Talkawhile's festival moments

[abby (tank girl)]

which reminds me of jonesy and i losing each other at the same festy, and he found a wonderful little stage/bar he forever refers to as 'the bowie tent' - turned out to be the ogham tree cafe!!

and rolling down the big hill to the bimble at beautiful days 2007  

[Polly Oxford (Andie)]

The 'anniversary set' when Ashley did a Friday night commentary (30years?) and the finale fireworks singed my camera... (I didn't care, I felt so exhilarated)
Leige and Leife of course
Walking onto the field 4 o'clock sharp on a Thursday, taking that deep breath and feeling Home, and realising Jen was standing next to me with exactly the same expression on her face.

[Goaty]

Aah yes, Beautiful Days, 2005 I think.  Steph (the one who sang at my party) is a well built lass.  Steph + very skimpy top - bra + human gyroscope = entertainment for all  

She's bought her own gyroscope now, must go visit and have a spin

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

 and realising Jen was standing next to me with exactly the same expression on her face.

Was that this Jen Polly??

If it wasn't then rest assured that I DID have the same expression in any case.. and will again very soon... whhoopppeeee!!!!  

[Polly Oxford (Andie)]

Share the moment again, VERY SOON!!!!  

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

YES!!!

 In 37 days and 12 hours.. (according to the clock at the top   )

I can be there in my head any time.. but NOTHING beats that feeling when I walk onto that field!!

Some things just don't need words  

[Simon Care]

Ok then....its confession time.......My most embarrasing festival moment was at Cropredy 2007.

Being backstage manager it was my task to get the Liege and Lief line-up on stage at the right time...I went to the dressing room and asked the band to make their way to the stage.   They all moved in a stageward direction.....i thought i saw Mr Swarbrick disappear into the toliets (he moves like a whippet these days you know!!!!)......so i stood by the toilets waiting for him to appear.....i waited and waited ......so i then shouted  "Are you ok Dave" ......the reply came back "yes im fine".......i waited a little longer and the cubicle door opened and it was Dave Pegg!!!!!!!..........I thought "s**t i've lost Swarb".

I ran upto the stage,,,,,there was Simon, DM, Richard, Ashley and Chris.....but no Swarb.......I ran back to the dressing room......No Swarb there either.........back to stage left.....nobody had seen him......so you may remember seeing me dash across the stage to the other side......where i found Swarb wondering why we were waiting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..........there you go....the rest is history......The day i lost Swarb

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

We all wondered what was going on there at the time Simon...  

[hendo (Dave)]

Bickershaw 1971? 6 hours of the Grateful Dead
I am wary to write the following as it may sound romanticised and a little pink round the edges but it is a real experience which i am sure in on way or another is mirrorred by a lot of you reading this. A bunch of us, usually about 18, go to Cropredy every year in convoy. A hard core of 8 , some of whom haven't missed since mid 80's some who have done a few years and usually a Cropredy Virgin. The group is based on  friends from a very small,close, leicestershire village. It sounds awful , I am struggling with the year, but late 90's ,a very close friend of mine lost her 32 yr old son in a car accident. She and her husband have been going to Cropredy longer than any of us. Accident in March but we still decided we would do Cropredy. including, 4, friends who hadn't been with us before. So Saturday night ,my wife, Sheena,and I had wandered down front as is our want during most sets,but it was a year Fairports were playing particularly well, Sheena was in love with Chris Leslie etc,etc so we were down the front for Fairports. 11.45 ish ,all of us. who had wandered off, including those who had no history  of Cropredy, knew little of Fairports, wandered back to'our base' 'On the Ledge' slightly to the left and behind the sound tower. Nothing planned. There we were 18 of us in a row , linked arms, crying our eyes out and singing Meet on the Ledge. I can use trite words like 'a healing experience' but it was and it is. It happens every year. we don't plan. We sing. we hold each other, some cry and we think of our own losses. It isn't sad. I am not religious. Hopefully spiritual but also,hopefully, an unpretentious northener. But that particular year and those few minutes of 'the ledge' were unrepeataable and very very special.

[peterwales]

Downer moment. Look at the line-up below.

The camera exploded after numerous snaps, particularly of Mr Harper Snr, had been taken. In my defence had drunk a lot of Old Growler beer and eaten a goat kebab and it was long before digital cameras.

I was there- "Suffolk and Good" festival, 1993- I think, a couple more followed, and then a better one in, I think 1998, but never happened again, thanks, I heard to some idiots fighting in the local village pub, (not a good idea in deeply Conservative Suffolk countryside, whose residents were opposed to the festival in the first place) and a local idiot misbehaving on the festival site- getting very p---ed and setting his dog on people- not good!
They were a great couple of festivals though.

[simon emmerson]

just back from a very nice folk festival in Rudlestat (old east germany) with IV band. We played at midnight in the medieval court yard of a fairy tale castle up on a hill overlooking a massive valley of ancient European woodland, also did v good  impromptu unplugged session in  the afternoon with me, Eliza C, Sheema M, Martin C and Johnny K at a Question and Answer session (full of very earnest Germans). The main IV gig was much more focused than Glasto and the sound on stage superb although the on stage crew managed to loose the audio track to Tam Lyn and 'ouses, which was fine if you could lip read. Billy Brag and Chris Wood also did storming solo sets during the day. Camp Bestival, Lulworth Cove, Dorset next gig for the IV (20th July), Billy and Eliza are also doing spots. Hope the weather is better than the 5 hour  drive back home thru torrential rain from Stanstead AP yesterday. Just imagine if Glasto had been held over the last few days....
Simon
imagined village

[Nick]

We were dancing to Jaune Toujours, Salsa Celtica and Bellowhead in that rain!

