Ely the First
Since stewards could camp from Thursday (since the steward's meeting was on Thursday evening) I arrived at Ely folk Festival at about 17.30. Just in time to get my tent up and head for the Bar tent before the heavens opened. Thank the gods for wellies. Spent the rest of the night tring to work out how to stop the small leak in the front part of the tent. (I could have just moved stuff out of the way and put a tea- towel under the drip, it wasn't exactly Niagra Falls but, oh no, it was bugging me so I spent a couple of hours getting wet while I tried to rig some sort of temporary fix.) I did manage to fettle it (of course the leak was then replaced by a soaked me dripping everywhere...) in the end and all was well.
My first 2 duties on Friday were both in the car-parks and campsites which, since the heavy rain was making the ground very muddy, there was a last minute change of plans which had all the caravans in campsite 3 and no cars allowed on the tent site so everything had to be ferried on my wheelbarrows. For the most part people were resigned and understanding but we did have a couple of special snowflakes who grumped about not being able to camp on campsite 1 where they had booked and being so far away from the site (a whole 4 minutes walk! The main campsites at Whitby and Sidmouth are further than this! Plus alternate parking due to rain is the downside to caravans and motorhomes to balance the upside of a drier and less muddy stay)) and some, instead of waiting to go where we were directing them set off to pick a spot themselves (usually one we were trying to direct someone else into leading to them having to circle the field again) and churning up the ground as they went (I know I'm biased because, learning to drive on a farm, coping with deep mud and snow is second nature to me, but I do think it's something that should be added to the driving test. It's a really important skill) and some selfish buggers just left their cars on the hardstanding instead of in the field as they were supposed to, meaning less room for cars to unload and fewer parking spaces for people who needed to be on and off the site all weekend like traders, artists and, oh yes, St Johns Ambulance staff.
I spent most of my 1st duty running around the filed like a mad thing as there was only one radio and I could run so I was used as a communications device. The 2nd duty I was given the radio for campsite 2. There were some small issues with it not working for me everytime and, apparently my accent is hard to understand over the air (got asked to repeat things a lot!) but we all survived (even if my umbrella didn't. Will hopefully be able to resurrect it with a bit of ingenuity and string but we shall see)
Was very greatful to head for the concerts since I was absolutely knackered. Got a good seat and settled down to see Ewan McLennan (liked), Lady Maisery (awesome), Richard Digance (funny but I don't think I'd seek him out) and Jez Lowe and the Big Bad Pennies (also awesome).
Saturday I had to myself so I headed into town to see a bit of the parade, buy some soup and head back for Lady Maisery's singing workshop. This was great fun as they taught us to diddle a tune in 3 parts before taking us into the middle of the festival site and just singing it in the open. Thoroughly enjoyed myself.
I caught Lady Maisery again in Tent 2 (really like their new stuff), ran in to Edwin who managed to give me a guestimate on my melodeon before trying to tempt me with a lovely, lovely fiddle. (If my melodeon sells well, a lovely new fiddle and bow would be awesome) and then went to see an audience with Nancy Kerr and James Fagan (and their son, Hamish who, I suspect, is going to a performer in his own right before too long) which was lovely. They truly are my favourite duo and Nancy talked a lot about her fiddle style (especially her plucking of the open strings with her left hand instead of bowing them) which was hugely interesting to me and James pointed out that he was wearing a hat to avoid being mistaken for Rolf Harris
I then decamped to see Nancy and James on the big stage (with some on stage childminding. Nancy: 'Don't put your head through the railings dear. You'll get stuck and it'll be embarrassing. Take it from me...') where they were, once again, amazing (and Nancy's new songs are lovely) before heading to the Club tent for the official session (I would have liked to go to the session in the bar as it was livelier but I suspect I wouldn't have been able to keep up). It was a little slow (in starting tunes, not unfortnately, in the playing of them), we had huge problems combating the sounds of the bands in the other 2 tents (unless the melodeon picked up the tune you couldn''t hear what anyone else started) and, for a long while I was the only a fiddler amidst one melodeon (PJ, who was running the session) a collection of concertinas and numerous fretted instruments, but I managed to join in a lot and, thanks to encouragement from PJ, I started not one but two tunes (Only the Bear Dance and Brighton Camp but, still, 1st time ever for me) so worth it just for that.
