Quoi de Neuf (Friday)
....and Friday morning it was time to pack the car, drive down to Miki's to collect her, then go to the tech hire place in Sevenoaks to pick up speakers and radio microphones, and head for Marks Tey. As drives go, it went smoothly enough, with no hideous jams, and we got to the hotel at about 1pm. After a quick lunch we nipped out to the local(-ish) Sainsbury's to do a little bit of shopping, and were back at the hotel in time to check in and start un-packing.
Tech set-up took a little longer than usual, but also got started in good time, so we had something workable up and running in time for opening ceremony, and the evening's sets went well, with some excellent songs from Christo, Jela and Silke. This year the programming had a certain level of "let's see what happens" in it, and I was a bit worried that the answer for the "What's New?" sign-up one-shots concert I'd put at the end of the Friday evening programme would be "nothing happens", but I needn't have worried. It seems to have worked quite well, and it took some of the pressure off Saturday's main concert so that had time to run to its end without hitting the buffers, too. I didn't stay as long as I might have liked in the Friday evening circle, as I was exhausted.
Tech set-up took a little longer than usual, but also got started in good time, so we had something workable up and running in time for opening ceremony, and the evening's sets went well, with some excellent songs from Christo, Jela and Silke. This year the programming had a certain level of "let's see what happens" in it, and I was a bit worried that the answer for the "What's New?" sign-up one-shots concert I'd put at the end of the Friday evening programme would be "nothing happens", but I needn't have worried. It seems to have worked quite well, and it took some of the pressure off Saturday's main concert so that had time to run to its end without hitting the buffers, too. I didn't stay as long as I might have liked in the Friday evening circle, as I was exhausted.