Bellowhead had just come back from a German Festival too and were wondering why they'd swapped the sun for the swamp...

Cheers

Nick

[Shane (Skirky)]

Bad - A toilet break somewhere on our way to Cropredy. "Where did you leave the car keys?". "In the car".

Good - soundchecking at Cornbury, supporting Robert Plant, and our drummer doing "Moby Dick".

[Andy]

Good - soundchecking at Cornbury, supporting Robert Plant, and our drummer doing "Moby Dick".

I bet that got a 'look' from Percy....

[KerenNorb]

Can only be Croppers monents I'm afraid as thats really my sole festival but 3 good and yes there has to be one bad

Good -- ALL at my FIRST Cropredy - in fact my first festival EVER at the ripe old age of forty ........!

1)Driving in convoy, with some old and some new friends, in slow moving traffic through Banbury, having been told to "do what the car in front does" - suddenly the driver got out of the car in front, his partner got out the passenger side and ran round and jumped into drivers seat, the traffic moved off, ---what was I to do? - I only had my 14 year old daughter with me and she couldn't drive!
Luckily the driver soon re-appeared, passenger got out and ran round back to her side and in he got - a quick usage of the public facilties I was later told!  What a start!!!  

2) Arrived on the caravan field to find further friends waiting - found flat ground, pitched(?) caravan, made space for our camp and was immediately thrown a little dumpy Stella " to put the tents up with"  - what an introduction to my new friends!  

3)  Roy Wood. dancing with my daughter and the "moon" rising over the field - Oh I wish that could come back but I understand it was in fact only there for acouple of  years - just my first ones!! Magical  moments  

BAD bit
2006 - Field 4  Last wee of evening and for some reason my car keys were in my shorts pocket.  Suddenly they were no longer there and there was a mighty clunk and a mighty 'F**K!' from me as they landed in the toilet!!!!!!     Luckily fairly clean as retrieving them was the only way I was getting home!!!  

Happy days -- Roll on 2008!!   Only a month to go  

[Sir Martin]

Too many to list really;

First Croppers - 1986 I think, also my first propor music festival.
Loads of great classic artists turning in brilliant sets - Johnny Cash, Sex Pistols, Neil Young, Iggy and the Stooges, and an absolutely fabulous Leonard Cohen there this year.
Oh, and moshing to Gogol Bordello at Beautiful days.

And all the new bands I discover at festies - I allways seem to come away from Cambridge especially loaded down with new music.


Worst;
My encounter with the power mad fascists who were running Guildford festival a few years ago. It used to be a really relaxed, nice sized festival. Now I would not go there again unless armed with a big gun and a licence to kill.
Some of the glastobbury mud fests have been taxing.
Dropping my Mobie down one of the crappers at Cropredy (actually this was a blast - we used my mates phone to ring it & find out where it was, pity the poor user of the 'box' at that time).

[Anne Dunn]

Worst;
My encounter with the power mad fascists who were running Guildford festival a few years ago. It used to be a really relaxed, nice sized festival. Now I would not go there again unless armed with a big gun and a licence to kill.

I remember that - they 'locked' everybody into the campsite and wouldn't let them out. That has got to be illegal, surely.

[Sir Martin]

Worst;
My encounter with the power mad fascists who were running Guildford festival a few years ago. It used to be a really relaxed, nice sized festival. Now I would not go there again unless armed with a big gun and a licence to kill.

I remember that - they 'locked' everybody into the campsite and wouldn't let them out. That has got to be illegal, surely.

So it was not only us!

That got me irate enough, but then when I went to complain (after the only security gard with a brain let us through), they just did not care. And when I demanded to see the person in charge, they laughed at me. >Insert the worst swear word you can think of here<.

So, as we used to go every year, I wonder how much money it has cost them....

[Metro96 (Keith)]

Best Festival:
1st Cropredy 1987.
Mate of mine says one night "Do you want to come to a folk festival?"
"A what???" I reply.
Well it's great beer and I'm sure you'll like the music."
"OK anything for a laugh".
2 days before I manage to crash my car so we now have no transport  
"It's OK" he says "We'll hitch. And just to make it fun it can be a race, last one there gets the beer in."
So we set off from North Wales 1/2 a mile apart. Some time later some fellow with a sense of humor drops me off at J6 M6 (exit only! Middle of Bl**dy Spaghetti  Junction)! A 5 mile walk later and I'm back with my thumb out again.
Suddenly a white minibus full of students pulls up the back door opens & a cheer of "We know where your going" comes out.
They drop me off at the pedestrian gate to the camping field (about where the pavilion is now), just as my mate jumps out of a car 2 back! We called it a draw.
After that it's a bit of a 6X fueled blur ending on Saturday night when looking a little bemused by Fairport's set I was grabbed by a very large biker on one side & a Punk on the other and taught the words to MOTL  

Haven't missed one since.  

Keith

[Goaty]

After that it's a bit of a 6X fueled blur ending on Saturday night when looking a little bemused by Fairport's set I was grabbed by a very large biker on one side & a Punk on the other and taught the words to MOTL  

Magnificent  That's what it's all about, isn't it ?  Great story too, my first Cropredy was not dissimilar, "Yeah, I've heard of Fairport & you're a bunch of party animals, why not.."  Those were the days...

Ambles off into pointless nostalgia land