Years active 2003–present Dates 18 Aug – 20 Aug 2017 | Location Escot Park | |
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Genres Rock music, Alternative rock, Folk music, Punk rock, Electronic dance music, Experimental music Awards UK Festival Award for Best Family Festival, UK Festival Award for Best Grass Roots Festival Nominations UK Festival Award for Best Medium-Sized Festival, UK Festival Award for Best Toilets Similar Bearded Theory, Bestival, Secret Garden Party, Larmer Tree Festival, Green Man Festival Profiles | ||
Beautiful Days is a music festival that takes place in August at Escot Park, near Ottery St Mary, Devon. The festival is organised by the band The Levellers and was first held in 2003. The festival has no corporate sponsorship or branding, leading to Virtual Festivals proclaiming it "the festival that sells out ... by not selling out". In 2011 Beautiful Days was pronounced "Best Family Festival" by the UK Festival Awards, later winning the "Grass Roots Festival Award" in 2015, as well as the "Best Medium Festival" award from FestivalKidz the same year.
History
The Levellers began the festival at Escot Park in 2003, after a previous venture the Green Blade Festival ran into licensing difficulties. The Levellers' singer Mark Chadwick explained at the time
The whole reason for doing it is that many festivals are shit. They just haven't got that right element of cultural exchange. We're trying to get that 'weirdness' back into festivals, which is the whole point of doing it ... as soon as the corporate hand sticks its tiniest bit in, they're fucked.
The first two festivals were held over two days (Saturday and Sunday) and utilised two stages, named the Main Stage and the Big Top. In 2005 it became a three-day festival with the addition of bands playing on the Friday, and has since expanded the number of stages. Since 2012 there have been six main stages; the two mentioned above, plus the Little Big Top, Bimble Inn, the Band Stand and a Theatre Tent. The festival is held on the third weekend of August, the same weekend as the V Festival; Chadwick stated that although this was not originally deliberate, he liked it because "the ethos of the festival is (the) antithesis of V."