Campsoul Review by Matt Brookie

It was the last bank holiday of the year and this one holds a special event for all those people that love the sound of Soul music. This Soul festival runs from the Friday night until Monday, it is held in Milton, Oxford. The festival is held in a medium sized field enclosed by a tree line which makes it seem secluded away from civilization. Once the tent was set-up a relatively small one compared to the ones that everyone else had, we headed off to the main stage area which wasn’t far away at all. There are only two stages at this festival a main open arena stage and also an undercover circus tent. Within both stages there is pure soul music chiming away out of the speakers. The DJ listing event includes a lot of them ranging from Soul Kandi DJ’s from Manchester to Soulpower Radio station DJ’s and other Soul DJ’s that don’t regularly play on the radio such as Bob Masters and Paul Clarke.

The music for both these stages commences at midday until 1 in the morning, the festival was treated on the Saturday night as Light of the World played live for 2 hours. On the Sunday night all the Soul members at the festival were then going crazy as the legendary Lonnie Liston Smith turned up to do a 2 hour set for everyone on this field in Oxfordshire. It was safe to say that everyone there held him in extremely high regards, and it was an extremely great 2 hours considering he came all the way over from USA.

The best parts about this festival is that you can bring as much alcohol in as you want and can also park your car right next to where you pitch so no long queues that can be experienced at any main stream festival event. Everyone also brought along fantastic gas cookers which meant that it was essentially a massive BBQ for everyone that bought one. However, there is also food provided through various catering wagons as well. Along with a bar that served the most outrageous beer, cider and ale that I have ever tasted and I haven’t even heard of some of them before as well. I could have sworn that some of it was home-brewed but who really cares when after 3 pints it practically knocks you out on your feet and you can’t see where your going.

All in all it was an extremely well run and enjoyable event for all the family and I would highly recommend the event to anyone that wants to try a Soul event, or who just wants to go to a low key festival or even listen to some alternative music than the mainstream that gets played at every other festival.