Nothing in British festivals can match the main stage backdrop at Green Man: the kind of mountain ridge that Lord of the Rings characters gaze at in worry. The tradeoff is often Welsh rain, but this year, with the sun out – and a bill stacked with smart, warm, confident artists – it has a fair claim to be Britain’s best festival, full stop.
The highest point is Big Thief, who subvert the laws of festival headline sets by filling two-thirds of theirs with unheard new material. From brawny country rock to pristine ballads and – on the all-consuming groove of Hand Through Table – headnodding post-rock, the new songs’ tonal range is huge. They’re all received like old classics; closer Incomprehensible earns a huge singalong despite no one having heard it before. The band recently replaced a departing bassist and added a percussionist, a doubling-down of the rhythm section that gives tracks such as Simulation Swarm greater heft than before, but Adrianne Lenker still dominates out front, whether shredding noisy solos or singing over acoustic guitar to silent reverence.
