Gower Folk Camp 2013
Gower Folk Camp 2013
The best yet?
Just returned from a two week camping holiday in this field (quite near that telegraph pole), within walking distance of Wobbly Castle.
A good number of evenings we were blessed with this sight right outside the door to the tent.
And on one evening we even got blessed with this lovely view:
It was not all bags of roses though. Early in on the holiday we went to Broughton Bay, as I walked down the stony path I stepped on a stone which rolled and I twisted my ankle. The pain was brief, and we walked up and down the beach meeting dogs and shrimp. Later that evening, while I was doing the washing up, the pain returned, less bad, but it grew until I could barely hobble around.
The pain came and went, but I had to take things easy. Later, I went to the minor injuries unit at Swansea hospital where they declared it to be a sprain. Since I was in Wales I got free prescription ibuprofen!
Nevertheless I was still able to get around, and we visited the Gower Heritage Centre (where met a friendly goat and visited the aforementioned castle. We enjoyed eating the local meat: Salt Marsh Lamb, which we could see in the adjoining fields around us, and even on two occasions they managed to find a way into our field - to the amusement of all.
We also visited Perriswood - an archery and falconry centre. Really personal level business, I had two brief conversations with the owner who clearly had a passion he wanted to share (birds of prey). Indeed, despite not paying for the experience I got to hold this:
And for a small fee, fire one of these:
Duties this year included sorting then moving the camp's recycling from one of the field to another several times a day for the first week. Not too bad, until you realize these are folkies - so there was considerable weight of ale and cider bottles to dispose of every morning. Nothing beats getting covered in sour milk and stale ale at 9:30 every morning on your holidays! The second week we did the camps cooking for 120-130 people. I got to roast the local lamb alongside three other former caterers. It was the easiest kitchen duty I've ever done, I felt like I was slacking and was relieved to hear everybody else felt the same way. Teamwork for the win! We (and that doesn't include me) even had the time to write a song about the meal (and subsequently sang it to the whole camp):
Guide me oh thou recipes of Folk Camps
Tried and tested one by one
For we've spent this day a-cooking
A repast for all bar none
Roast lamb with rosemary
Roast lamb with rosemary
Feed you till you want no more
Feed you till you want no more
For those of a veggie persuasion
There's a nut roast to be had
Boiled spuds, cabbage and carrots
With mint sauce its not that bad
Then there's apple pie
Then there's apple pie
Topped with custard my oh my!
Topped with custard my oh my!
I participated more this year, in many ways. As a big fan of the local pub/microbrewary's ales (where I spent a good deal of money) I found myself arranging a pub session at short notice. It was smaller than the previous week's pub session largely due to the short notice aspect (most people, understandably, already had plans for the next day). I took a low quality video of a minute or so of that:
I also took part in a juggling workshop. Most of that was me helping kids learn the fundamentals of juggling, but most of them lacked the patience to stick with the basics. I did engage in some knife juggling, which I've never done before, as well as trying to juggle hoops which is trickier than it looks. Towards the end we were practicing passes and steals and other two person tricks.
Furthermore I attended a Levi Jackson workshop. I've danced it a fair number of times, but I never really got what was going on in general and it was useful to slowly step through it and be able to see what everyone else is doing.
But I did something else: I attended a Calling workshop. That is: learning how to call dances. I learned how to call in general, and The Flying Scotsman (4-couple version) specifically. And then on the last Friday of camp, with plenty of Gower Gold in my belly - I walked up to the band and said
"This is my first attempt at calling. I'd like a 32 bar jig and I'd like to run it 8 times. I'll be calling The Flying Scotsman."
I turned around and looked at the mic. The idea of speaking in front of more than a dozen people fills me with terror. There were a hundred or so people milling around in a marquee in front of me, and I was about to speak into a PA system that could be heard across half of the camp. I spoke into the mic, some confused looks.
"You need to touch your mouth to the mic piece."
"Can I have 4 couple sets longways, please."
And so I was off. But people were still having a hard time hearing me - one of the speakers was not working. Fortunately, one of the musicians was Andy Glass who is a talented sound engineer and I didn't have to fill too much time - I couldn't think of a single joke with that many nerves jingling.
I walked them through the steps in the dance, told them there'd be a short introduction and then they were off. I was saying what to do and dozens of people were dancing along and having fun. The nerves vanished, and I started enjoying myself. Here I am:
That's Andy to the left of the picture.
Numerous people approached me and said I did a good job with timing my calls just before the dancers needed to follow them. A few people came up and expressed surprise upon learning it was my first time. A number of experienced callers said that the nerves are always there but it became clear I was comfortable quickly. Frankly, I was tremendously proud of myself if I do say so.
The first Friday's party theme was Castles and Dragons:
There was considerably more fun to be had than that, Folk Camp is too much gold to easily document. The bucket culture that formed into the Church of the Bucket by the end (hence my Lord BucketHead above, Beci was Lady Bucket Head), the murder game and the songs and skits it inspired, the juicy moose, the ukelele band:
My batteries were fully charged and I was feeling on top of the world. When we left we went on a walk around Dan-yr-Ogof (epic cave system) and Cathedral Cave (The dramatic music they speak of at that link is Pachelbel's Canon on a mind crushing loop). We skipped Ogof-yr-Esgyrn (Bone Cave) despite it's awesome promises because neither of us wanted to descend a long staircase to get to it.
