Usually the Hoylake Parade hosts community courses, classes and such, but on this one boiling hot Saturday at the start of August, the community center became host to the first Skeleton Coast Festival. Straight next to a wonderful beach front, two stages erected across two rooms played the sounds of psychedelia and acoustic performances.

Our day was immediately started with what looked to be a well-crafted staff on the event, catering to everybody’s needs and holding it together. The event one-day festival seemed well put-on, without any issues which is often a rarity.

First act we saw was our friends Bathymetry who played from 2pm for simply 25 minutes. Their set was fun, to the small room who seemed to be paying attention. The highlight was the performance of “The West Was Won by People Like Us”. Nice start to the day.

After a while and a few missed acts, apart from the end of Jo Mary‘s set which seemed to be a great. We waited to catch Tom Low in action, the Deltasonic signed artist preformed his style of abstract music with his generally great songwriting, of which he’s starting to build a name for. We’d say Tom is a must-see act in the city currently, his perfectly crafted blend creates a wonderful set.

Our team took a break and dealt with issues while waiting for Edgar Summertyme, Psycho Comedy could be heard throughout the entire Parade and even outside. Live act that’s gathering a name very quickly. More-so, Psycho Comedy‘s frontman was seemingly at every other set, especially at the Edgar Jones.

Just around 8pm, Edgar Summertyme (Jones) took the stage on the main stage for his set. The room filled, not fully but you could tell everyone there was there simply to see Edgar and not because nothing else was on, the special fact that it didn’t matter if you were standing at the side of the stage, in the center, sitting down at the front or even grabbing a chair, it was relaxing.

“He Doesn’t Even Like You, Sarah” was a set highlight, although the loud chants of “Weed Bus” approached and the everyman Edgar obliged for a seriously surreal acoustic rendition of The Stairs classic that had everyone singing. This crowd seemed like the type who bought Psych Fest tickets to see The Stairs, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

We quickly flew upstairs to catch MiNNETONKA, who was joined by Liam Power of headliners By The Sea and Bill Ryder-Jones, who produced MiNNETONKA‘s latest release. The set was simplistic, 25 minutes of waves, electronic sounds and soft guitar sounds that created an atmosphere with the music itself. There were people stacked behind us, outside the door peaking through the glass panes in-between to see what was so special and the answer of course was MiNNETONKA.

Final act we caught, were our spotlight band The Wytches. The garage-y psych act blew the main-stage hall away with their set, piecing together their sound which could be described as Nirvana‘s Kurt Cobain fronting a much-more mind-bending 13th Floor Elevators. Frontman Kristian Bell brought his soulful-screams to the Parade, with the band in-tow seemingly well prepared for everything. They sound amazing, better live than on a record. Their 45 minute set was at a perfect length for them to expand.

Overall fantastic festival by a well-oiled team, we’re sure next year will be a blast too.