Ben & Jerry Summer Sundae Sunday July 29th Clapham Common

Tuesday, July 31 2007 @ 04:36 PM BST

It was a little soggy underfoot and the rain left pools of water looking like village ponds - but for the Summer Sundae, the sun came out just in time.

And for the Ben & Jerry chilled-out family festival to work, you need the sun to shine. It's been going 2 or 3 years now, and I managed to get tickets this year. Except for the Ben & Jerry sponsorship, the rest of the site wasn't too corporately branded. Unlike some of the BIG festivals these days where it is all the same food vendors, today we had smaller organic fair trade outlets, including the snappily titled Asian Grub Foundation.

We had free ice cream, but the 17 flavours on offer were too much for me. I only managed two different scoops, but my friend wolfed down over eleven. Maybe it was all the free ice cream, but there wasn't too much alcohol flowing. It was on sale, but we weren't getting fallen on by the usual largered lads, and instead it was a great family event. Vauxhall City Farm, toe wrestling, eco electricity stands, RSPCA - all were present with stalls and info or hands-on children's stuff.

The main stage today was graced by many including The Hours, (who went on for hours), and The Noisettes - a pert punchy trio.

The Holloways rocked out with a quirky modern Britpop with a violin, which made a difference. They even pulled off covering Clash's Bank Robber, before finishing on the radio friendly Generator - I liked them.

The Ordinary Boys seem to do better at outside events that indoor gigs if you ask me. Maybe they need the sunshine to play better - the songs about weekends and going out go down well on a sunny Sunday.

Finishing us off were The Proclaimers, still surfing their renaissance ... they still manage to hold a crowd with their top tunes - Letter from America, Let's Get Married, and of course everybody was marching up and down to 500 Miles.

A fantastic day out, very chilled, laid back and groovy. More of these type of festivals please ... oh and more ice cream too.

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