Kelvedon Hall has never looked quite like this. Five years into Appetite On The Farm, the Essex estate hosted its biggest weekend yet, with 20,000 people a day spread across seven stages and not a dull corner in sight.
Photo credit: Appetite On The Farm – Official
Jamie Jones’ set was always going to be the one people talked about, and of course it delivered. Playing his only UK festival of the summer, the Hot Creations legend was returning after he played on the Appetite stage at Glastonbury last year. The DJ tore through a set stacked with unreleased material and cult favourites, from a fresh Jake Mak edit to a Bontan rework of ‘Joga’ that had The Barn losing its mind. Elsewhere, Clockwork Orange took over for the weekend with their usual chaos, while Silva Bumpa closed out The Forest with a debut set that felt like the hit of the weekend, and packed with low-slung and bassy cuts as the crowd moved non-stop into the early hours.
Sunday’s back-to-backs were a highlight in themselves. Max Dean and Luke Dean traded rolling house cuts, Traumer and Marsolo leaned into hypnotic techno, and Joss Dean and Tommy Phillips kept The Forest packed well past sunset. Over at The Block, Beatportal’s takeover gave a competition winner the chance to play alongside Eliza Rose, DJ Moxie and Jaden Thompson, one of the more understated wins of the weekend.
Between sets, there was time to grab a pint of the festival’s own house lager, brewed with East London Brewing Co, and pick through the food market before diving back into another stage entirely. That’s the trick Appetite On The Farm has nailed over five editions: enough variety across The Barn, The Clearing, The Forest, The Jam & Doughnut, The Stables and The Record Store that no two people’s weekends look the same, but a shared sense of community running underneath all of it. Mud and all, this was the best one yet.
