At Home Farm straddles the space between open-air concert and summer music festival. Set on the fields and woodlands of the Aldenham estate, it has the carefree vibe of a boutique festival, but without the Portaloos – a definite draw to add to the venue’s proximity to north London.
The idea of a season of intimate events, inspired by and in keeping with the bucolic surroundings, was conjured during the first winter lockdown of 2020. And with just 500 guests, the closest thing you’ll find to a crowd is the queue snaking to the music arena – an ancient woodland glade, where trees are illuminated by fairy lights.
But before that: a pre-ordered meal served up festival-style, in a box, and eaten at tables on straw bales in the meadow. From local caterers Gregory’s Kitchen, there was a vegan option comprising Malaysian jackfruit rendang with coconut rice, dal and parippu pineapple and cucumber salad, or a chicken version, both followed by brownie bites.
A serene setting for intimate music, food and wellbeing events
Between the months of April and September, the programme includes music, with a third night to come from jazz club Ronnie Scott’s starring soul vocalist Izo FitzRoy; woodfired canteen feasts hosted by celebrated chefs such as Josh Katz – the former executive head chef and co-founder of JW3’s restaurant Zest – next month; and wellbeing events. This was the second night featuring the Mercury Prize-nominated folk artist Nick Mulvey – an inspired choice given the hushed quality of his introspective songs that are redolent of Nick Drake and John Martyn.
The founding member of British jazz collective Portico Quartet abandoned the hang drum and “tricksy” key-shifting music for guitar as a singer-songwriter, because he “wanted to pull the listener in” and “warm the room”, he told me on the release of his debut album First Mind in 2014. And warm the glade he did.
Although Mulvey has spent much of 2024 touring in celebration of his ten-year-old debut, this show was as much about his new songs, two of which opened his set – the finger-picked River to the Real and Solastalgia, which describes the distress of finding the environment close to home has changed. You could hear a pin drop, so spellbound was the crowd.
But the most enthusiastic ovation came for the folky and melodic Meet Me There, and the rhythmic Cucurucu, Mulvey relishing the refrain “yearning to belong” that gets 20-something men singing along.
Mulvey followed Portico Quartet with a thirst for exploring music, learning Congolese patterns which he combined with his “own flavours”, and he showed off these technical skills throughout, but most impressively on Venus.
Nick Mulvey at Home Farm
His upcoming new album, Dark Harvest, he shares, is about something once told to him, that “you never find the water if you’re digging in many shallow wells”. “You have to go deeper,” he says, “This [song] is about going deeper.”
Mulvey is a naturally warm presence and he ramped up the campfire feel from the rustic wooden stage, with a call and response on In Your Hands, the crowd gently echoing his vocals.
Saved for last was his career highlight, Fever To the Form, a melancholy gem of lilting circular guitar.
“It is such a pleasure to be in this magic setting with your tonight,” he told the attentive crowd. “Being out on a summer’s evening with it not raining we are already winning.” And magical it was.
