Festival Review: Wish You Were Here, Cambridge, Sat 25th September

The inaugural Wish You Were Here festival took place in Cambridge on Saturday. Featuring some 30 musical acts across a number of local music venues, Wish You Were is the first festival of its kind in Cambridge (at least to my recollection), and hopefully promises to be an annual event for the city. Here's a summary of the acts I caught.

Proceedings kicked off with something of a whimper at the Portland Arms with opening act Cavalier pulling out at the last minute, so I trudged across the road to catch the one guy who maybe deep down wished he wasn't there, Mark Ellis. Two years ago his band Hamfatter appeared on BBC's Dragon's Den, and when they successfully sealed a £75,000 deal with Peter Jones, it looked as though Hamfatter were on their way to stardom. But after some ridiculously harsh backlash from the press, the dream quickly disintegrated. If Ellis carries any bitterness at now having to play to a quarter-full room in a Cambridge pub, however, his warm demeanour concealed it well, as he delivered a set of pleasant, if forgettable bitter-sweet acoustic pop.

Next on the to-see list was Sweden's Sad Day For Puppets (pictured left) at the Haymakers. Save for Anna Eklund's ethereal vocals, the "nu-gaze" tag suggested in the programme was stretching the imagination a bit, but the band delivered an uplifting set of indie-rock that both them and the crowd seemed to enjoy. However, the most raptuorous reception of the day was saved for The Wilderness of Manitoba (pictured top) back at the Portland.  Coming all the way from Ontario, Canada, their beguiling blend of Fleet Foxes-esque four-part vocal harmonies, lush instrumentation (including banjo, cello and singing bowls) and innovative use of atmospherics (generated entirely by their instruments - no laptops here) made for the unquestionable highlight of the day.

I caught only a few songs from The Brute Chorus, but was impressed by a confident display, of frontman James Steel, and their pummeling reimagining of 50's style rock-and-roll. I then returned  to the Boathouse for what turned out to be an ark-less Alessi's Ark, as Alessi Laurent-Marke performed a 45-minute solo set. However, her beautiful voice and shy-but-sweet banter meant that she was more than able to hold her own, even with a few gaffs (which nobody would have been any the wiser of had she not said anything).

If any band's moniker was indicative of their sound then Pulled Apart By Horses (pictured right, tearing up the crowd) was that band. Their explosive post-hardcore, the perfect anthithesis of Alessi's set, tore up the crowd of the Portland Arms, whose confines provided the perfect setting for the ensuing mayhem. After their phenomenal performance, the big-haired guitarist (by now half-naked) triumphantly surfed the crowd, booting me in the face in the process. I regard it as a trophy from one of the most memorable performances I've seen in the Portland for some time. After such highs, the hearts-on-sleeve rock of Lonely The Brave at the Haymakerswas never going to quite compare, but that wasn't for want of trying on their part.

On the basis of both the attendance and the performances, Wish You Were Here was a huge success, and an enormous amount of credit has to go to the organisers, as well as all those who played. Hopefully this will be the first of many such festivals in Cambridge.

Did you attend? What did you think? Who were the highlights for you? Please leave your comments below