IT has been described as Mid Wales’ ‘best kept secret’, but after winning back-to-back Best Welsh Festival titles at the Welsh Hospitality Awards, the secret of Landed Festival is well and truly out of the bag.
The small yet mighty Powys music festival celebrated its 12th year in 2023, but that has proved to be anything but bad luck for event co-ordinator Chris ‘Grubby’ Brown and his team.
Landed landed the best festival crown in 2019, at the fourth annual awards, but the fifth edition wasn’t held until this year, meaning back-to-back wins for the festival.
It’s a fine reward for the festival’s minute and hard-working family, particularly organiser Chris, who’s been through a lot in the last year.
“The award is great recognition for an event in Mid Wales where there is nothing,” said Chris. “Someone said to me it is the best festival site in the UK.
“After suffering an exploded gall bladder, a snapped Achilles and losing my dad in the last year, it’s one of the things that pushes me to keep going.”
Landed is held in the shadow of Doldowlod House, just off the A470, between Llandrindod Wells and Rhayader.
First held in 2010, this year’s event was staged over the last weekend in July. It has seven stages, two opposite each other, so when one act finishes, people turn around and watch the next behind them.
The venue is pretty much made out of garbage; with Brown and his crew collecting rubbish from the event, and other scrap, to make the décor for next year’s event.
“We’re in our 13th year and Landed has grown so much in that time, but the nice thing is we’ve kept it small at the same time, we never have over 1,000 people,” said Chris.
“We started small scale with two stages, now we have seven. There’s no break in-between, we run them back-to-back. There’s no hour in between setting up, one stage faces a stage so when one stops another one starts.
“We’ve progressed over the years. We’ve had cinemas, a theatre and lots of different things the second year. We’ve now got pimp my duck races and children’s activities.
“We’re a small family, there’s only six of us, then we get lots of volunteers at the event.
“Staying small, I think, is why we’ve done so well. It’s been such an amazing experience.”
Chris, who has been going to festivals since he was 10, works the rest of the year to pay the up-front costs.
His family also have a close relationship with the Doldowlod estate’s owners, the Gibson-Watt family.
“Landed Festival is made out of rubbish from other events, we make all our own décor,” says Chris, who used to run an event waste recycling company.
“We have own can crushers, glass imploders, we make concrete benches out of all the glass on site.
“We try to make our waste stay on site and become something. Tents never get thrown away, they get turned into bunting or wind socks or anything we can.
“Our décor is all made from scrap. We get it out of skips. IBC tanks; I’ll cut the tops off, fill them with soil and grow the décor, it’s easy. If people throw things away we’ll have it.
“We’re not aiming for carbon neutral, we’re aiming for carbon negative.”
Next year’s festival will be held over the weekend of July 26-28, 2024. Early bird tickets go on sale on December 1.
Keep up to date with the latest news by visiting landedfestival.co.uk or the Facebook page.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here