‘Only tell the good ones about this place’: why Britain’s littlest festival is better than Burning Man

By James Hough

If 2018 set the benchmark for long, hot summers, at least Noisily had an ace up its sleeve: nestled beneath the wooded glades of Nosely estate, Lincolnshire, the UK’s best alternative electronic music festival felt like an oasis of shade among this year’s scorched-earth festivals..

I don’t use a word like “best” lightly: where other than Noisily can you stroll between stages blasting progressive techno, funky glitch hop, full-on psytrance, drum and bass and a style of wonky garage that I’m not sure has a name yet.

Now with six solid years under its belt Noisily has matured into a very special place indeed, and this year, with headliners that included Oliver Koletzki, Grouch, and Black Sun Empire, the line-up felt very slick in general and often sublime. With set after electrifying set - like the afternoon I spent dancing through five hours of back-to-back Patrice Baumel and D-Nox and Beckers as the sun set - Noisily is hard to top.

But as well as being musically compelling, what truly elevates this little paradise is the remarkably diverse crowd it attracts. This year marks my 20th anniversary of festival-going: compared to the demographic of, say, Boomtown, I am definitely "seasoned". Do I feel this widening age gap at Noisily? Not for a second. Here the young stomp readily with the old and the sense of the ridiculous is rife. I watched England v Sweden alongside a gentleman wearing a golden crown and a full length “keep Austin weird” tie-dyed t-shirt. As England scored and the crowd erupted I turned to my friend and said "You know what Burning Man needs?... That guy!"

The crowd at Noisily - unpretentious, unselfconscious - feels a world away from the Insta-tastic crowd that all-too-often block your view at Boomtown, too stylish to get stuck in. Their lack of ego combined with a willingness to be open and chatty makes the Noisily crowd a pleasure to party with.

The very excellent Chicken Brothers closed their set on the Treehouse Stage with these wise words that summed up the festival perfectly: "Only tell the good ones about this place!"