It was a pleasant morning when we set off for the Warwick Folk Festival. We’d had a great time there two years earlier and were very keen to return. The drive was uneventful and from the moment we entered the festival site we were looked after extremely well by the festival volunteers.
The artist's reception team was on good form and after some excellent banter we were able to drop the gear off and go and explore the festival site. It was good to catch up The Goat Ropers Rodeo Band and hear how well they were doing. It was also good to see volunteer Jack who had proved a life saver for us when we were at Warwick last time, giving us an urgently needed lift down to a gig in the town.
Our first performance of the day was in the Living Tradition stage where we were billed between the excellent 4square and exciting Sunjay Brayne.
Then, after grabbing a slice of pizza and a cuppa, we made our way to a small classroom where Rob led a very good workshop on Asturian and Galician tunes which those attending clearly appreciated.
With a substantial gap before our second performance, there was time to tour some of the other stages on the site and find some food. In this regard, I have now sent a strongly worded memo to myself to avoid festival Thai vegetable curry. It certainly resembled a biohazard going in and I’ll draw a veil over it on the way out – pizzas and pies next time.
Our last performance of the day was in a small lecture theatre, and it was lovely to a number of our friends eschewing other festival attractions to come specifically to see us. Very many thanks to them for paying us such a major compliment.
Having had the pleasure of seeing many old friends, once finished we turned for home and for once the goddess of motorway repairs was kind and we arrived home undiverted.
Many thanks to Dick Dixon for the invitation and to his hardy group of volunteers who looked after us so well on the day.