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.

April

Ryde to Seaview
A brisk impromptu stomp along the seafront to the Seaview Hotel, (stopped for a cuppa),  and back, with a friend, putting the world to rights. Lovely! Excellent views across the Solent too.

 

Cowes

A brisk walk through the town and on to Egypt Point lighthouse and back in the rain, stopping off for a cuppa at Coast. Lovely way to clear the cobwebs away.

 

Quay Arts

Popped in for lunch (lovely) and had a peek at the current exhibition. Definitely worth a visit. Excellent exhibition of body sculptures and art (Olympians and meta humans) by artist Louisa Giblin.

 

Isle of Wight Cantata Choir

The IOW Cantata Choir gave a strong rendition of Verdi's Requiem, ably accompanied by the IOW Symphony Orchestra and four superb soloists. Another excellent evening out.

January Jollies

It's been a long month, getting used to being back at work after an illness that lasted a couple of months and making the money stretch a bit further than normal. However, I have managed a couple of evenings out.

Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra

Another wonderful concert by the IOW Symphony Orchestra. The concert began with  'Epic March' by Ireland, followed by Symphony No. 1 by Shostakovich. After the interval was a Violin Concerto in B Minor by Elgar, with the fantastic musical talents of soloist Charlie Lovell-Jones. Superb.

Social Night

I attended a meal out with a group I belong to, at the Victoria Lodge Hotel in Shanklin. This was very pleasant; we had a three course meal, which, for me, consisted of tomato soup followed by salmon in hollandaise sauce with a selection of vegetables, then apple pie and ice cream. After this was cheese and biscuits and tea or coffee. Once the meal was finished we were given a '2017 quiz' and a sheet of Christmassy anagrams to do. My team did rather badly, as we knew little about sport or popular TV! I may go again next year. 

November and December 2017

It has been a quiet couple of months as I have been struck down with viral vertigo and unable to do much. Christmas was spent quietly with family, starting off with candlelit Nine Lessons and Carols at St Mary's Church, then a week later the Nativity at Holy Trinity Church, followed by Midnight Mass at St Mary's. I hadn't been to Midnight Mass for years and it was really rather lovely.

Yesterday I dragged a friend out and we went for a soggy stroll around Newtown (I always forget how wet it is in the winter), followed by a delicious cup of hot chocolate at the Cow Co. at Tapnell Farm. Lovely! 

Today I went to the Quay Arts Centre in Newport for their Sunday Recital; this was Paul Armfield and friends and jolly good they were too! Paul was joined by, among others, Tom Thorne on piano, John Thorne on double bass, Wilf Armfield on drums, JC Grimshaw on guitar and mandolin, Angelina Grimshaw on guitar and vocals, other Grimshaw's on violin and guitar, and some extremely talented chaps on violins and mandolin. The start was slightly shambolic, but as more people joined in everything came together and a lovely time was had by all. A great way to spend a damp Sunday morning ( and the tea was good too!).

Wild Nights out.....July

North House, Cowes
Popped in to meet a friend whose husband was playing in a jazz trio. Pleasant evening on the terrace listening to lovely music. Lovely hotel too - worth a visit if you can.

Cowes Sailability Club
I attended a reception at Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club for this charity. Interesting, with nice canapes!

Cowes Carnival
Had to watch this annual event. Quite jolly with marching bands and a bagpipe - drum duo, and all the carnival queens (wish they would smile!) and locals who had dressed up. Short but sweet.

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

Wild Nights Out ....... June

Rhythmtree Festival Warm Up

We joined friends out at The Cow Co at Tapnell Farm near Freshwater for a warm up gig. Three bands played; we sat outside for the first two, who sounded good (and slightly bonkers for one of them!), and went indoors for the final band, The Ohmz. My friends husband was playing keyboards and we had fun listening to their excellent reggae tunes. Very good band, and worth seeing again. We ate burgers - yummy - and I drank soda water and elderflower cordial from the bar. Also nice. We might even go to Rhythmtree this year!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge
Teenager enjoyed this more than I did; I think the series is getting a little jaded now. However, the special effects were good and enough of it was funny to overcome the stilted acting. Not entirely sure why Paul McCartney was in it, albeit briefly - perhaps because  a Rolling Stone was in an earlier one? I preferred the Rolling Stone!

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!

Fellowship of Groove

The teenager and I went to a fundraising gig at the Quay Arts Centre tonight; she wasn't sure she wanted to go, but once she had had a glass of coke and a packet of crisps she perked up. The gig was in aid of 'Uzima in our Hands', a local Island charity  raising funds for an orphan and day care centre in Kenya.  Music was provided by 'Ukuladies', and 'Fellowship of Groove'.

 

Ukuladies were a group of ladies playing cover versions of popular songs on ukuleles! Their music was very pleasant to listen to, and they told us more about the charity. Fellowship of Groove was a collection of musicians playing percussion, brass, keyboards and sax in a a very groovy way! Their music was great, and they got everybody's toes tapping. We had a lovely time, met some friends and enjoyed some great music.