The seven deadly sins of Beautiful Days 2010

From gluttony to greed - how will you get naughty?

Alex Fahey - 12 August 2010

Pride – Go and watch The Levellers
Who is going to be prouder this festival than the brains behind the bash: The Levellers. Revel in their deserved smugness as they unleash a traditional greatest hits set on the Sunday night to cap off what is looking like a wonderful weekend. Singer Mark Chadwick will even be in conversation with music journo John Robb at Dirty Davey’s Bandstand if you fancy ear-wigging there too.

Greed – Spoil yourself in the Body and Soul Area
If you’re after food, see gluttony, for greed is for overdosing on the purity of your body and mind and being selfish in the Body and Soul Area. So splash the cash a little for a massage, a bit of psyche cleansing and treat your temple to a summer spruce-up because you deserve it.

Envy – Get dressed up!
The best way to make everyone envious of you (and for you to feel that little bit better about yourself) is to have the best fancy dress costume onsite, so get creative. The theme for the Sunday dressing up fun is ‘stripes’ so be the best bee you can – will that cattle-prod work as a sting? -  or turn into an amazing tube of Aquafresh (or any other brand of teeth cleansing gel) to outshine all of your rivals.

Wrath - It has sold out after all…
Previous years have demonstrated, as with all festivals, that Beautiful Days has no place for any anger or rage. It's most likely that any vitriol spat in the direction of the festival will come from those who have bought their ticket early enough with the event now sold out. The closest link we can muster to wrath is in The Aggrolites’ name, but after spinning some of their infectious Californian reggae, instead of anger we feel warm, happy and sedate. Is it a sin to feel this confused?

Lust - For that first cold cider
Good old Aristotle (and now Wikipedia) are towing the line that Lust is not just of a sexual nature, as those late night Channel Five documentaries would have you believe, but rather an excessive love of something that 'renders love and devotion to God as secondary.'
 
So let's leave the smut to the side for a moment and imagine sitting, billowed by hot sunshine, whilst sipping a cold locally-brewed ale; laughing infectiously to stand-up comics safe in the knowledge that your kids are having a ball too before singing the weekend away to some of the best bands in the business. We know, the lustful thought is enough to get anyone hot under the (dog)collar!

Gluttony – East at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Canteen
Where else would you want to nestle down and fill your gob? The bouncy-bonced chef is as likely to be running a campaign for the much un-admired rutabagas as he is running down a badger outside the gates just to fix up the sort of homely grub your mum is preparing for your festival return. But whatever countryside culinary treats he’s serving, you know you’re going to want to go back for more.

Sloth – Leave the children in the Kids Area
Parents hardly ever get the chance to be lazy. Yeah sure, when little Ryan is at his Nan’s for dinner they might get to slouch on the couch and ignore the surrounding mess, but can they actually let go knowing they’ve got to drive and pick him up at six? This is where the Kids Area at Beautiful Days comes in – it’s the perfect opportunity to be lazy! The Majical Youth Theatre will be providing loads of activities (hopefully not spelling lessons) to keep the little’uns entertained from crafts and theatre to rides, story-telling, comedy and the washing machine’s favourite: face painting. So leave them there for an hour or two and relax with a cold cider. Bliss.

Comments

Related Artists

Related Events

Related Articles