Last ever Secret Garden Party: ‘If you haven’t come to learn, come to teach’…

Features / Festivals / Words

04 Jul 17


Everything you need to know about the culture at Secret Garden Party

  • Head gardener announces last ever SGP
  • 15 years of ‘serious partying’ must grind to a halt
  • Secret venues, A-Listers, and lawn games

The Head Gardener at the UK’s most revered independent festival has announced that ‘the devil is in the detail’ as SGP outdo themselves one last time. With an A-Lister theme (check the website) guests will be invited to partake in bonkers lawn games, see unique b2b sets from rare DJs and discover hidden corners of the UK’s most outlandish festival site.

Culture Or Trash remembers the field of sunflowers behind a toilet cubicle door we found in 2015. Or in 2014 when Secret Garden Party blasted more fireworks than could possibly exist in one piece of sky. We’re hoping for more of the same.

Ears to the ground for unannounced secret guests, although confirmed names need little contending. More on that in our TRASH column.

Once the partying hotspot of Prince Harry, the festival epitomises the Prince. Its haystack-edged lawn games, rolling hills and whimsical spirit are quintessentially British, but in a modern, relaxed and innovative way.

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Everything you need to know about getting trashed at Secret Garden Party

  • Tens of stages tucked into surprising corners of the site
  • Creative art installations at every turn
  • Lake swimming and ‘VIP treatment’ workshops

The Head Gardener invites Metronomy, Crystal Fighters, Toots and the Maytals and Ray Blk to head its main stage lineup, and pretty well every DJ in the game. Booked legends include Nero, Alex Metric, Eats Everything, Jackmaster and George Fitzgerald, although the theme and festival itself – check the line-up here – will be the bits you’ll remember. Things to do have been arranged behind every peeking hedgerow, and the feel is like the country’s most ambitious and all-encompassing summer fayre.

For dreamers who never grew up, SGP employs a team of independent creatives to launch its yearly concept. This year – the last ever SGP – provokes conversations about celebrity, and as a punter you’ll have the opportunity to tour the site with your own personal assistant, learn how to be a groupie, impress judges of a new reality show or – if last night was too much – go to rehab.

But the Head Gardener reminds us that no-one needs a VIP ticket – ‘We are all very important people!’ he gushes, ‘and it’s time to have a very important party…’.

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