All in all a really good day
My first 2 duties on Friday were both in the car-parks and campsites which, since the heavy rain was making the ground very muddy, there was a last minute change of plans which had all the caravans in campsite 3 and no cars allowed on the tent site so everything had to be ferried on my wheelbarrows. For the most part people were resigned and understanding but we did have a couple of special snowflakes who grumped about not being able to camp on campsite 1 where they had booked and being so far away from the site (a whole 4 minutes walk! The main campsites at Whitby and Sidmouth are further than this! Plus alternate parking due to rain is the downside to caravans and motorhomes to balance the upside of a drier and less muddy stay)) and some, instead of waiting to go where we were directing them set off to pick a spot themselves (usually one we were trying to direct someone else into leading to them having to circle the field again) and churning up the ground as they went (I know I'm biased because, learning to drive on a farm, coping with deep mud and snow is second nature to me, but I do think it's something that should be added to the driving test. It's a really important skill) and some selfish buggers just left their cars on the hardstanding instead of in the field as they were supposed to, meaning less room for cars to unload and fewer parking spaces for people who needed to be on and off the site all weekend like traders, artists and, oh yes, St Johns Ambulance staff.
I spent most of my 1st duty running around the filed like a mad thing as there was only one radio and I could run so I was used as a communications device. The 2nd duty I was given the radio for campsite 2. There were some small issues with it not working for me everytime and, apparently my accent is hard to understand over the air (got asked to repeat things a lot!) but we all survived (even if my umbrella didn't. Will hopefully be able to resurrect it with a bit of ingenuity and string but we shall see)
Was very greatful to head for the concerts since I was absolutely knackered. Got a good seat and settled down to see Ewan McLennan (liked), Lady Maisery (awesome), Richard Digance (funny but I don't think I'd seek him out) and Jez Lowe and the Big Bad Pennies (also awesome).
Saturday I had to myself so I headed into town to see a bit of the parade, buy some soup and head back for Lady Maisery's singing workshop. This was great fun as they taught us to diddle a tune in 3 parts before taking us into the middle of the festival site and just singing it in the open. Thoroughly enjoyed myself.
I caught Lady Maisery again in Tent 2 (really like their new stuff), ran in to Edwin who managed to give me a guestimate on my melodeon before trying to tempt me with a lovely, lovely fiddle. (If my melodeon sells well, a lovely new fiddle and bow would be awesome) and then went to see an audience with Nancy Kerr and James Fagan (and their son, Hamish who, I suspect, is going to a performer in his own right before too long) which was lovely. They truly are my favourite duo and Nancy talked a lot about her fiddle style (especially her plucking of the open strings with her left hand instead of bowing them) which was hugely interesting to me and James pointed out that he was wearing a hat to avoid being mistaken for Rolf Harris
I then decamped to see Nancy and James on the big stage (with some on stage childminding. Nancy: 'Don't put your head through the railings dear. You'll get stuck and it'll be embarrassing. Take it from me...') where they were, once again, amazing (and Nancy's new songs are lovely) before heading to the Club tent for the official session (I would have liked to go to the session in the bar as it was livelier but I suspect I wouldn't have been able to keep up). It was a little slow (in starting tunes, not unfortnately, in the playing of them), we had huge problems combating the sounds of the bands in the other 2 tents (unless the melodeon picked up the tune you couldn''t hear what anyone else started) and, for a long while I was the only a fiddler amidst one melodeon (PJ, who was running the session) a collection of concertinas and numerous fretted instruments, but I managed to join in a lot and, thanks to encouragement from PJ, I started not one but two tunes (Only the Bear Dance and Brighton Camp but, still, 1st time ever for me) so worth it just for that.
All in all a really good day