Virgin's Guide: Festival Number 6

Photo: Festival Number 6

There is so much you need to know about Festival Number 6 - it's an absolute beast of a concept. In short, it's an event full of quirky detail and intelligent music and culture, that is based on an utterly insane TV show from the 1970s called The Prisoner.

But even if you've never seen or heard of the show - and to be honest, there aren't many people under the age of forty who would have - it's still immense.

The festival, the highlights of last year's soiree you can watch above takes place in Portmeirion on the coast of north west Wales, but it isn't too bad to get to from England. This is where the original TV show was set, and as you can see, the architectural lunacy provides quite a backdrop for a music festival - there is literally nowhere else like this in Britain. 

One advantage of Festival No. 6 is that you're quite near to civilisation, although to be totally honest, we couldn't think of many better places we could be trapped for a few days than the festival itself.

This is certainly not a muddy field with fencing and barriers everywhere, because all the year round this place functions as a tourist attraction, so you can basically have all of the advantages of being at a festival, i.e. great music, great people and great surreal moments, without the disadvantages of being herded like muddy cattle. It all feels well organised and just generally very easy.

As you can probably tell already, Festival No 6 is about so much more than just music. So yes, you obviously have the brilliant combo of Belle & Sebastian (check out their live performance above), Grace Jones, James Bay, Everything Everything and 808 State performing this year, but there is so much going on beyond that, like the comedy tent for example.

Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan, Ardal O'Hanlon of Father Ted fame, TV panel show regular Josie Long and irreverent Irish funny man Andrew Maxwell are amongst the highlights this time round.

And another worthwhile pursuit is having a wander around in The Woodlands. You can stumble across all sorts in there, like pop up raves and magical story telling. The dance music line up in particular looks strong, with the iconic DJ Harvey joining 2 Bears, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Gerd Janson and festival favourite Andrew Weatherall all part of the classy line up gracing the festival this year.

As far as accommodation goes, you've got an almost unprecedented range, from just roughing it in a tent or campervan, pre-erected tipis and yurts, and even the option to progress up to lording it up in the on-site castle or one of the ridiculously plush cottages in the castle grounds.

It's a festival that has charm in abundance and plenty to fall in love with. And really, it has to be seen to be believed.

Head here for Festival No.6 tickets

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