First night headliners Mystery Jets were forced to cancel their appearance at Hertforshire’s intimate Standon Calling festival on August 1st.

“Singer Blaine Harrison is currently receiving hospital treatment on his feet for ailments related to Spina Bifida,” an official notice informed fans entering the site. “He’s on the mend and will be back on the road again soon.”

Instead, band members played a special DJ set in ‘The Lordship Tent’, close to the beautiful sixteenth century manor house at the hub of the festival.

Guitarist William Rees played an hour long set opening with the Switch remix of Mystery Jet’s ‘Hideaway’, which saw festival goers dressed as various zoo animals hanging from chandeliers and dancing on pool tables.

Standon Calling, with a capacity of just 2500, has managed to create the ultimate house party within two fields and three tents. Venues include a ‘Love Hotel’ in a corrugated iron cowshed, where flashing neon signs welcome revellers into a seedy lowlit yard lined with hay-bales and a silk-covered double bed.

(by Hazel Sheffield)