SoL Party 2025 (Thursday and Friday)

If you never heard of the SOL Party, also known as "Solfest", (as in Summer Of Love) I'm not surprised. It has been an annual outdoor music event for umpteen years on a farm in Kent but is never advertised. Why? Because it's not a festival but a private party: no tickets but you do pay a 'membership' which covers 3 days camping and a full programme of music over 2 days plus the previous evening.

I had attended once before - I think in 2018 - just stayed a day to see the Muffin Men and the Grateful Dudes.

For 2025 I made sure there was no family holiday commitment  over the first weekend of August and my brother M and I booked a room in a pub (no rough camping for us) and went along. It being (for us) a rare weekend in Kent we also visited Battle (for the 1066 battlefield history) and looked up a friend in Bexhill, so we didn't catch all the music. Here are the acts we did see. I rarely take the time to listen to music that's not in my collection and I was surprisingly happy to hear, for once, a wider range and discover something new.

I guess this event appeals mainly to ageing hippies. Along with Playing on the Farm it's a major regular fixture for UK Deadheads (and at least one US Deadhead). 

Thursday evening (Garden Stage)

Barry Melton

Veteran of many many SOLs (and, with Country Joe, of Woodstock too) Barry Melton, with Natalie Martel and Stephane Missri, played mostly US trade union songs in memory of his friend (and Country Joe and the Fish bass player), the late Bruce Barthol. Katie Spencer - a very fine British singer/songwriter was next followed by an acoustic version of Welsh group Deadedz: it's always a treat to hear their take on the songs of the good ol' Grateful Dead (but I prefer their electric versions).

Friday

After our trip to Battle we arrived back in time for, on the main stage, The Supernatural, a band which played almost exclusively Peter Green's music (apart from a ditty recounting how, as a teenager, guiding light 'Timeless Tim' Hain was lead astray from his path in life by "Listening to Peter"). SO many great songs from early Fleetwood Mac that I'd almost forgotten them; this was a really bluesy treat.

After that we saw the Bevis Frond, a band my late friend Mike Smith introduced me to, who have been playing and releasing albums since 1986. I enjoyed their brand of Hawkwind era prog rock and also the two dancers who joined in, but who were really here with the next band on the garden stage - Dubbal - the singer of whom dubbed them the dancing witches (also known as "Pan's Pagans"), but very graceful they were and not a bit 'toil and trouble'. Dubbal played a brand of dub/reggae (pun in last sentence intended) and very lively they were too, with a wild Gong-like clarinet solo from an audience member (Greg I think). I didn't even know I liked dub (with the exception of Sublime's version of Scarlet Begonias of course). There's an earthy primal quality to the way Dubbal play it.

Headlining on the main stage were Grateful Dead music band Terrapins, who I've seen a couple of times. Here they were boosted by guest members Don, Lucie and Joe from Deadedz resulting in a good set (though I can't say it was the best Dark Star ever). Like Dark Star Orchestra they threw in the odd non-Dead song including "White Rabbit", always fun to hear live.

Terrapins