Summer Festival Fun

Isle of Wight Festival 2018

I went to the Isle of Wight Festival again this year; it was the 50th anniversary of the original IOW festival, and this one was sold out completely. Everyone baked in the extremely hot weather, and any spot of shade was immediately filled! The noise was immense - no quiet to be found anywhere; between the stages was the noise of funfair rides and 90,000 punters having a great time. There was food aplenty, as well as drink and the occasional whiff of weed wafting past. I note a few acts that I particularly enjoyed; Depeche Mode were great as far as I was concerned (lots of others not so keen), Feeder were fabulous, as were Nile Rogers and Chic. I watched, as is traditional, the Medina College Ukulele band in the Kashmir Café who were on top form. Mostly I pottered around, catching up with chums, and letting the atmosphere and music waft over me. Good times, despite the mild sunstroke.

 

Rhythmtree Festival 2018

Ah, I love Rhythmtree Festival! It is so laid back with an electric range of music on three stages, and filled with lovely laid back people too. I spent two days in the woods with the scouts throwing axes and making dreamcatchers and pipecleaner teddies, and listening to the music from the woodland stage. Lovely. The sun beat down on the main arena, where the grass had dried to straw, so we were in the coolest place. There was a good range of food (I highly recommend Tansy's Pantry vegetarian food bus), and we had several forays to the tea and cake shop next to the Frolic Inn, where we sat either on the squidgy sofa or hay bales. Nice!

Rhythmtree reminds me of a large, English summer fête really, with slightly random stalls selling all manner of strange things, music you wouldn't necessarily listen to on a normal day, homemade cake and tea, Morris dancers and carnivals (not sure you'd get that at a fête, but the articulated tigers were great, as was the mechanical horse). Great fun, and I highly recommend going.

Wild Nights Out........October

Isle of Wight Cantata Choir

This concert was held at Ryde Methodist Church, a glorious building that I had never been inside before. The church was fairly large, with balconies both sides held up by decorated pillars and faced with painted ironwork. Straight ahead, and above the congregation, was the decorated paperwork for the church organ. Lovely. The concert was jazzy and bluesy. The first half saw a rendition of Bob Chilcott's 'Little Jazz Mass', followed by two solos from the visiting soloist Joanna L'Estrange, and a clarinet solo of a Gershwin medley by local music student Joshua Attrill. The second half gave a performance of Will Todd's 'Mass in Blue', which I enjoyed very much. The soloist was super, and for once was able to address the audience, which was nice. Another pleasant evening out!

 

Isle of Wight Literary Festival
I bought tickets to go and see Professor Jim al-Khalili talk about the new book  that he has edited, about science in the future. This was very interesting, and well attended. I came away with two books, and a signed copy of a Quantum Physics book that I had brought with me. Lovely chap!

Rhythmtree Festival 2017

This weekend was mostly spent at Rhythmtree  Festival on the glorious Isle of Wight. I was offered a ticket in exchange for helping teach children how to make popcorn on a campfire. Seemed reasonable! The way to do it is to make a tinfoil packet, slop in a little oil and add some popcorn kernels, scrunch the top up and put the packet in the embers of the fire and wait for them to pop. Simple. Mostly. We won't mention the burned ones. We also offered tomahawk throwing (not one of my skills or talents I found out), and one chap showed how to make rope out of bramble fibres. Oh yes, we also had quoits, and giant connect four.

As we did this, we listened to the music from the Jill's Wood stage (mostly good. I liked Brighstone Barnacles, Red Sqwrl, and the marvellous Cat Skellington particularly). Behind us was the yoga section, so we heard lots of meditation music, and the jolly fun of laughing yoga. Friday night's headliners on the main stage were the Stereo MCs who were good, and on Saturday were the Lightening Seeds, also good. Sunday night was my favourite, with the Blockheads (awesome) followed by Tankus the Henge (fabulous). Lots of boogying was done (apologies if you were behind us) and fun was had.

There was a fair amount of food to choose from, and I would recommend the ever lovely Tansy's Pantry veggie bus café (I had a delicious falafel wrap), the tea and cake stall with their lovely homemade cakes, comfy hay bales, and squishy sofa, as well as the local burger stall whose name I have forgotten but may have been part of Three Gates Farm who hosted the festival.

This was a lovely little festival, full of locals and those from further afield, and extremely family friendly. Highly recommended!

Main Stage






Brighstone Barnacles

Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2016

Three cars set off in a convoy from deepest West Sussex at 4.15am on Thursday morning heading blearily to Oxfordshire and Fairport's Cropredy Convention. The drive was straightforward (I like the M25 at that hour of day!), with the exception of driving over the corpse of a large badger near Guildford. It made quite a thump. At about 6.15am we stopped at Cherwell Valley Services, got coffee, and added two more cars to the convoy. Shortly after, following a brief pause in a layby, we met the final car of the convoy and proceeded along the road to Cropredy village and Field 5. Tents were erected by about 8.30am, chairs were out and champagne decanted for those that drank alcohol. In all, we were a party of 18 adults and children of various sizes.

