REVIEW: Green Man 2023

Written by Josie Reaney

Every year, the Brecon Beacons are electrified by lights, music and hoards of festival goers. This is no unfamiliar scene, in fact, it’s a staple part of UK culture. We spend long weekends dancing in the mud, living off of agonisingly overpriced beer and soaking in live music with people we love. Frankly, it’s as close as many of us will ever get to our hippy longings, as we ditch our hairbrushes and trapse through the grass clad in specially brought tie dye. The irony of the modern festival is obvious, nevertheless these fields full of beautiful people with mud up to their knees and glitter on their cheeks will always be special and for me Green Man 2023 embodied that- this is my experience. 

Thursday began sunny (but, of course, it wouldn’t last). Spiritualised played a masterful set. The strobe lighting displays married with the music perfectly to make for an immersive and often disorientating performance. The Bug Club were also a highlight, playing bouncing Welsh punk and giving the end of the first night an unexpected wave of energy. 

The next morning gave us rain, and plenty of it. As the weather worsened into the afternoon, people ran for cover in the Far- Out tent, where I imagine many stumbled across Jockstrap and I imagine many were bewildered. This trial blazing experimental pop duo were on the top of my list for the festival. Their debut album I Love You Jennifer B falls nothing short of fantastic. Georgia Ellery’s soaring vocals never faltered and leaves me wondering how she ever manages to quietly blend in with her other project, the masterful Black Country New Road. Jockstrap’s set was as suitably weird as it was stunning. Songs about messy metaphorical childbirths and ‘crochet pants’ were peppered in with euphoric pop and viscerally beautiful moments. The night gave us Slowdive, who lived up to their status of shoegaze royalty. The audience rocked back and forth on the heels of their muddied wellies to the dreamy set. Just for a second, I forgot about the rain. 

By Saturday, the skies had cleared. Sheffield’s own, magnificent, Self Esteem headlined the Mountain Stage. Her rise to stardom can be best demonstrated by her rise up the line-up at Green Man, where she’s played three times, starting on the smallest stage in 2018. The performance was pop perfection. The energy of the set filled the night with the exact feeling you’d want from a festival- that of seizing life, having fun and not giving a fuck. Rebecca Lucy Taylor’s message is firm, Prioritise Pleasure. The message was received and adhered to as my friends and I spent the rest of the night and early morning stumbling between drag shows and chaotic DJ sets until our legs gave in. 

Any Green Man goer will tell you that Sunday is the best day of the festival. The weather was kind to us, the sun shone down on the mountains and we covered the filth on our faces and bodies with glitter and set to the music. Gilla Band were angst ridden and exhilarating. It’s not a reach to say they set the foundations for the post punk scene which has exploded from Dublin in the recent years. They have mastered their tense builds and cathartically shouty sets, Green Man was no exception. They were a clear stand out of my weekend. Similarly, Amyl & The Sniffers were electric. Rowdy, funny and delightfully tongue in cheek. I watched parents exchange nervous looks as frontwoman Amy laughed about them “having the record for saying cunt the most times on the BBC” – see, punk’s not dead! The performance was grounded in a wink as they played their raucous political rock with boundless energy. Their set was fun, they are entertainers after all but the message is often no joke. They have found the perfect way to exercise that balance.  As a young woman, this was an important set for me. 

Now it’s time to roll out the red carpet for the Young Fathers. My friend described their set as “the best thing mankind’s ever done”. Now, whilst he’s somewhat prone to exaggeration, in the afterglow of the moment, I was in full agreement. I was vaguely familiar with the Edinburgh three-piece though Six Music and went to the set curious. I left astounded. The energy they created in the packed tent was so powerful. As the set built the audience gave back as much as we got and it made for the most transcendental live music I have ever experienced. If you were lucky enough to have been there in that sweaty tent on that clear Sunday night you will know exactly what I mean. And if not book tickets immediately and be sure to join the riots with me if they don’t win the mercury. 

The festival ends with the burning of the Green Man, a celebration of the Celtic roots in which the whole event is grounded. It’s a moment of calm and striking community. Hundreds of us had tied our wishes to the spiritual emblem over the days. It felt like the whole world had gathered around to watch them burn. This is a special festival. There’s a brimming Welsh pride as songs and smoke drift up into the mountains. Green Man festival takes the time and space to breath and remind us that we are attuned to nature, we are alive with love and we are electrified by the power of music. In spite of the £14 pizza and the middle- class bohemians, this is a sacred event, grounding, liberating and blissful (so long as you ignore the toilets).