she would play I changed my mind. So I took a train from London to Exeter in the morning, checked in to my hotel, didn’t have enough time to catch up on some sleep and left for the train station where the festival shuttle bus was supposed to leave – or so I thought. Eventually I found out it left from the bus station and found someone to share a taxi with. The bus service was only running for half the day and there were no trains late in the evening, so I would not be able to stay very late. Luckily everyone i wanted to see played in the afternoon.

Day One (August 16th)

Either way, I got there eventually and spent day 1 mostly getting the lay of the land and listening to bands here and there. After a sort night in London I was way too tired to fully enjoy the festival, but I lovined the atmosphere and the food selection. Didn’t have cash though and credit card machines were tricky with bad phone reception. Oh well, another day. There was still lots to see and do everywhere, from pubs, to workshops, to exclusive kid’s stuff and market stalls. Still, I was tired and left early, the following day was much more important to me.

Day Two (August 17th)

Knowing that trains stopping near Devon only went every two hours, I took the first one in the morning, a bit after 10. There was supposed to be a shuttle bus from the train station to the festival gate, but nobody knew when it was going to arrive so I walked and met some nice people on the way.

I first stopped at the main stage and got there in time for Pet Needs. I had seen them before, either at Lost Evenings or supporting Frank Turner on tour, possible both. Fact was, they had not left much of an impression on me, but this time around I loved them. They were so much fun and there was lots of singing along and bouncing going on. I was very much awake after their set and happy I had seen them.

Setlist

Separation Anxiety
Scratch Card
Sleep When I’m Dead
Toothpaste
Ibiza in Winter
Punk Isn’t Dead; It’s Just Up for Sale
Tracey Emin’s Bed
Fingernails
The Age That You Were
Trip
Get on the Roof

Thea Gilmore was up next and I could not wait to see her again. Had a nice chat with he guy next to me, who was a big fan. By the time the announcer walked on stage, quite a few people had gathered in front of the stage and we greeted Thea loudly.

She kicked off the show solo with only her loop station to accompany her. ‘This irl is taking bets’ mashed up with ‘Nice normal Woman’ was the first song and it was already brilliant. I had a big smile on my face and was reminded once again why I love her.

Her band joined her and the show changed gear with ‘When Did You Get So Safe’ – it rocked. She greeted us and we assured her we were having a great day. “I’m gonna sing you a song about sex” she announced and continued with ‘Unravel me’. I loved how powerful it was. She then told us about the 21st century folk project and how ‘She speaks in Colours’ came about. It was a beautiful performance.

She told us how her music isn’t particularly happy and that she has better things to do than write songs when she’s happy. She played us a “Fucked up love song” ‘Razor Valentine” from her album Avalanche. It was slow, with a steady beat and some nice guitar work. Awesome.

She asked us how we felt about singing and of course we wanted to so she played Cindy Laupers’ ‘Girls just wanna have fun’. The sing-along worked nicely after she told us she could not hear us. 😉 I love this slow version of the song that brings out how it isn’t as happy as it sounds. Afterwards she told us we were absolutely brilliant and someone yelled back “So are you!”

Thea told us she felt very lucky to be standing on that stage and continued with ‘Ride On’ from her latest album. The rhythm had me moving along with the music. Next up was ‘Mainstream’, which rocked even more. I was so glad she had brought the band. After introducing the band, we had already arrived at the last song – how was this show so short? We got to sing along once more to ‘That’s love Motherfucker’. “It’s quiet, but heartfelt song about friendship,” she said and told us about the guy who came to her gig and left because he hated it when women swear. Well, one of us felt that way and sang along loudly. I felt it and loved it so much.

Setlist

This Girl Is Taking Bets / Nice Normal Woman
When Did You Get So Safe
Unravel Me
She Speaks in Colours
Razor Valentine
Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper cover)
Ride On
Mainstream
That’s Love Motherfucker

Elated I moved over to the big top, but got some food first. All the food looked yummy and was reasonably priced. I had some Thai and listened to Nick Parker and the False Alarms while I ate. People had recommended him to me and his music was fun. I saw the end of his set, when he got a bunch of kids up on stage to sing with him. It was all really nice. For the final song he got the entire pub band from the Fiddler’s Arms on stage. Such a great way toend the set.

