A late review here but just in the nick of time if you are thinking of heading to Mugstock Festival this year, and for me, it’s great to finally be catching up with this festival I went to last summer.
So what about Mugstock? For me it was first time there so I went not knowing what to expect and was eager as ever to get there and find out what hidden gems, if any, were on offer. The festival is held in the fantastic surroundings of Mugdock Country Park, just 10 miles from Glasgow and was not hard to find which is always a good start for me, well not getting lost is anyway and on arrival pleasantly happy, smiling if somewhat wet volunteers were on hand to show me where to go. I even had a choice of noisy or not so noisy camping, now there’s a good thing but where to go?
The festival site is good, reasonably flat under foot, it’s well laid out and signposted and is stunning, the surroundings of Mugdock Country Park is an attraction in itself, add a music festival to that and there is indeed potential for a superb result.
I was all over the site at Mugstock 2017 and I must say I was impressed not only with the festival and its surroundings but with the ethic the organisers carry accross the festival as well, little things like the smiling happy volunteers no matter what the challenge they are facing, being able to have a massage by the main stage while watching the act up there, loads of kids stuff do and so much more I saw and heard fit in well with a few words I read on the festivals website, “a team motivated by the sheer love of bringing lovely people together to have a great time in a beautiful place”. They pulled that one off for sure.
The stages were excellent also, with a great sound at them all, as were the musicians performing on them, there was even a stage beside the campsite which was a stroke of genius in my opinion, at least all the campsite dwellers, of which most festivals seem to have plenty, had some live music there for their weekend party, brilliant!
So was there any hidden gems? Absolutely, another area where the organisers over at Mugstock have it down is the hidden gems. Wee corners that hold stages and performace areas, for me, can sometimes bring the best parts of a festival and at Mugstock this was definitely in hand, my highlights of the hidden gems were the tiny Oxjam stage and Overheard In The West End, I caught many a delight on those stages. The kids stuff as well, I never had any with me but spoke to a few parents who were having a great time relaxing while their kids had a ball with the activites on offer and were never far away, all said they would be back and heaped praise on the dedicated family camping area.
There’s more praise to be heaped on this festival too, for the food. A resturaunt, 2 cafes,and superb street food, yep a resturaunt. It’s things like this that made Mugstock stand out for me, they really have thought of everyone, in my opinion anyone who goes will find something they love about this gem of a festival “music and merriment” is very true of Mugstock, it’s another one of Scotlands gems. I loved it and would reccomend it to anyone who thinks about going to festivals, give Mugstock a try and, as you will see in the picture gallery below, it will manage to make you smile come rain or shine.
My highlights? That’s a tough one, there were many but a few that stand out were the Twistettes who I had never seen before, loved their raw punky style. The stage that was known as Overheard In The Westend was sometimes sheer brilliance, some magic happened in there and we recorded it so look out for that coming soon. And the wee Oxjam stage also had its share of surprises, I think that stage might grow into something special.
Here are the links to book tickets and find out more about this years festival and please have a look at our picture gallery below and see some of what we saw.
Maybe see you there.
https://www.facebook.com/Mugstock/
