Dylan at Hop Farm Festival

The family friendly Hop Farm Festival celebrated its third edition with an exciting lineup headlined by Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan at Hop Farm Festival

The baking heat at the Hop Farm’s arena in Paddock Wood (Kent) together with the ridiculous queues to get a drink –in some places people queued for more than one hour- was bearable until Ray Davies announced the upcoming presence of Bob Dylan on stage. Being the Hop Farm his only tour date in the UK for 2010, the arena was packed with Dylan enthusiasts.

The sun bakes festival-goers queueing for drinks

After having being pretty relaxed all day long in the third row, enjoying the nostalgia vibe of a “No Sponsorship, No Branding” festival, maybe not as comfortable as the families who were having picnics on the arena, but still surprised about not suffering from the typical space privation at festivals, that feared moment finally came. Davies finished and the crowd gathered together to the point that you could not even put your arms up. A nearby sixty-something man told me not to worry, pointed at some teenagers in the first row and saying “they won’t last long in there”. 

The Minnesota singer came out on the stage wearing a Cordobés white hat and a southern US country style black suit matching with a bright pink shirt. He did not make an exception to his well-known zero audience interaction and he opened his gig with a quite rambunctious version of “Rainy Day Women #12 & #35” with no words to the crowd at all. 

Nevertheless, the man, who has been in a so-called Never Ending Tour since 1988, was in an abnormally crowd-pleasing mood, smiling most of the time and even dancing in his own way at some point. He seemed to be enjoying himself while on stage, which was enough to make a solid part of the crowd happy. Those who were expecting hits did not get the chance to complain. “Don’t think twice, it’s all right” and an epic “Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again” were followed by “Just Like a Woman”, in which the singer fooled at times the crowd by letting them sing while he waited to sing out of time the legendary “just like a woman”.

At 69 and considering he has spent most of his life on the road; his cracked and ravaged voice could only disappoint those who are not familiarized with his recent material. “Honest with me” made some of the youngest first-row attendants leave the arena, as I was told they would. And by going they missed a supreme version of “Simple Twist of Fate”, with that characteristically broken voice adding a new level of profundity to the lyrics. And the best was still to come. 

A luminous performance of "Highway 61 Revisited" followed by an engaging "Workingman’s Blues #2", preceded "Ballad of a Thin Man", what was most likely the best of the night. Standing up by the microphone, singing in that particular Dylan-esque challenging way, harmonica in hand and jigging about in his own way, Dylan offered certain sheens of his best former protest singer self.  

"Ballad of a Thin Man"

Even those Mr. Jones in the public sang rapturously “how does it feel” when Dylan interpreted his infamous Like a Rolling Stone. "Forever Young" was an appropriate finale to a 75-minutes gig in which the 69-year-old never intended to imitate his younger self. Making use of vocal inflections, rhythm changes and his own hoarse voice he offered different interpretations for most of the songs. 

On the train back to London, bursting with people, opinions were diverse. Some said it was the concert of their lives. Many who were not even born when Dylan wrote Blonde on Blonde complaint about how different Dylan’s voice sounds now comparing to then. The most mature people nearby were thrilled about the fact that he still played the guitar despite of his arthritis. The Dylan we saw at the Hop Farm Festival is not better than that Dylan of the 60s that some might innocently have expected, but he is not worse either, he is just different. And the thing is that most of the times, at the end, as Pat says in Peckinpah’s “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid”, in which Dylan played a small role, what you want and what you get are two different things. 

Set List

Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again

Just Like A Woman

Honest With Me

Simple Twist Of Fate

High Water (For Charlie Patton)

Blind Willie McTell

Highway 61 Revisited

Workingman's Blues #2

Thunder On The Mountain

Ballad Of A Thin Man

Like A Rolling Stone

Forever Young