TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

I posted a thread like this last year so thought I'd give it another go. This is not for musical highlights nor for gripes, both of which are well covered elsewhere. It's for those positive little things that sum up the spirit of Cropredy - the kind of thing you wouldn't get anywhere else, that make Cropredy special. I could list more, but here's my three:

1) Friday night sitting outside my tent chilling with a beery nightcap, and ended up chatting with a young security guy patrolling between the tents. He was telling me about life in west Wales, the different jobs he gets since joining MH (?), and how Crops was so different from all of them. I filled him in on the whole background to it and the story of the Fairport "family". Meanwhile we were doing star/planet-gazing and watching the meteor shower.

2) The white hanky ritual: I was next to a pair of obvious "virgins" when Digance did his intro, and they looked around them bemused and confused as people started to rummage in their bags. The look on their faces was an unforgettable delight as they looked around and behind them to see an arena full of white hanky dancing. I donated them a couple of "hankies" each and they joined in with gusto.

3) Waiting in the long Fairport signing queue on Friday chatting for half an hour to a Norwegian lad chuffed with his new 50-50 album and looking forward to having it signed. The queue was cut off apologetically just before him (Fairport had to be somewhere else and were already late). Instead of getting flustered or angry or begging and pleading them to let through just one more, he just shrugged resignedly, and when I "shared his pain", he said "I believe everything in life isn't supposed to be perfect. I'm happy the way it is."

What were your top three special Cropredy moments this year?

Ooh this is a good one. The first one is musical, sorry:

1) Divine Comedy, basically the entire set, but specifically To The Rescue, which made me blub a bit, especially with the accordion accompaniment. Would really encourage anyone to seek out a video of this  :'(

2) Sitting up the field with some friends on Saturday, one of whom was about to come out as transgender to the world in two days and enjoyed the security of our wee group; reading the Guardian - my only newspaper of the year - with the sun on my back and the music drifting around...

3) Meet on The Ledge, not the song, but the whole sense of occasion, standing with my fellow travellers after having danced myself into a crazy stupor to everything that wasn't a ballad, then holding the hand of the person next to me, who was on her own, and singing together because moments like that really matter.

1 two couples that we know , but who didn't have a clue who each other was, were sitting next to each other and chatting away when Mrs Reg walked past. One said "Theres Jill " and another said "Yes, theres Jill."

2. House of the Setting Sun

3. Anything with Mattacks on it.

1. Trevor Horn band - it was the only act of the whole weekend that Mike was looking forward to, and we both loved it!  :D
2. The Ska band at the Red Lion - packed with happy people dancing and grinning like idiots  ;D
3. The tent - our first time camping and it was all a success. The decent weather helped but it could have been so different....  ::)

1. A great Thursday afternoon spent sitting near two guys with 2 friendly Bassett Hounds

2. 'Reno, Nevada' with Judy & Iain and (nearly) the original '67 line-up

3. The shooting star above the Cropredy stage....magical....!

Many more brilliant moments in our 13th consecutive Cropredy - classic year.

PS. Great thread idea by the way Mr. B

1. Putting the tent up (actually my son did most of the work  ;D ) and finding that, unlike like last year, we had brought the right poles.

2. The first pint at the cricket club on Thursday afternoon.

3. Chatting to a couple of locals who said they always looked forward to the festival weekend.

Others included the toast to absent friends (it was 10 years since I had been with my brother to his last Cropredy, as he died a month later) and just meeting up with some special people.

1. Show of Hands. I knew then it was going to be a great weekend.

2. The first knitting solo on the Cropredy stage.

3. Richard's guitar playing and especially Sloth. It brought a tear to my eye, I was enjoying the set so much, and then the next minute they started singing "Don't you cry, don't you cry".

(1) The Fairport Saturday set...So lucky and such a privilege to witness this...

(2) Receiving a text message from my best and dearest friend wishing me a happy Cropredy...She lives and works in France these days, but we first met at Cropredy 15 years ago, so a anniversary of sorts...  

(3) Leonese Feast...I'd not had one of these for a couple of years...It was lovely...

