Festival Chatter

I went to Upton on Severn folk festival for the first time this year and had a rather lovely time. The camp site is very spacious, you park by your tent and the showers and toilets were good.. the site is just over the bridge from Upton. Upton is a gorgeous place on the river with lots of independent shops. The charity shop was the best I have ever been in and I made some purchases including two novels by Ian McEwan to read over the weekend and a sensational hat! The forecast was good so I thought I'd chance taking my old tent which is the perfect size even though it is definitely not waterproof anymore. The last time I had used it was a rather wet Green Gathering in 2023 and I realised the error of my ways as soon as I started pitching it. It was seriously mouldy inside and out. Still, needs must.

I like a bit of Morris and there was lots of it at Upton and it was fun to meet some people I used to dance with. I also did some social dancing and join-in morris which was very pleasing given my physical limitations. I was stewarding which was the usual chaos but not overly demanding, only 9 hours over the whole festival (4 days). I liked that the bands and singarounds were in pubs and churches and I was happy to get my steps in going between them and the campsite, although there was a donation-based minibus as well. The baptist church deserves a big shout out for being so hospitable and running a donation based lunch and cake service. Regarding bands I was especially pleased to see Sherburn, Bartley and Saunders, who were actually the deciding factor in me going to this festival, and caught them twice! Patakas were also very good, their set list was well chosen and well executed and I saw them twice too! It was good to see Tim Van Eyken after what seems like quite a long absence - he has spent some years doing theatre, including Warhorse and making furniture and its always a pleasure to see James Fagan and Nancy Kerr. I managed to catch a bit of the ceilidh with the excellent Banter before heading back to my bed with a cupasoup, a habit I started at Cropredy!

Following that I went to the one-day Whitchurch folk festival (Hants) which was blessed with lovely weather and I hope a good turn out as a result. Whitchurch is another lovely place and the festival seemed well organised with all the elements you'd expect to have catering for all age groups in a typical village folk festival. I got there for the singing workshop with Anna Tabbush which was unsurprisingly excellent before going to the pub to support young artists doing their thing. I thought the Mummers play was excellent, very amusing and topical. I saw performances by Tamsin Elliot and Tarek Elazahary (beautiful music), Patakas (much appreciated by the home crowd) and Martin Simpson, who I never tire off. The parish church is definitely worth a look around too. Leveret were outstanding as ever and I finished the evening with some dancing at the ceilidh before leaving to get the train home. Super day out!

Next folk festival in the calendar is Gower, the most bijou and perfectly formed festival of the year in the most outstanding location. 13th - 15th June on the North Gower coast overlooking the estuary and right next to Weobley castle. Well known for its European dance class, the superb quality of its artists and the most wonderful sunday morning dog show! This years line up is marvellous, includes Rachel McShane and Miranda Skyes, Metheglin and Kantref, Patakas, Leveret and the wonderful Vri! It will sell out as it did last year.