The festival returned to the Brecon Beacons with a host of diverse and unique acts from across the alternative spectrum.

The beloved Green Man Festival returned for its 21st year last weekend with an ambitious lineup and, for the most part, glorious weather to match. One of the defining alternative music festivals in Britain, it brings a range of styles to the Brecon Beacons. Among headline slots from Sleaford Mods, Jon Hopkins, Big Thief and Sampha were sets from great up-and-comers from Wales and beyond including Mari Mathias, The Orchestra (For Now) and TTSSFU, King Krule guesting with Mount Kimbie, H. Hawkline guesting with Devendra Banhart, and late night shenanigans including festival editions of Popperz and Byrnes Night, DJ sets from Sherelle, Hannah Holland and PVA and a close, as is now customary, with Deptford Northern Soul Club.

Arriving in a familiarly Welsh drizzle on Thursday afternoon, the damp air did provide some relief as campers sweated into the festival under the weight of their tents and festival attire. Having popped the tent up, we headed straight in to catch Sheer Mag. The Philadelphia band have built a strong live reputation in America, cemented by their signing to Third Man Records, but while there was certainly a punch to their tight sound and singer Tina Halladay’s wailing delivery, their tried and tested 70s rock sound – complete with predictably noodling guitar solos – felt a little tired. KOKOKO! by contrast offered something far more original, the idiosyncrasy of their sound aided by homemade synths and unusual rhythms. The dynamism added to their set by live drumming paired well with infectious singalong moments to make this an early highlight of the weekend.

Green Man has always provided a good platform for the best Welsh talent. This year felt like something of a changing of the guard; the first time we can remember that none of Gruff Rhys, Cate le Bon, Sweet Baboo or H. Hawkline were booked to play (though the latter did step up to perform his track ‘Milk for Flowers’ while playing as part of Devendra Banhart’s band). Nonetheless, there was a strong showing of Welsh talent. Mari Mathias has a beautifully rich sound that unfurls in all its glory in a live setting, the acoustic instrumentation a warm backdrop to her soaring Welsh-language vocals. Relative stalwarts Islet never fail to create an immersive and intense live atmosphere, possessing a rare ability to make it seem that almost anything could happen during their set. Emerging through the crowd clicking tone chimes at shifting intervals, they commanded a meditative hush among the crowd before launching into a passionately energetic set. A favourite moment was keys and percussion player Alex Williams putting his trash cymbal on his head, looking wildly from side to side for a moment, and then letting it fall arrhythmically to the ground.

Headlining on the Thursday night, Sleaford Mods brought their relentless cathartic fury to the Far Out tent. Their set is incredible for its watchability in spite of its stark simplicity. While Andrew Fearn bounced around the stage to the beats, Jason Williamson stood delivering his barbed verses with minimal acknowledgement of the audience, save for crediting a few pre-recorded guest vocals. Most of the time he did not even look at us, facing instead to the side of the stage, compulsively scratching and kicking between songs, regularly balancing his water bottle on his head and sticking his mouth over the end of the mic to underscore a telling lyric. ‘Stick in a Five and Go,’ the seething retort to Twitter keyboard warriors, drew an especially impassioned reception, its pertinence delicately felt in the wake of the recent right-wing terrorism across the UK, organised as it was across social media.

Throughout the weekend, Green Man’s Rising framework platformed a number of favourite sets. Opening the main stage on Friday were The Orchestra (For Now), winners of the festival’s Rising competition, in which independent bands bid for festival slots. Their immersive and ambitious sound felt like it had finally found its deserved scale blasting into the valley, its intricate details remarkably well defined. Other finalists from the competition provided highlights over on the dedicated Rising stage, TTSSFU and ladylike showing themselves to be easily festival-ready alongside the aforementioned Mari Mathias and Leeds’ Nature Kids, who put an infectious and genuinely original spin on the slacker rock of the likes of Pavement, from whom they derive their name. This stage also played host to some of our favourite artists of late, among them The New Eves and Getdown Services. A new raised stage for this area seemed to suggest a heightened emphasis on this strand of the festival, well-deserved after many years of crowds packing in around the smaller former stage to catch well-selected bands on the way to bigger things.

