It was lovely to receive a request from Alan Castle, and Bob and Kathy Drage to return again to play at the Tenterden Folk Festival. We had enjoyed our time there last year and were happy to make the long trip again to this very pleasant festival.
We had an early workshop on the Saturday morning and set off well before the motorways got busy, arriving around 9.30am. The workshop itself was intimate and the players talented and fun to be with.
Lunchtime choices were made recognising the need not to eat too much before an afternoon concert and to find enough change from somewhere to feed the town’s very hungry parking meters! This was achieved at a small cafe with our own private show of morris dancing outside and the chance to chat with highly talented young singer, Heather Knights, who had been on the same bill with us at one of our Bromyard performances and was sharing the afternoon concert with us again at Tenterden.
As soon as we were able, we made our way across to The Saddlery, the venue for the afternoon concert, where we caught the end of Greg Harper’s session. His thoughtful songs were then followed by Heather Knight’s sparkling performance. We closed the concert with a 40-minute set. The audience was modest in size but very fulsome in its support for the acts. Again, we were pleased to see L’Amant de Nantes and The Garden of England receive such an enthusiastic reception.
It was nice then to chat with Greg, Heather, friend Joe Whittaker from Swinging the Lead, and other members of the audience. Without saying where, we also chatted with the organiser of a club we have been keen to play at for some time and it looks like a booking may be forthcoming. Watch this space.
Given domestic commitments, it was reasonably early that we turned from home. The motorways were again kind and, to complete a perfect day, my football team won a ‘must-win’ game – that doesn’t happen very often!