Then I secured my spot at the front, determined to stay until Grace Petrie got there and chatting with the people around me who did the same. Yay! The duo of Chris While & Julie Matthews played next and I enjoyed their music a lot. With the names I had assumed it was a woman/man duo, but was wrong. Both women had beautiful voices and played guitar.

They dedicated their song ‘The Seventh Wave’ to Grace Petrie. It was was wonderful and I filed their names away to check out more of the music later. The song ‘Trusted/Mistrusted’ had an interesting backstory and was for a friend of them. They invited Miranda Sykes on stage to play with them, because she had played on their albums and played a song about grief together. It was called ‘The King of Chess’ and loved it.

‘Days like These’ had a bluesy feeling, ‘Steady breathing’ was slow and lovely and I enjoyed how all the songs were different. They spoke about the murder of the three children recently and how right wing people had used that to promote more hate, but how there also had been lots protesting them. I know the feeling.

The final song ‘Women of the World’ was dedicated to Sarah Wahedi an Afghan woman who lives in England and is educating girls in Afghanistan via phones that they have smuggled into the country. How cool is that? The song was lovely and we got a good sing along going too.

Setlist (incomplete)

The Seventh Waves
Trusted/Mistrusted
The King of Chess
Days like these
Steady breathing
Westward
Women of the Word

John Smith followed and me and my fellow Grace fans wondered if it was his real name or if he had picked the least unusual artist name ever. He had a great voice and a double bass player, so it was fun listening to him. He was exceptionally nice too. When a woman heckled him about wanting a song dedicated to her, he asked her to come to the front, where security let her in behind the barrier and he sang to her. Her name was Lisa and after that she left happily.

Setlist

Candle
Deserving
Sanctuary
The World Turns
Eye to Eye
Too Good to Be True
Killing the Blues (Rowland Salley cover)
Lily
The Living Kind
Salty and Sweet
Far Too Good

Finally it was time for Grace Petrie and to my delight she had brought the band. We cheered for them loudly and I was smiling hugely before they had even played the first note. She started of with ‘Best Country in the World’ telling us she’d leave us o decide how sarcastic that was meant to be. I was crying already, even before Ben set in singing harmonies. What a fantastic song.

She told us how she loved being at the festival and asked who had seen her before. We shouted loudly, but the people who had never heard her before, were almost as loud. She mentioned how she has been singing for years about getting the Toris out of government and getting her heart broken by straight girls and now the Tories were out and she was about to get married. However, she was sure to have plenty to write about with then Labor government.

If we sang along loud enough to “roll up, roll up” during ‘The House always wins’ she promised us capitalism would fall, but I guess we didn’t have enough power for that, despite screaming as loudly as we could. 🙂 She told us about not getting out for a couple of years after her last gig at Beautiful Days in 2019 and how she and Ben got stuck at her house for 6 months during Covid. ‘Storm to Weather’ followed and I was crying yet again. At one point she aw me too and gave me a smile. <3

Someone yelled “I love you Grace” and she returned “aww, I love you too”. Then she spoke about the new album and how all the songs were depressing and she wasn’t sure about putting them out into the world until Molly noted taht other people felt the same way. She continued that we should celebrate Labor being in government, but be aware that they don’t have nearly enough ideas for what we need to solve the climate crisis. ‘Start again’ offered so much hope and I felt it very much. I wish I had that for my own country.

‘We’ve got an Office in Hackney’ was a lighter note and brought the smile back to my face. It’s such a good song. Grace spoke about Glastonbury and how it had been ten years since her niece was born. Of course she played ‘Ivy’. I always love hearing that one.

She talked about feeling disgusted and afraid by what has been happening in the UK in the past couple of weeks, but not shocked and it was exactly where England has been going for the past few years, how it is the result of decades of anti immigrant rhetoric and how we will have to commit to be anti racist. I hear you Grace, same in my country. ‘King and Country’ was sad and beautiful. Then, ‘The Losing Side’ was announced as “probably my most positive protest song”, because even if you feel you are living and dying on the losing side, we will make the world better for the ones who come after us. Hell yes!