Of the more established names on the lineup, perhaps the biggest revelation was Omar Souleyman. The Syrian artist distinguished in part for having recorded over 500 albums, most of which are live recordings taken at weddings, is clearly preceded by a reputation for bringing a good time, and this he undoubtedly did. Pumping rhythms and wriggling melodies provided a winding backdrop as he sang over the top. Instrumental interludes were punctuated by imploring waves of his hands for the crowd to keep the energy up, or claps that had a strangely benevolent, patient energy. At these moments, with the crowd expressing itself wildly around us, he cut something of a stately figure with his microphone clasped under his left arm and hands clapping.

Among the other artists to convert the Mountain Stage crowd to similar abandon, Lynks was predictably a highlight. Starting at midday on the Saturday, they were quick to congratulate anyone for being up that early. They also swiftly warned parents about the X-rated language coming up, pointing out that ‘How to Make a Béchamel Sauce’ is their only song not marked ‘Explicit’ on Spotify. Another mismatch for lunchtime were Opus Kink, who nonetheless packed out the Far Out tent on their debut at the festival. With their scorching compositions and idiosyncratic chaotic energy, they took advantage of the darker setting to immerse the crowd in their familiar feral gothic atmosphere.

Mermaid Chunky impressed on the Mountain Stage, bringing along a troupe of whimsically dressed performers to dance along to a couple of tracks. Combining clever and bizarre stream-of-consciousness lyrics with beguiling synth driven instrumentals, they were an absorbing watch. On reflection, it is hard to think of many other environments to Green Man where a crowd would give an unfamiliar act like this the due patience and appreciation to get the most out of such a set.

Other Hard of Hearing favourites Tapir! excitingly had some fresh songs to introduce to the set. These interesting new compositions, which included last week’s release ‘Hallelujah Bruv’, brought a revitalising energy to the set. Indeed, having told one particular story through debut album ‘The Pilgrim…’, it felt as though the band were now free to tell their own, writing for the first time for their full lineup and arranging setlists more like a conventional band. Black Country, New Road’s new material proved a little harder to get into by comparison. Their live album of material created after Isaac Wood’s departure was received well enough but as time has gone on, it seems to have divided opinion on the band’s new directions. The new tracks performed at the festival felt like more of the same, showing the band’s familiar command of ambitious structures but seeming to land more in melodrama than the more meaningful, gritty territory of their older work. 

This year each day felt unusually busy with clusters of great acts coming in early between 11.30 and 2, but that is not to detract from the later activities on offer this year. After dark attractions at the festival included a travelling edition of the popular covers show Byrnes Night. Originally an annual MOTH Club event in which members of scene bands perform Talking Heads songs, its popularity has seen it rise to the festival circuit. This understandably proved incredibility popular, making for a joyous busy party in the Walled Garden on the Saturday night. Elsewhere, there was a new stage to explore, secretively placed so that you had to enter via one of the clothes stores. Sherelle’s intense jungle set in the Far Out tent was a standout DJ set, while Mxlly (fka Ash Kenazi) brought an adapted version of club night Popperz to Round the Twist, featuring a mix of great DJs and some weird and wonderful performers, including the commanding and incredibly entertaining Kuntessa.

Before these wilder moments each night were of course the festival’s headliners, about as diverse a set of acts as you can hope for from an alternative festival. Big Thief provided perhaps the most memorable experience, their songs built around the tautly emotional core of Adrienne Lenker’s lyrics, from which each line was delivered for maximum emotive impact. The set swelled, starting out with two acoustic solo tunes before the rockier moments grew into the set. The band closed on a festival singalong to new song ‘Incomprehensible’, which people went on singing well into the night. Though less candidly emotive, Jon Hopkins was also able to produce a powerful experience, his winding melodic synth progressions and infinite builds and drops taking on a deeply hypnotic quality. While Big Thief leant into the wild, solid beauty of the Mountain setting, Hopkins’ set felt more like an invitation to transcend it and float upwards into the Welsh stars.

Sampha closed the Mountain Stage with his own magnificent headline performance. A must-see whose reputation has been cemented by other festival performances over the summer, his live setup is uniquely absorbing for its versatility, allowing for impassioned and free delivery of his songs. Two live percussionists kept his complex rhythms flowing with cinematic vividity, a kick drum taking pride of place in the mix so that it beat in the chest of every listener. On the other side of the stage, his synth players brought out those crucial melodic moments with all the requisite clarity. The set had a bit of everything, at one point stripping down just to a solo performance of ‘No One Knows Me (Like The Piano)’, at another drawing the whole band to one side of the stage into a kind of drum circle, showing off Sampha’s compositional command of rhythm. This diverse set was a fitting conclusion to the weekend, reflecting its variety while presenting something not quite seen before among its other acts.