Festival Number 6 is a sparkling oasis of bohemian joy
This weekend we were invited over to a little Italian village in North Wales and it was pure INSANITY. Festival Number Six was in it’s seventh year, and seeing as how this year was the last for a while they held nothing back. Here’s what we got up to:
Friday
We arrived fresh off the train in London shivering with anticipation. Driving through mountain ranges and woodland, we finally arrived, popped up our popup tent and knocked back some vodka-cran. Then it was time to explore… heading over to the village of Portmeirion is unlike anything you’ll find here in London. It’s like walking onto a film set for Alice in Wonderland on acid. The place is brought to life with music, performers and artists running amok on every corner. Crazy colours and glitter fun, mixed in with that old fisherman aesthetic.
A little exploring into the depths of the surrounding wood had us on a Chinese-style float in the middle of a pond bopping to some disco jams under a giant disco ball. The Village Limits was dancing to the beats of Peza mixing from behind a sycamore. Even FURTHER into the forest we happened across The Tangled Woods dance floor. You Bear Grylls it up the side of a hill and end up on the edge of a cliff hair whipping to some jazzy remix.
We then headed over to the main stage to catch Everything Everything going their thing and they were… well, everything! The rest of our Friday night was spent drunkenly two-stepping in The House of Rum and then an unstable stumble back to the tent.
Saturday
Having woken up with a throbbing headache, we needed some food to sort us out. The Village Green had everything you’d ever want for a hangover meal. Our go-to became some Annie Mac and Cheese, YUM. Once we felt almost human again we headed down to the village for some entertainment.
A few ‘Angelina Ballerina’ paper cups full of Merlot later, evening was upon us. Down at the The Central Piazza a crowd of older men in suits had taken to the stage. We were hoping for some sort of Magic Mike situation but instead we were given The Brythoniad, a Welsh male voice choir serving up some land of my fathers realness with welsh hymns for ya nerve. The crowd went WILD. We’re not quite sure what happened after that, we vaguely remember hearing some ‘The The’ playing.
We came back to consciousness mid-Homoelectric-set at the House of Rum. It was a great injection of queer energy. Making friends at festivals is what you do, and nowhere was this easier than at Number Six. We’ve got at least ten new numbers in our phone and NO idea who any of them are… We ended the night having snuck into the glamping sight, in a tipi celebrating some stranger’s 40th. We want to say his name was Sean..? It was dawning when we finally made our way back to the tent.
Sunday
Sunday morning’s hangover put Saturday’s to shame. We’re not quite sure when our tent started spinning but we knew we had to get out of it and try and regain some sanity. The amazing thing about Number Six is that if you want to get fancy, you can go full Michelin Star, and so we did. There’s nothing like fine dinging in a soggy hoodie and muddy wellies.
A Sunday lunch always needs to be followed by a long walk, so we wandered down to the beach for a Carrie Bradshaw walking in the desert in the second Sex and the City moment, billowing pashmina and Madonna’s Isaac playing in the background. It wasn’t long before we were back in the forest having a boogie to some remixed disco in a pair of hipster glasses. We hyped ourselves up for one last night of festival madness.
Keeping in the disco mood we headed over to see Horse Meat Disco over at the Grand Pavilion. The mud situation was REAL. Up to our knees, but that didn’t stop us. We twerked into the early hours, caught some Franz Ferdinand, then headed to Savage. When the music finally came to an end, we were left feeling blue, not only because we couldn’t come back the night after, but we couldn’t return next year. A truly magical experience. We’ll be keeping an eye out for the next one.
For more info on Festival No6, head to festivalnumber6.com
