Come Bye Festival 2025
Every journey must come to an end, and the 2025 season is no different, meaning the end of the road for yet another eventful and tiring year of Tipis, Stretch tents, and the like. But at the end of this old dusty road lies one last festival waiting on the worn dotted finishing line, never failing to round off all the blood, sweat, and tears with an almighty bang. Whether it be the ridiculous or debaucherous nature of the festival, the true theatrics that never cease to surprise you at every corner, or the clear emphasis on community that aligns so much with us at Mikata, Come Bye captures everything we love about festival culture.
And somehow, for reasons still unknown, they’ve let us run a stage, yet again. But unlike Boomtown Fair, where the music takes centre stage, our corner of Come Bye leans more into the festival’s performances, becoming the heartbeat of Come Bye during the daytime at the festival. Chaotic theatricals envelop the Tipi; it can’t be missed.
From Music to the Theatrical
Now, you may or may not know, but Come Bye always rolls with a different theme each year. This time around, it was medieval, a concept that completely shaped the atmosphere of the festival. Instead of sticking to one set aesthetic every year, the organisers reinvent the look and feel based on the theme, encouraging everyone to get involved. And trust me… they do. From elaborate costumes and handmade trinkets to props and homemade accessories, every festivalgoer seems to embrace the roleplay spirit, which makes the festival so unique. It gives the entire site this cohesion, as if the whole crowd becomes part of the crew. Our tipi and stage reflected this, too. While our familiar Festival decor might not have been strictly medieval, it blended seamlessly with the overall medieval colours and vibe. The bright, colourful drapes, a custom-made fabric chandelier, and a wild collection of plants gave the interior a rich, layered look, an explosion of colour from top to bottom. Each morning, as sunlight filtered through canvas and fabric, the whole structure glowed in a way that made even the most bleary-eyed among us smile.
With that precedent of the theme having been set, everything else falls in line, with staple events to the festival now having modifiers that align more with the theme, offering a familiar but fresh experience. Take the ever-so-popular Miss Comebye, which is hosted in our Tipi, where everyone gets dressed up in some form or another based on the theme, with play-on-word names for their acts. This also goes for the cabaret and other performances that were hosted in the Tipi, as well. Thankfully for them, we bought a Single Tipi layout with an Extension Wall, which was just enough to house all the ridiculousness for everyone to enjoy! This setup has definitely become somewhat of a crew favourite over the season, a configuration that balances the intimacy of a single tipi with the added breathing room of an extension. The extra space allows us to fit in all the staging, musical gear, such as our CDJ 2000 Nexus, Technics 1210s, and DJM 900 Nexus, as well as our Festival decor, comfortably, without encroaching too much on the social flow and vibe.
But when all the fun and games transfer from the Tipi and sift slowly into the barns deep into the night, the Tipi shifts from the heart of the unbelievable daytime silliness to a place to take yourself out for a break or a midnight stroll. Thankfully, the lights we had for this year came in hot! This was thanks to our good ol’ reliable Parcan lights and Fairy light combo, which created a beautiful hue throughout the Tipi. We definitely hit our stride by the tail end of the season with the colours we were using, and I am always shocked by how nice the colours are of the Parcans, which we generally use for spotlights for dancefloors, notably for Weddings and other kinds of events.
All she wrote
As you could imagine, with everything coming to an end, it felt ever so bittersweet. It was a relief that we could take some time off and have a break from the long summer we all just had. But, especially with the team growing so much over the last year, all of us have grown very close to one another, creating one big Mikata family, only to have to say farewell, albeit only for a short while. But that doesn’t mean we stop until the first signs of summer, no, no, no. We still have the occasional wedding or birthday party to house in our many structures, keeping the wind in our sails, cutting through the inevitable British rain and wind. So, as you can imagine, Come Bye is somewhat symbolic to us, acting as a harbinger of both things to come and things to end, all wrapped in the absolute silliness and ever-so-comforting community it has spawned around it.