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As promised, here is my full, four-act piece on the Green Man Festival, which was originally published in edited form by PopMatters.com.

The 2006 Green Man Festival Reviewed

Wintering in Wales: A Love Story

The weather followed us into the Northern Hemisphere. As we careened around the back roads of Abergavenny and Merthyr Tydfil, the joy of the previous night still running at high temperatures in our brains and the dewy, drossy hills of the Brecon Beacons national park crowding the road, I had to switch, for the umpteenth time on this foray into the heart of the British summer, our little Ford’s wipers from “intervalâ€�? to “high,â€�? and squint to catch the oncoming signs and markers. Granted, these Welsh showers were nothing like the downpours we had left behind in Cape Town – which had brought destructive flooding to the coast and snowdrifts deep enough to shut the mountain passes – but still, we were wearing scarves, there were two pairs of mud-caked Wellies in the boot, it was August, and the heat was on.

My companion fiddled with the radio. Nothing could compare with the sweet music that had kept us sleepless until the diminutive o’clocks of that Sunday morning, however, so Radio 1 and BBC Cymru were silenced. We rode on, through towns with names like “Bwlchâ€�?, and allowed ourselves to feel like conquering heroes.

Bwlch

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The popular culture website PopMatters.com has published a piece I wrote on the Green Man Festival and the Silver Jews, along with two new photos. Have a look:

• Ben Oswest on PopMatters.

The piece was edited rather against the grain of my sensibilities, and as soon as it’s a week old or so I’ll publish it here in the original. Meanwhile, I can bring you a part that didn’t make the cut - my overall verdict on the Green Man - along with another new festival picture. Read this once you’ve finished with PopMatters (it was supposed to have ended the piece):

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