Woodrot Festival 2012 – The cheapest festival in Europe?!
A stony track gently winds into a vast valley dominated by olive trees growing abundantly from a ground that has already been scorched yellow by the harsh May sun. The prevailing presence of Mount Jabalcon stood mightily overhead creates a hint of awesomeness to the view.
The bucolic meandering track that is resonant of Spain’s pre-construction boom of several decades earlier, reaches its peak when you come to a rickety old bridge, so unstable and free of barriers that one quiver on the steering wheel and you risk plunging your vehicle into the dried up riverbed below.
Several hairpin bends and thoughts of helpless disorientation later, you stumble upon a wooden signpost warmly in-keeping with its surroundings that reads, “Toilets, Parking, Camping’.
Welcome to Woodrot Music Festival 2012…
A steady trickle of festival revellers, predominantly from the local British expatriate community, arrive at Woodrot throughout the afternoon. Several, in true festival spirit, begin to erect tents, pleased with the prospect to being able to drink cervezas and vino without the worry of being stopped by the Guadia Civil on the way home and their unprecedented campaign to crackdown on drink driving.
It was this scene of uninterrupted tranquillity that inspired John Moody, an artist, guitar tutor and author, to not only up sticks from the UK and reside here eight years ago but also to host a music festival.
John’s rambling property comprising of cave rooms carved into cliffs and stone and sprawling land of olive groves is several kilometres from the agricultural market town of Benamaural in the Granada province of Andalucia. The area, despite its simplicity, serenity and traditionalism, is an unlikely yet explicit hub for musicians, Spanish and British.
Given its intense passion for rock n roll, this time-honoured region of Spain is ‘crying out’ for a music festival, to help give it an outside presence it wholeheartedly deserves.
The Woodrot Festival 2012 is all about bringing festivals back to their original hippy ethos of being free for all, there is no Woodrot entrance fee and even bottles of ice-cold water cost a meagre 25 cents! The cheapest festival in Europe? You bet…
Also true to the original free festival movement of the 1970s, people of all ages begin to arrive at Woodrot. From fair-haired children happily seeking shade playing under the boughs of a lifeless tree, to pensioners fondly recapturing their youth erecting canopies and camping chairs before settling down for an afternoon of live music, Woodrot certainly retains vestiges of festivals of the pre- corporatisation era.
Kicking off the festival is The Howlers, a group comprising of expats in the area, which began after it was suggested that local artists should get together for jam sessions.
As the afternoon sun beat down on John’s parched land harder than ever, the sounds of the Plonkers, a slightly older configuration of the Howlers, fill the Andalucian valley. According to John who plays guitar in the Plonkers, the band was named because in the beginning that was about the ‘standard of our playing’.
The afternoon slowly gives way to evening and the intensely cobalt sky with temperatures soaring high into the 30s become replaced by a more refreshing evening pink hue, there could not be a more fitting setting for ……, a well-known local saxophone player to take to the stage. Single-handedly lifting the somewhat subdued mood into a rapturous atmosphere of a last night beach party on Ibiza, the drinks began to flow once again and Woodrot festival 2012 finally began to rock!
Notorious for partying after dark, the Spanish begin to arrive, with debut Woodrot headliners, ‘This is This’, an all Spanish band, bar its English front man and lead guitarist Chris Whitehead, blasting out the epic hits of the likes of the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Joy Division under the bright, light pollution-free Andalucian stars.
Feeling honoured to have headlined the first ever Woodrot Festival, 56-year-old Chris Whitehead from Manchester, who, having managed the fleetingly successful young Indie band, Northern Uproar, in the 1990s, hopes ‘This and This’ will be asked back to play Woodrot next year.
“You’d have to travel hours to the coast for something familiar, this region of Spain is crying out for a music festival like this,” said Chris Whitehead.
“After all mighty oaks grow from little acorns.”
Unlike the so-called ‘middle class colonisation’ and corporatisation of Glastonbury, which has seen tickets jump £1 with free milk from the farm in 1970, to £195 plus £5 booking fee plus £5 postage in 2011, John is keen for Woodrot to stay free.
“It is going to stay free, so any bands are going to have to do it for the love of it. We are now starting to look around for new performers for next year. We aim to build a better stage and have more stalls around the edge.”
Watch this space, Woodrot Festival in inland Granada looks set to become the Glastonbury of Andalucia!