Something To Smile About 2016

Something To Smile About began last year as a one day festival and has expanded this year to a larger venue over three days at Hatfield Outdoor Activity Centre on the outskirts of Doncaster. The campsite is spacious, on flat land among lots of trees with decent facilities and plenty of parking space very close by.

A bargain of a weekend at £40 for tickets and reasonable prices for food and drink although you are welcome to bring your own if you need to watch the pennies. Bars provided by Abbeydale Brewery and The Meadevil Bar and good grub courtesy of Nan's Kitchen.


Although mostly folk based the music over the weekend included rock, blues, punk, reggae and ska. Great performances from all artists with particularly good sets from Brad Dear, Ferocious Dog, Funke and the Two-Tone Baby, The Majestic, Parsons Lot, Willie and the Bandits, The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican and Taxi For Bob.

Additional late night acoustic jam sessions fired up after the main stage with The Leylines, Brad Dear and Phat Bollard along with members of various other bands making this one of the most enjoyable parts of the festival.

A huge thanks to Pete, Becky and all involved. A great weekend and we'll be back next year.

Beautiful Days 2014

The Beautiful Days festival was concieved by The Levellers and first held in 2003 over two days with two stages. Over the years this has expanded to four days (you can now camp on thursday) with six stages featuring a variety of music, comedy and theatre. 

There are plenty of activities, particularly for children which makes this festival ideal for families. Robots, costumed dancers, tree people, fire jugglers and all manner of street type entertainment occurs spontaneousley appealing to adults and kids alike. Bars are plentiful across the site with a range of fine ales and ciders provided by tne nearby Ottery Brewery.

As always an eclectic range of artists kept us entertained over the weekend. All of a very high standard with my favourites being as follows; on the main stage - Undertones, Dead Kennedys, Ruts DC, New Groove Formation, Seasick Steve, Steave Earle, Jimmy Cliff and of course the Levellers; in the big top - Levellers (acoustic), Bad Shepherds, Seth Lakeman and Ferocious Dog; in the Bimble Inn (best bar on site) - Stevie One Bloke and his Mandolin.

There is far too much to see and do here than I can cover in a blog post, go to  www.beautifuldays.org for a full band listing, activities etc and be sure to order your tickets early because it always sells out.