Beaches Brew is now in its third year and, like last month's Threadfest event in Bradford, is a free festival. Albeit on a beach in Italy rather than in a wet West Yorkshire city.

A small concern, in terms of location and the overall number of acts on the bill, it nevertheless aims high with the level of bands it attracts (a feature of all the summer shows being put on at the venue by Bronson Productions it seems). This year's headliners being Lee Ranaldo & The Dust, Suuns and Neutral Milk Hotel.

What let things down a bit this time around, however, was the rather sparse information on the event website. Stronger advice to stay by the venue rather than in the town of Ravenna itself would have been of use, as well as a proper paragraph about the local buses (of the three mentioned the 60 no longer seems to run and the latest one for a return to town is only at 22:00, making it impossible to see the later bands if you have catch that).

Still, after taking the site's information at face value, I hopped on a bus on the first night (a Tuesday, oddly enough) and arrived in good time to catch Speedy Ortiz opening up the show. Pleased to be playing their first show in Italy their set included such numbers as 'Basketball' and 'Cloud' and they were pleasingly louder and edgier than expected from their recorded work. Disappears were up next and, other minor faults aside, it was clear that with each night's show needing to end by midnight there was to be no messing about in terms of getting bands on stage on time. Theirs was a solid set with no flab as they aimed to fit in as many tracks as possible in their 45 minute or so slot. Pond were to play third on the bill & were one of the bands I was keenest to see but by that point the final 75 bus of the night was due so they and Lee Ranaldo's performances had to be missed.

Determined to see the whole of Wednesday night's bill & with a Twitter appeal for a lift meeting with no luck a bike was obtained and the 20 mile round-trip undertaken that way. With no stage times available openers Be Forest ended up being missed & so Dutch trio Hallo Venray ended up becoming tonight's first entertainers. Bringing to mind bands such as Redd Kross these veterans of Holland's indie rock scene attracted a good pre-sunset crowd with 'Simple' and 'Leather On My Soul' (the title track from their current album) amongst others. Swearing At Motorists soon followed, bringing a shift of tempo with their guitar & drums blend of blues & garage lending them a two man JSBX feel. Playing "a bunch of sad and angry songs" the pair overcame a lack of vocals in the monitors and a lack of beer to deliver a fun performance that included singer Dave Doughman stagediving in between songs from across the band's 20 year career. 

Wednesday's penultimate band were relative youngsters Cloud Nothings so the tempo was cranked up a further notch as they powered through selections from current album Here And Nowhere Else and its three predecessors. the crowd were well warmed up by this point in the night and the speed of the songs they were now getting to hear caused them to form a small mosh pit and indulge in some crowd surfing whilst I found myself concentrating on drummer Jayson Gerycz and his windmill-like pulverising of his kit. Closing out with something like a ten minute plus track the crowd were very sorry to see them go. Tonight's final act were Suuns so things onstage calmed down somewhat although the crowd were as appreciative as ever, clearly having eagerly anticipated the arrival of the Montreal quartet to the stage. '2020' got an early outing in the set and from then on the audience were putty in the band's hands. A thoroughly good night of free entertainment and my lack of any bike lights thankfully didn't get me killed as I pedaled back to base. 

That was though my final involvement with Beaches Brew this time around. A lift fell through the following night, taxis weren't a cheap option and the cycle was easy enough one night but not something to be repeated so soon. I'll make the trip back in 2015 and can on the whole recommend that you do too but camp over the road from Hana Bi or get a room close by otherwise, if you're not driving, the free entertainment could become as expensive as any other festival which kind of defeats the purpose.

Many thanks to Roberta for being a great host and for the loan of the bicycle.    

Day Three arrived in the same wet spirit as Day Two but at least this time I'd no further to go for breakfast than the hotel across the road. Following that though the rain did end up forcing me to seek shelter in another good find of a pub, in the shape of The Corn Dolly. From there it was off to another establishment well appointed for beer, albeit of the distinctly craft variety, for the first of today's performances.

The Topic Folk Club (the oldest continuously-operating weekly folk club of its type in the world) were making use of the basement space of The Sparrow to provide an afternoon of (largely) acoustic performances. The self-effacing Michael Thomas Chater was the first singer I saw perform and his playing, particularly on the steel guitar, was strongly emotive & his lyrics on such songs as 'Second Glance' made for good little slices of life. Informing us that he'd been housesitting for his Mum up till today & a slightly odd anecdote about how he came by his new Gretsch cheaply (via eBay from a bloke in Harrogate who'd "only played it for half an hour") simply broke down that usual performer/audience barrier.

Next up was another highlight performance of the weekend from illustrator & poet Matthew The Horse. Sporting a Frasier t-shirt, and with his artwork also being exhibited on the walls he proceeded to read out some of the funniest (though not without fair doses of pathos & common sense) some of the funniest poetry I've heard in a long time. Not, in fact, that then or now I could remember the last time I'd seen a poet perform. With subject matter ranging from family members to Kath Kidston to wanking off a snake the audience were in stitches throughout and I highly recommend catching him in action if you can.

The final act in a very well managed bill (it was helpful to have club personnel advising what was going on - something practically every other venue lacked) was locally-based alt folk singer Gerrard Bell-Fife. A shy-seeming bloke his show was clearly a must-see for many as he ended up surrounded by near-acolytes at his feet. As he and his Woody Guthrie-referencing guitar got into their downbeat and introspective stride though it was easy to see what draws the fans in. Folk generally aims for the everyman quality and Bell-Fife extolls that to a tee with his writing and performing, which is amongst the most unassuming I've ever seen.

From folk to the Fuse Art Space next where I caught the remainder of Manchester-based Lee Patterson's sound art performance, amidst the reflective Lydia Goldblatt exhibition. All manner of almost recognisable found sounds were coming from the speakers, wrapped up in effects applied and then removed as only Patterson reasoned. Things were set on fire and the resulting combustion amplified and messed with. Fascinating to watch and oddly beguiling to hear.

Today's final port of call, as it turned out, was the city's anarchist-run 1 in 12 Club for a return to more traditional music making in the shape of Castleford quintet Allusondrugs. Sound-wise there was a dose of '90s Seattle throughout their joyfully rampant set of songs such as 'Stick A Finger Up My Bum', 'I'm Your Man' and whatever one they dedicated to the Queen whilst suggesting she go and employ herself more usefully. The need for dinner intervened at this point & by the time I returned to the club to discover that Cleft had been & gone earlier than advertised Alt-Track's punk/hip-hop crossover wasn't enough to convince my legs they could deal with a few more hours of standing about and then walking a few more miles to take in the closing party and then make it to bed so it was goodnight Vienna.

That then was my Threadfest 2014. An event as varied as you'll find anywhere and which I'll happily return to. With luck it can grow and manage to do more for the largely local acts that take part and it deserves to do so. From the point of view of a visitor looking to sample the bits of each day's programme, rather than a local looking to catch their mate's band or favourite local heroes come out of retirement on a single day, a more obvious presence of festival rather than show personnel, who were aware of delays at other venues or could communicate last minute line-up changes, is something to work towards for next year but obviously that relies on willing volunteers and the pool of those may not yet be so big as to make that possible. Otherwise, well done to all concerned.