Meanwhile. a lot of children were sitting behind the barrier where security had placed them one by one and Grace joked about trying not to look at them while she was swearing. 😉 She told us how she has always been this kind of women and wrote the following song as a letter to her younger self to say “you are fine as you are” and dedicated it to her queer family everywhere. “Until we are all free, none of us are free”. It was the loudest sing-along of the night and so many sang every word.<3

She took a picture wit all of us and the final song was, of course ‘Northbound’ and we did well on that one too. Grace’s set alone was worth coming to the festival for. Sadly, she had to leave immediately, because she had somewhere else to be, but she left me on a fantastic high.

Setlist

The Best Country In The World
The House Always Wins
Storm to Weather
Start Again
We’ve Got an Office in Hackney
Ivy
King and Country
The Losing Side
Black Tie
Northbound

I hung out for a little bit longer and had a fantastic white chocolate and raspberry cake. I considered seeing Badly Drawn Boy later, but decided it could not get any better than that so I made my way to the train station and left. What a great day!

Day Three (August 18th)

Sunday started early yet again, because Jess Guise was playing at noon and I did not want to miss her. On the train I met a couple I had been chatting with the previous day and they told me they were going home by taxi at night and I could join them if I needed too. What a sweet offer. This time we caught a shuttle bus to the festival and soon I found myself at the Big top again.

The Bar Steward Sons of Val Doonican’s Sunday Service was in full swing when I arrived and the tent was packed. so I went and bought some licorice and listened from afar for a while before braving the crowd. The band was giving FM Belfast vibes and I was there for it. Fun!

Once they were done, the tent cleared out and I got my front row spot. Next to me was a gu with his kids, telling me his daughter had chosen to see Guise. She told me that her favorites were Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo, so I told her both were good choices and showed her a picture from Thursday’s Taylor Swift show.

When Jess Guise stepped on stage there were not so man people around – they missed out on a great set. She greeted us and started with ‘The Fun Part’ – I love that song and it’s really hard to play too. I sang along as well as I could, but  don’t think she saw me.

Jess explained how Guise is not spelt “g – u – y -s”, but “g – u – i – s -e”, which is cooler. 😉 She told us how her first EP came out in March 2020 which wasn’t a great time to play live. Since her first album was recorded during lockdown she was going to play her one song about it, saying it was a cheerful one. It was ‘High enough’ and it was beautiful.

Next up was a cover by Sandy Danny, the greatest folk singer of all time according to Jess. It was called ‘Who knows where the time goes’ and was really lovely. Afterwards she wanted to sing a song she had written for her dad, who had taught her to play guitar and who “would be pissed off, because I have not improved at all”. He died when she was 18 and the song sums up all the things she wishes she could tell him and he could have seen – ‘Wish’ <3

“This is as close as I come to a pop song, I think” was her description for ‘Don’t come back’. Not wrong, I was definitely moving with the music and singing along too. For a moment she considered if she could play two more songs, but decided she didn’t have time. She said she had made up the tuning she used for the song when she was trying to learn a Goo Goo Dolls song. She spoke about how brilliant they were live. She mentioned how her dad was a ire Straits fans and she wrote the last song for her brother, who went through l the grief with her and was there for her. She also played it on her dad’s guitar. ‘Brother in Arms’ was definitely a fitting last song. 🙂

I was hoping to see her at the merch tent, but she didn’t show up, so I went to get some food. Sadly I missed Katherine Priddy, because I was closer to the other stage.

Setlist

The Fun Part
High enough
Who knows where the time goes (Sandy Danny)
Wish
Don’t come back
Brother in Arms

Once I had eaten, it was too loud for me at the main stage, so I checked out the Brimble Inn, a pub on the far side of one of the hills. Slightly offensive Steve was playing and he was exactly that – slightly offensive and not really my thing. Heard a bit of Pop will eat itself at the main stage, but deemed them too loud. Thus, I decided to get my face painted. After all, the festival motto for the day was masquerade. 30 minutes later I emerged with a butterfly on my face and walked around in search of more music.

Police Dog Hogan at the Big top was nice and folky and I stayed for a bit, before checking out the Fiddler’s Arms and listening there for a while. Back to the Big top for Storneaway, who had been recommended to me. Their first song was amazing and the rest of their set was fun too, so I stayed till the end. In search for more music I ran into the people I had walked to the festival with on day too and joined them for Echo Town at the Bimble inn. They were quite cool, playing drums and didgeridoo. It was the last band I saw, before I decided to call it a day and go home. It had definitely been a fun festival and I may come back some day