Kallida Festival

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Last weekend I took a trip to Wales to check out Kallida Festival, running for the first time this year.

Held in Baskerville Hall, a fading beauty of a murder-mystery mansion, everything from arriving at the venue along a country road, dappled by overhanging trees and curious horses peering over farm gates, to setting up our tent on the manor lawn under the purposely hung string-lights, was easy, aesthetic and inviting.
With bands and DJ's from across the UK and beyond, all coming together for the first time in such a lush setting, there was a fresh buzz of expectation in the air - we all knew we had signed up for something unique, and we were excited to see how the grand old hall would be transformed into a music venue.

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This was the brain child of many years of collaborative thought from organisers, all culminating on the last weekend of July. Sure, with every first there are valuable lessons to learn and errors to fix, but it seemed that all the small details (like the cute hand-painted signage and the recurring Kallida design, this time on the wristbands in sparkly lettering) were thoughtfully planned. 

The Welsh boarder may well be a questionable location for a music festival involving camping, BBQs and general outdoor activities, but once I saw Baskerville Hall everything made sense. I currently live in London, so I caught the train to Hereford via Birmingham, and then caught the festival's shuttle bus (10 quid for a return ticket). We waited a while for the bus, but it was all good because I got to meet some fellow festival goers! 

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On arrival we were greeted by a volunteer controlling the flow of traffic at the gate, and directed to the wristband office to exchange our ticket for a purple wristband. Then we were free to either check in at the hall or set up our tents on the lawn outside. Once that was set up (slight drizzle, nothing too awful) the main priority was to unpack our bags = find all the cans of alcohol we had lugged here and drink them!

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Kallida opened to the public at midday on Friday and closed on Sunday at noon. There was live music outside on the main stage (a large tent with adjoining bar outside on the mansion lawn) until 10pm and then the djs got things cranking, with music in the palm room and red room.

Highlights included Swing Ting, Kog and the Zongo Brigade (full group not present), Stinkin Slumrok, and organiser Reuben as part of Liquid Steel Sound, just to name a few...

They will do doing it all over again next year so make sure you save the date - it'll be a goodin!

I'm not associated with Kallida Festival in any capacity, I just have an interest in photography and wanted to document the weekend here in what has become a sort of visual diary. Also the image quality is better than uploading to facebook. Please feel free to share any of these photos, with a credit to me as photographer.

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 Happy 25th Birthday to this lovely lady!

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We also ventured into the neighbouring town of Hay-On-Wye for lunch on Saturday. 
>> Check out my post from the last time I visited Hay <<

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This post is independently published and has no affiliation or partnership with Kallida Festival.
Copyright for all photography is gamelkateintheworld. All opinions are my own.