The Brecon and Radnor Express had exclusive access to Green Man Festival yesterday as the final preparations were being made for this year's festival, the 20th on the Glanusk Estate near Crickhowell.
On a tour with festival director, Fiona Stewart, we had access to the main stage, backstage areas where the star's 'green rooms' are and a tour of the 'Settlement' area which offers campers a chance to stay longer and explore the Bannau Brycheiniog.
Ms Stewart, who has been in charge of the festival since 2006, clearly still gets a buzz out of it. She can't see herself selling up or handing it over, and bounds onto the main stage saying hi to all the crew and beaming at the view of where the crowd will be.
"If I gave it up, what would happen? It's one of only three independently-owned festivals in the UK and I wouldn't want to see it run by a corporation that didn’t care about putting back into the local community, like we do with the Green Man Trust," she said. "The way we do things we can prioritise Welsh businesses - like with the bar, where we retain our pouring rights. That means we can invite in Welsh brewers, small independent companies, who wouldn't get the same opportunities if we sold the rights."
The festival is, like everyone else, being impacted by climate change this year with wildfires burning on the hills of the Bannau Brycheiniog and smoke hanging over the site at times. So it has offered 80 free tickets to firefighters from the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue for this year's festival. Following the prolonged drought, the Green Man effigy will not be burned this year, as is traditional at the end of the festival.
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