Brett ruining the bed of flowers at the front of the stage to throw into the audience
Getting rave reviews [6 out of 6 stars] from Danish press

Friday morning, 6AM. Leaving my hometown to travel some 900 km to Skanderborg, Denmark. Fluent trip with some rain. Arriving in Skanderborg 5PM.

I was happy to stay at the regular campsite of Skanderborg. The free camping grounds on the festival site were loaded with tents, leaving only 4m² per tent...

Contrary to the forecasts, the weather was great. Some 23 centigrades, no rain nor wind. Ideal festival circumstances!

Saturday, 5PM, entering the festival area. At the entrance, my ticket was exchanged for a wrist band which assured multiple entries for that day.

Unlike most festivals in Europe, the Smukkeste Festival of Skanderborg is not a commercial circus with the default Coca Cola and local beer stands, situated at a disused field somewhere outside the big city. Skanderborg is fun, intimate, laid back. Surrounded by lots of trees and friendly Danish people, it's a way better festival than Roskilde and much much better then Lowlands in the Netherlands or Rock Werchter in Belgium.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to see all performances at all stages. The first band I saw were the Danish Saybia. Quite nice and as they sing in English, even understandable.

The main stage was devided in two stages next to each other. While Saybia was playing, Supergrass's set was built up etc. After Saybia, Supergrass performed at the right side stage. Good moment to get some food and beer (the Danish start drinking at 9AM and continue till they get to bed. This is not only true for the festival diehard, but also for the 'average' Dane).

11.30PM, the first Suede sounds can be heard from the still dark leftside stage. Sound is checked with Feel and Can't Get Enough. Ten minutes later, all get's dark and the excitement is growing. The instrumental version of Simon replaces the often used gig opener music of Rachmaninoff.

Then, at 11.45 sharp, the lads are coming up and open their set with She. Brett is in great shape, wearing tight blue jeans, a black shirt (not new, for sure) and sneakers. Richard has had a haircut that reminds me of the Coming Up cover pictures and especially Alex looks great: healthy, great haircut and energetic. Mat and Simon, well, they never change, do they?

The very enthusiastic audience was complimented by Brett: "I love to be back in Denmark, you're the best audience!" To prove that, Brett ruined the bed of flowers at the front of the stage to throw into the audience. The instrument Brett used for Saturday Night was "footballed" into the audience, followed by numerous of waterbottles.

To introduce Everything Will Flow, Brett described Head Music as their "crap album".

As at previous gigs this year, Brett's voice was excellent, he even sung "running with the dogs today" from Wild Ones without problems. Suede played 90 minutes.

She
Beautiful Ones
Trash
Lazy
Filmstar
Animal Nitrate
Metal Mickey
The Wild Ones
New Generation
She's in Fashion
Everything Will Flow
So Young
Saturday Night
Positivity
Obsessions
Beautiful Loser