Waveform festival was sited for the first time in Rougham, just off the A14 near bury and is a particular type of dance festival. Previously held near Swindon it is one of the few ‘proper’ festivals to come from the UK’s thriving free party scene, one with strong links to East Anglia. Bringing the spirit and clientele of the free party scene to an organised, fee-charging festival sounds like a contradiction in terms but the signs of commercialism so prevalent at many festivals were visibly present more from necessity than driven by profit. Security, while vigilant – we were subject to a full search of our car on our way in! -  were good-natured and friendly, and kept an eye out for the more over-indulgent ravers. Anyone who has experienced first hand the attitude of a regular festival private security bods can testify to this being a pleasant change. Ticket prices being around the £100 mark for three days of psy-trance and panneer curries represents excellent value for those even slightly that way inclined, and judging by conversations had with people there the number who were either ‘crew’ or somehow friends of the fest and therefore had the entry fee waived was suitably high. This was typical of the fuck-it-lets-have-fun ethos at Waveform.

To the business end of things then, the music was diverse but largely coming under the banner of ‘Rave’ in some fashion, on the Saturday night I attended at least. It was very much how I imagined Tribal Gatherings to be in the 90’s before it became ‘Global’ and started booking Kanye West.  This view was probably swayed but throngs of dread-locked heads in attendance, but the music nonetheless had 90’s rave written all over it. Much was, or could be prefixed as ‘Hard:’ Hard Dance and Trance, Industrial Techno, Breaks (hard in everything but name) and Dubstep (the harder end of that very wide spectrum). This was spread through three large tents, this was interspersed by smaller tents and stages playing some alternatives to the ‘ard stuff; some psychedelic folk took up half an hour of our time very nicely at one point of the early evening. Non-musical treats included a zero-carbon cinema and a large very comfortable tea and chill out area which found itself inexplicably busy into the early hours. Getting a coffee in the morning I was lucky enough to catch a few minutes of a Pagan sermon.  By this stage, I did not even blink.

The best thing to take from this festival without doubt was the unswervingly friendly and unpretentious atmosphere. Poseurs were at a premium, and trouble was non-existent. Taking into consideration that I had previously heard of only one act – Evil Nine - out of the myriad performing across the weekend, and my normal fetish for ‘line-ups’ (“who’s on the line up? Great line-up! Etc. ad nauseam”)  my personal experience of Waveform was exceptional.

Words: Simon Newton