Later in the day, once snoozes had happened, we wandered up to the festival entrance and exchanged tickets for wristbands, then went for a mooch around the village as the arena wasn't open yet. We found, to our horror, that the local church were not providing breakfasts in the farmyard this year. Horror! They were instead based at the church providing continental and healthy breakfasts; that did not bode well.

The arena opened at 2pm, so we gathered chairs, flag, tarpaulin and other paraphernalia and headed over, staking out our pitch and then feeding the children, and ourselves, and chilling out. Music began at 4pm with Fairport Acoustic. My favourite track was 'Crudite', a pastiche of another, by Steeleye Span, called 'Gaudete' - very funny. Fairport were followed by 'Gryphon', a mixture of very old and more modern folk music. They were very pleasant but didn't play anything that particularly grabbed my attention. Following Gryphon were 'Coco and the Butterfields' who were full of energy and caprice - I loved their song 'Royston'. The violinist had got over enthusiastic in rehearsal and damaged her violin, but it still played well. The band also had an awesome human beat boxer - quite, quite amazing.

Next up were 'Hayseed Dixie' (I love them!) playing Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Queen, Mozart and German drinking songs in hillbilly style - banjos galore. Headline act of the evening were 'Madness' in all their glory. Fun was had dancing badly but enthusiastically while pausing for an occasional breather. While having a breather, I lay in my chair listening to the music and staring through gaps in the cloud for a glimpse of the Perseid meteor shower (didn't spot any). Glorious way to spend an evening.

On Friday morning I awoke to the sound of loud Northern neighbours and sizzling bacon, and sunshine. We all wandered off to the churchyard to see what their breakfasts would be tis year; sadly no breakfast inna bun, so we wandered round the village to Banbury Canoe Club who were cooking full English breakfasts.. They were run off their feet but we ordered and attempted a dingbats quiz while we waited. The food was edible but I prefer our usual. Anyway, back to camp via the cake stall (lush chocolate brownies), gathered our stuff and went to the arena.

The sun was out with barely a cloud in the sky, and the music was magnificent. In the afternoon the teenager and I went for a mooch through the village and along the canal, back through the caravan park and up through the arena stopping at various stalls along the way. Lovely. The rest of the day was spent sat in the arena or campsite (shady), chatting, reading, knitting and playing cards. Music included the excellent Anthony John Clarke and Dave Pegg, Brighde Ghaimbeul - the Radio 2 Young Folk Musician of the Year; she played pipes very well indeed. Other bands that I noted were 'Willie and the Bandits' who I quite enjoyed, followed by 'Headspace' who I didn't enjoy much as I'm not keen on prog rock. In the evening were 'Steeleye Span' who played well, and luckily included 'All around my Hat' which I knew! Headling the evening were the 'Bootleg Beatles' who played an excellent set of popular Beatles tunes, and mimicked the original band well.

Friday food was beef burger with Stilton from the Organic Beef stall for lunch, and an Ostrich burger for tea - absolutely scrumptious! We also snacked on hot, fresh donuts. Mmmmmmm!

We got up early on Saturday and went for breakfast at the Cricket club - sausage, bacon and egg in a bun - yum!  We sat on the grass to eat, and watched an unfortunate chap drive over the edge of the car park onto the green, and not through the gap indicated. He got stuck, but was eventually set right. After breakfast most of us grabbed our swimming gear and headed to the pool in Banbury for a shower and a swim. Lovely!

On our return we headed straight for the arena for Richard Digance's set - he comes every year. The field was packed and RD did a great set as usual, with songs and bad jokes, and ended with the traditional 20,000 people morris dancing (hanky waving anyway). It is always good fun to watch bewildered newcomers at this point! Richard was followed by a sci-fi folk group called 'Maia' who played interesting tunes. Later in the day were the superb 'Pierce Brothers' form Australia. They got the whole crowd going and received two encores. These guys were followed by the tuneful 'Demon Barbers XL', and then by the incredible 'Babylon Circus', a French ska band who were foot-stompingly incredible. Wow! Double encore, well-deserved, for them too. Wow!

Following Babylon Circus was the legendary Ralph McTell; his music was much calmer and more considered than previous acts, and showed consummate musicianship as expected. Lovely. To round off the festival Fairport Convention returned, with friends, and played some of the better known of their tunes, had a remembrance for Dave Swarbrick, who died earlier this year, and ended the festival with a rousing rendition of 'Matty Groves'. Food today was 'Falafel and goodness salad' for lunch, and chicken and chorizo paella for tea. There may have been more donuts....

This year's festival was one of the best I have attended for years, both for the weather and the music. Roll on next year!