Caught Ashley Hutchings and friends show at the village hall Friday- perfect!

RT on Friday - first time I've seen him play live and totally blown away - hope it will not be the last.

Bacon Vodka - courtesy of the party seated in front of us on Saturday - honestly not as bad as you'd think!

1- after the worst journey in 28 years arriving to find ourselves in our best ever camping spot.
2 -the early FC set, the music I first fell in love with and to.
3 -at the end of an exhilarating set of morris tunes my small grandaughter turning to me with a huge grin, "this is the best music ever", and it was!

Where was that?  :)

 :) Middle field 2 with lovely neighbours

1. Arriving in plenty of time to get set up, but relaxing with a beer to such an extent that I missed the start AGAIN!

2. RT's very special backing band.

3. The cricket on Sunday, the Visitors going well and RT padded up and ready. Sneaked a few pics of the great man in

the nets.

Tease.

It takes me more than a week to get stuff off the camera and onto the confuser.

Who won the cricket & by how many?

I was hoping nobody would ask that. I came away thinking that Cropredy won by a hairsbreadth, however, a chap on Facebook whose name escapes me, said it was a draw. I don't know the SP for village cricket, but surely he means a tie(?). It's a problem I have with the modern world, I keep expecting an action replay.

He actually said "a draw, (sort of)". I've messaged him to try to sort out this very important question.

Here we go from Jez
"Cropredy set us 160 runs. We scored 155-5, which, with judicious use of Duckworth-Lewis, was claimed as a draw!"

1) The annual meet-up with friends, TAW folk and people who know me but I cannot recall meeting them ever.

2) Being thanked for our efforts in sorting out tickets for Crops on the big screen (if anyone has a better screen shot please email it to me)

3) Photographing a handfasting wedding on Saturday afternoon in Field 8, where a lovely time was had by all.

[attachment deleted by admin]

I loved seeing that up on the big screen! Andy Leslie is famous  8)

Mine may have already been mentioned bu others, but here goes again:

1) Judy's knitting solo - a lovely touch, giving a nod to a time many of us never saw

2) The shooting stars during Fairport's set

3) Morris On - seeing them all having such fun on the stage, and the way that transmitted itself down to us in the audience too

1. Pouring the last tot of scotch into the grass at the end of MOTL to absent friends.
2. Mattacks playing up a storm in Morris ON
3. Ian and Jude in harmony

DW

1. Another vote for the best knitting solo ever.
2. The elsewhere mentioned harmonies from Sophie.
3. Dropping some bacon on the ground out of my breakfast bap.....(One does simply not drop one's bacon)...and not caring a jot - a sure sign I was relaxed and happy.
4. (I know, I know) - Being a good boy all weekend and sticking to my budget...leaving myself eight quid to buy a fish curry on Saturday night, even though it meant not buying the pink Island copy of Mott's Mad Shadows I saw at the boot sale.
5. Thinking sod it, going to the village shop, buying a tube of toothpaste and getting £50 cash back, going back to the boot sale and buying the pink Island copy of Mad Shadows for £30. And a copy of Brain Capers. AND a fish curry.And an Oggie and a coffee on the way back after MOTL.  ;D

Lol.  Good stuff  ;D

1,
In our back garden with our fairport family, Ed playing and singing along with AJC and his son Connor ( watch out for this very talented chip off his parents block) Ed is in Bandersnatch , a group from Bolton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1EZwCZQlvY
2,
Stood  in the field at the bar counting shooting stars.
3,
Opening countless tins of beans and tomatoes in the back room of the village hall, then been released to serve teas and coffees.
( thank You all who chose the best breakies, it helped raise over £7,000 pounds for the village hall funds)

Kevin

1. Arriving in good time on Saturday and at once got the friendly feeling from people around us and I realized that nothing had changed from my first Croppers more than 35 years ago.
2. The Fairport set, the 60's line-up with Jude, Ian, Ashley, Richard, DM and Simon and a beautiful Sloth
3. Morris On. I didn't know I liked Morris music that much  ;D