Beci has 120 photos of our trip up on her flickr account.
The best yet?
Just returned from a two week camping holiday in this field (quite near that telegraph pole), within walking distance of Wobbly Castle.
A good number of evenings we were blessed with this sight right outside the door to the tent.
And on one evening we even got blessed with this lovely view:
It was not all bags of roses though. Early in on the holiday we went to Broughton Bay, as I walked down the stony path I stepped on a stone which rolled and I twisted my ankle. The pain was brief, and we walked up and down the beach meeting dogs and shrimp. Later that evening, while I was doing the washing up, the pain returned, less bad, but it grew until I could barely hobble around.
The pain came and went, but I had to take things easy. Later, I went to the minor injuries unit at Swansea hospital where they declared it to be a sprain. Since I was in Wales I got free prescription ibuprofen!
Nevertheless I was still able to get around, and we visited the Gower Heritage Centre (where met a friendly goat and visited the aforementioned castle. We enjoyed eating the local meat: Salt Marsh Lamb, which we could see in the adjoining fields around us, and even on two occasions they managed to find a way into our field - to the amusement of all.
We also visited Perriswood - an archery and falconry centre. Really personal level business, I had two brief conversations with the owner who clearly had a passion he wanted to share (birds of prey). Indeed, despite not paying for the experience I got to hold this:
And for a small fee, fire one of these:
Duties this year included sorting then moving the camp's recycling from one of the field to another several times a day for the first week. Not too bad, until you realize these are folkies - so there was considerable weight of ale and cider bottles to dispose of every morning. Nothing beats getting covered in sour milk and stale ale at 9:30 every morning on your holidays! The second week we did the camps cooking for 120-130 people. I got to roast the local lamb alongside three other former caterers. It was the easiest kitchen duty I've ever done, I felt like I was slacking and was relieved to hear everybody else felt the same way. Teamwork for the win! We (and that doesn't include me) even had the time to write a song about the meal (and subsequently sang it to the whole camp):
Guide me oh thou recipes of Folk Camps
Tried and tested one by one
For we've spent this day a-cooking
A repast for all bar none
Roast lamb with rosemary
Roast lamb with rosemary
Feed you till you want no more
Feed you till you want no more
For those of a veggie persuasion
There's a nut roast to be had
Boiled spuds, cabbage and carrots
With mint sauce its not that bad
Then there's apple pie
Then there's apple pie
Topped with custard my oh my!
Topped with custard my oh my!
I participated more this year, in many ways. As a big fan of the local pub/microbrewary's ales (where I spent a good deal of money) I found myself arranging a pub session at short notice. It was smaller than the previous week's pub session largely due to the short notice aspect (most people, understandably, already had plans for the next day). I took a low quality video of a minute or so of that:
Click to view
I also took part in a juggling workshop. Most of that was me helping kids learn the fundamentals of juggling, but most of them lacked the patience to stick with the basics. I did engage in some knife juggling, which I've never done before, as well as trying to juggle hoops which is trickier than it looks. Towards the end we were practicing passes and steals and other two person tricks.
Furthermore I attended a Levi Jackson workshop. I've danced it a fair number of times, but I never really got what was going on in general and it was useful to slowly step through it and be able to see what everyone else is doing.
But I did something else: I attended a Calling workshop. That is: learning how to call dances. I learned how to call in general, and The Flying Scotsman (4-couple version) specifically. And then on the last Friday of camp, with plenty of Gower Gold in my belly - I walked up to the band and said
"This is my first attempt at calling. I'd like a 32 bar jig and I'd like to run it 8 times. I'll be calling The Flying Scotsman."
I turned around and looked at the mic. The idea of speaking in front of more than a dozen people fills me with terror. There were a hundred or so people milling around in a marquee in front of me, and I was about to speak into a PA system that could be heard across half of the camp. I spoke into the mic, some confused looks.
"You need to touch your mouth to the mic piece."
"Can I have 4 couple sets longways, please."
And so I was off. But people were still having a hard time hearing me - one of the speakers was not working. Fortunately, one of the musicians was Andy Glass who is a talented sound engineer and I didn't have to fill too much time - I couldn't think of a single joke with that many nerves jingling.
I walked them through the steps in the dance, told them there'd be a short introduction and then they were off. I was saying what to do and dozens of people were dancing along and having fun. The nerves vanished, and I started enjoying myself. Here I am:
That's Andy to the left of the picture.
Numerous people approached me and said I did a good job with timing my calls just before the dancers needed to follow them. A few people came up and expressed surprise upon learning it was my first time. A number of experienced callers said that the nerves are always there but it became clear I was comfortable quickly. Frankly, I was tremendously proud of myself if I do say so.
The first Friday's party theme was Castles and Dragons:
There was considerably more fun to be had than that, Folk Camp is too much gold to easily document. The bucket culture that formed into the Church of the Bucket by the end (hence my Lord BucketHead above, Beci was Lady Bucket Head), the murder game and the songs and skits it inspired, the juicy moose, the ukelele band:
My batteries were fully charged and I was feeling on top of the world. When we left we went on a walk around Dan-yr-Ogof (epic cave system) and Cathedral Cave (The dramatic music they speak of at that link is Pachelbel's Canon on a mind crushing loop). We skipped Ogof-yr-Esgyrn (Bone Cave) despite it's awesome promises because neither of us wanted to descend a long staircase to get to it.
Beci has 120 photos of our trip up on her flickr account.