Pitched
neatly between the peaks of the Italian Alps, this year’s Mandrea Music
Festival offered a hearty amalgamation of Reggae, Afrobeat, Ska, Dub, Hip-Hop
and a perpetual soundtrack of acoustic campsite sessions. A stone’s throw from
the dramatic blue waters of Lake Tenno as well as neighbouring Lake Garda, the
setting is faultless. Birthed in 2012 originally under the name of 'Mandstock', the
festival has steadily flourished- swiftly attracting its crowd of easy-going
hippies and music lovers. As well as offering a selection of hiking trails and
viewpoints accessible to attendees, the festival also boasts several workshops
including donkey riding classes, gardening, dance classes and Tai Chi.
Regarding
food onsite, Mandrea offer a modest but downright lip-smacking selection of
Italian food stuffs. You’ll find stonebaked pizzas, vegetarian paella and
outstanding Senegalese coffee making a holy trinity of deliciousness (the
latter being a particularly effective staple of the later nights; a continental
Red Bull if you will).
This
year’s line-up saw Friday night headliners The
Congos take to the main stage, administering a hearty dose of classic Reggae
from the trio of veterans; a formal education and introduction to their vastly
influential 1977 album with Lee Scratch Perry ‘Heart of The Congos’. Orlando Seale and the Swell later
christened the Forest stage with an array of stormy and political songs,
illuminated by the female violist and commanding front man vocals.
Saturday
night’s musical highlights included a stonking main stage performance from
Sheffield’s K.O.G. and the Zongo Brigade,
captained by K.O.G. who enticed onlookers with rhythmically stimulating Afro-fusion
anthems making this band a weekend highlight for many. Bristolian Ushti Baba soon followed on the Forest
stage, merging traditional European folk with a contemporary flair in an Alpine
knees-up.
Between
relentless downpours of rain, Sunday night saw the formidable Brightonian
9-piece Town of Cats own the Forest
stage with the heavens biblically clearing barely minutes before their set.
This didn’t stop revellers from anticipating a rain dance; hoisting over a
gazebo to the dance floor, much to the annoyance of a sound engineer. Their set
was delectably danceable, punctuated with stories of sin, sex and lashings of
salsa. Sunday also saw Inner Peace Records taking to the Barrio Libre stage,
the Hip-Hop label hosting a mixture of some of Oxford’s finest talents
including King Kahn, Shamanic, Terao,
EarthOne, Tang the Pilgrim, Elliot Fresh and Reejai, passing tongue in
cheek exchanges that reflected on the apocalyptic weather conditions Sunday
morning had punished us all with.
A serene
and intimate festival with a visually dramatic natural backdrop, Mandrea
festival is an unspoilt and ethereal beauty. You’ll leave feeling upbeat and
wholesome, this idyllic retreat from the grind of your 9-5, and substantially
less wanky than that yoga retreat that Stephanie from the office went to. Just
don’t go shouting it from the rooftops.
Words by
Elinor Potts
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