Herd Em Up

Held at Dockber Farm near Sawley, the event has musical emphasis on dance and electronic artists, and covers several genres including house, reggae, techno and dubstep.

On Saturday, fresh from a massive Glastonbury set, Nile Rodgers headlines with Chic again.

Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff, electronic duo Groove Armada, British DJ Jaguar Skills, German house duo Booka Shade and drum and bass artist Feed Me are all fellow headliners over the weekend.

Joining them will be beat sculptors Bondax, folk and rock band To Kill A King, jungle mixer Dynamite MC, Bristol-based Dub Mafia, Doctor and the Medics, techno DJ Paul Taylor and many more.

There are around 11 stages or musical areas including The Beat-Herder Stage, Toiltrees the dance area, Stumblefunk Soundsystem, Trailer Trash, The Fortress, The Bushrocker Family HiFi, The Beat-Herder & District Working Men’s Social Club, and The Lazy Meadow & Smoky Tentacles Shisha Lounge.

A variety of comedy will also be available throughout the weekend with comedian Justin Moorhouse, Mrs Barbara Nice (a middle aged housewife comedy act played by Janice Connolly of Phoenix Nights fame) and MC Rich Wall all announced.

The new stage, ‘Maison D’ete’, will be unveiled this year with indie rock band Toy, and musical duo Public Service Broadcasting playing sets on Sunday.

Last year hundreds of Beat-Herders chose to celebrate the thriving festival by getting custom tattoos.

Around 300 fans so far have been decorated with this as a constant reminder of the once-a-year music event.

Full of attractions, the event tests fans to brave the colourful beach ‘Av more fun’ cold showers and have the VIP treatment in ‘The Pimp Ball’ with its carpeted walls and pimp lighting, gazing on the world outside through a port hole.

The adult fun doesn’t stop there, with the event housing an underground vodka bar where the customers must kneel to be served, several cocktail venues and even a shack dedicated to Absinthe.

Hand built features like ‘The Stone Circle’ and the ‘Sword in the Stone’ capture the fun dynamics of this DIY festival, and ‘The Ladybird Project’ give the kids a chance to participate in art workshops and performances.

This year, Beat-Herder carries on its dress theme from the previous years and letters B, E and A, with T.

Fans are encouraged to join in the fun and dress to the letter with costumes and characters in the T range.

Travel to the festival is comfortable for most as the X80 regular bus service that passes the festival gates runs from Preston to Skipton.

Fans further away can even bid against each other for spare seats in cars of fellow beat-herders at http://gocarshare.com/festival/beatherder, and request lifts on Facebook – with some asking for lifts for a quid!

Considerable improvements have been made to the toilet facilities on-site, and full disabled facilities in the camp-site and main arena have been made available.

Beat-Herder is an independently funded festival and receives no sponsorship or affiliation with corporate organisations. New T-shirts are also on sale, with ‘herd ‘em up’ and ‘The Beat-Herder Festival 2013’ captions.