Isle of Wight Festival 2016

The Isle of Wight Festival was on this weekend and I was able to get in for the cost of a t-shirt and the proviso that I supervised some teenagers for a few hours. Sorted! I also got a staff wristband which had the advantage that I had access to a nice toilet. As the ticket was effectively free I didn't feel obliged to stay the whole weekend and see absolutely everything, but had a lovely time and went home when I was tired instead. My highlights are as follows:

Friday:

I watched Jess Glynn on the main stage - she was superb, and got the whole crowd going. I had no idea who she was, but realised I knew all her tunes! Jess had incredible trousers;I would like a pair - no idea where I would wear them, but they were green and shiny and lovely.  I'm only mentioning her outfit as I want her trousers - no other performer had that effect on me! I just missed seeing 'Busted' but heard them from further afield and they sounded good. Later in the afternoon I went to the 'Big Top' and watched Gabrielle Aplin; I had never heard of her or her music and thoroughly enjoyed her set. Really talented. In the evening I watched Stereophonics on the Main Stage, who were also excellent and would be worth seeing again. For food I purchased a veggie burger from the wonderful 'Tansy's Pantry' (a vegetarian café in a double Decker bus) and followed it up with a cup of tea and a slice of Jaime's exquisite chocolate orange cake. Yum yum yum! One of the funniest things I saw was a teenager carrying a stack of plastic pint 'glasses' taller than herself by at least two feet, looking for the recycling point; lots of enterprising children were earning extra money by collecting these glasses and trading them in at 10p each. The teenager I met later told me she had earned £37 that day. Wow!

Saturday:

I was mostly busy with teenagers until late afternoon but once free I went for a pootle around the site; I was hungry and found late lunch at 'Somerset Pork' in the form of pulled pork, crackling and stuffing in a bun, washed down with a cuppa. Very nice. I sat in the main arena while I ate it and listened to the end of 'The Corrs' set in the sunshine. Afterwards I pottered through the Octopus Garden then made my way through the fairground, where I met an old friend on the Scout stall; I dragged her away and we had a fun hour wandering round the shops looking at sequinned clothes and all the tat you normally get at festivals. When she left I went back to Tansy's Pantry for more cake and a cuppa, and chatted to the owner's Mum, who I knew, and watched people go by. We then went and watched a band in Kashmir Café.  This band were local, as were all performers in Kashmir Café, and called 'Bobby I Can Fly'. They had been playing together for years and were really good, so I'll try and catch them again. Afterwards I wandered back towards the main arena, pausing outside the Big Top to listen to the rest of the Buzzcocks set. I couldn't get in as there was a big crowd, but it was a sunny evening so didn't matter. After that I decided to go home; I was really tired, and although I would have liked to see The Damned, and Adam and the Ants, my bed was beckoning.

Sunday:

More teenage supervision, but this time accompanied by the delightful tones of a group of ladies singing swing tunes in Cirque de la Quirk. I didn't catch the name of the group, but they sang songs such as Chattanooga Choo Choo very nicely. I sang along. Once the teenagers had finished their task, we made our way to Kashmir Café and watched the Medina Ukulele Orchestra; this consisted of students from Medina College (where the festival is held, mostly), playing ukuleles and singing. Their standard was very high and they played to a full tent. Excellent! Later in the day I watched Mike and the Mechanics on the main stage and was again surprised by how many of their songs I knew and could sing along to. I really enjoyed their set too! For late lunch I had a crispy duck wrap, with chips on the side, both of which were scrumptious. I do like festival food! I made my way home after this as I was still tired, and had lots to do before Monday.

The Isle of Wight Festival was great fun. I wasn't sure what to expect as one hears such wildly different stories from locals. I found that it was extremely well managed and had enough variety of performers to suit the taste of the myriad people there, who seemed to range in age from new born to septuagenarians. I'm not sure that I would go if I had to pay the full price, mostly because I'm a bit tight, but I think it is good value for money considering how much you would pay to see one headline band in a large venue, and how much you would pay to travel, especially from our beautiful Island. I think I might try it out again next year.....

Wolverton Folk and Blues Fair

We decided to go to this at the last minute, as it was a lovely sunny day and we had nothing better to do. Good choice! The fair was set in a sloping sheep paddock overlooking the Jacobean Wolverton Manor on the outskirts of Shorwell, and overlooked by chalk downs on two sides. At the bottom of the slope was the main stage, with a dancing area in front. To the left was a tea tent and on the right hand slope were food vans and Plaza Ices. There was also a beer tent with additional music.

 

We set out our picnic blanket, and proceeded to scoff our picnic while listening to some fantastic local folk and blues bands. The only one I recall the name of is Brighstone Barnacles, who were a group of chaps singing local sea shanties. Very good. Kiddo found some friends and went off to play while I sat and soaked up the sun listening to the music and people-watching.

 

A lovely afternoon and evening was had in the sunshine, in a beautiful setting, and we shall definitely go again next year.