Fortified by an excellent sleep and a monumental breakfast with family, we hit the road from Pudsey around lunchtime to get across to Much Wenlock to take part in the Festival at the Edge. The journey was agreeably uneventful and we turned off the M54 for Much Wenlock and the festival site around three in the afternoon.
From the moment we arrived on site, it was clear this was a well organised festival. Navigating the narrow country lane to get to the festival site requires walkie-talkie communication at each end and a smooth operation was in train to cope with a busy period of two way traffic.
In the festival office in the Green Room, we were similarly pleasantly and efficiently processed and were soon out exploring the festival site.
Readers should be aware that Festival at the Edge is primarily a storytelling festival. This was its 25th year. It currently has five stages for storytelling plus one for music. For those unaware of the storytelling scene, they would be making a huge mistake to think that storytelling is somehow limited to entertaining and educating children. Whilst there is a festival stage set aside for storytelling for children, many of the leading figures of the UK and overseas storytelling community were at the festival addressing the most serious social and political issues through the compelling medium of storytelling.
Our first specific engagement after arriving at the festival was a sound check in the music venue or Silver Tent. Top of the bill that night, Lady Maisery, had already completed their sound check and, as such, we were able to go straight into our own sound with the fantastic Graham Bradley and his colleague Laurence. We have worked with Graham and Laurence a few times before and they always create a great sound for us, both front of house and in the monitors. On our way to the sound check, we also bumped into our MC for the evening and longstanding friend, Ruth Bramley who we know from the Ely Folk Club.
Sound check done, we repaired back to the Green Room area where festival organisers were providing an evening meal for artists. A team of catering volunteers, led by the lovely and highly efficient Pippa, was in charge of keeping the artists fed and watered. Not only were there excellent sandwiches when we first arrived and tasty pasta dishes for evening meal, I can report that this was truly ‘cake heaven’ with a selection of at least half a dozen tempting delights.
Over food we met the mighty Phil Hare. Many readers will know that Phil is a top class guitarist and singer-songwriter. I first came across Phil when teaching myself the alternative DADGAD tuning for guitar. Phil’s instruction videos regularly come at the top of DADGAD related internet searches. So, it was nice to spend time with Phil throughout the weekend and it was great to see him perform.
For the evening concert, we were positioned in between Phil Hare and Lady Maisery. Phil gave a bravura performance which showed off his jaw-dropping finger skills to great effect. I’m happy to report that our own 45 minute performance was very well received and we managed to showcase the full range of our music. It meant a lot that Phil made a particular point of coming up and congratulating us a we left the stage.
We then retreated to the CAMRA beer tent for a well earned pint with our appointed assistant on site, the lovely Ian Cameron. How nice to be in the Shropshire countryside, drinking good beer with the artful sounds and harmonies of Lady Maisery for background.
The festival organisers had also organised a’ Stromash’ to finish off the evening in the music marquee. Stromash is a Scottish word for a tumult or ‘mash up’ and musicians from the excellent Midswégan joined with Phil Hare, a few members of the wonderful Biscuithead & the Biscuit Badgers and our own Rob Garcia, to entertain the remaining revellers up until midnight. For a scratch outfit, they collectively made a great sound! Led vocally by Midswégan’s fiddle player and presumably part of Midswégan’s regular set , the version of Shady Grove they played was probably the best version I have ever heard.
With the official programme for music over, people drifted over to the bonfire area for a sit, a slurp and a sing. I must be getting old because, at 1.30am I was done for and repaired to the dorm where the male artists were billeted. Rob, mandolin in hand, was able to keep going a bit longer.
On Sunday, our first performance was something of a crossover between the story telling and musical aspects of the festival. As the 80th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War approached, we had been asked to make a presentation telling the story of The Basque Children of 1937. This is the story of Rob’s family and a story that has inspired a number of our songs. Setting the evacuation of 4,000 Basque children from Bilbao in May 1937 in context with the Spanish Civil War, we recounted this sad chapter in history through both word and song. An audience of around fifty people packed into a modest sized venue to hear us. Somehow the intimacy of the venue heightened the intrinsic emotion of the story and the songs and the experience of the performance was moving for audience members and performers alike. The round of applause at the end of the performance went on longer than any either of us could remember having received before and many audience members came to talk to us after we finished.
Then, after a quick sandwich lunch, we ported our gear back round to the Silver tent for our last concert performance. On a bright sunny afternoon, we provided a set of narrative tales. It was lovely that Genevieve Tudor from BBC Radio Shropshire was able to come and see us perform and that we had chance to chat with her afterwards.
Just before performing we were treated to an excellent set by Aberystwyth-based trio, Three Legg’d Mare. Look out for them, they are excellent. Great musicality, lovely harmonies, beautiful material and, in singer Kate Saunders, they have one of the finest female vocalists I have heard in a very very long time. Sadly, with the need to turn for home after completing our afternoon performance, we were not able to hear their second set. We hope it went well.
I won’t say more about our journey home than ‘M6 Sunday teatime’...you get the drift....Anyway, a cold beer was waiting in the fridge on return.
Many thanks to Genevieve Tudor of BBC Shropshire and Sue and Peter Chand for the invitation to perform at Festival at the Edge and, with their team, looking after us so well from the moment we arrived on site to the moment we left. Thanks to Graham and Laurence for again weaving their magic with the sound system. Finally, many thanks must also go to Ian Cameron who took on the responsibility of ensuring all of our needs on site were met. His assistance through the weekend was greatly appreciated and we very much enjoyed having a couple of pints with him on Saturday evening and listening to his own CD.