This was a lovely event to be asked to play at. For reasons of variety and inclusiveness, the organisers of this week long festival in aid of raising funds for MacMillan Cancer Support had organised for the widest possible range of musical genres to play across a range of venues in the village of Fenstanton, which sits between Cambridge and Huntingdon. So, following events for jazz, classical, rock, barber shop and many more music styles, na-mara were the folk event. This was a big honour and a big responsibility; this was our concert – no other acts, we were the show.
So, it was early up the motorway to make sure we had plenty of time for a good sound check. Our venue might not sound too prepossessing at first hearing, a builder’s materials headquarters. However, it was a beautiful 17th century barn, with all mod cons and chairs laid out for an audience of c70 people and set in some very lovely grounds showing off what the builders could do to transform your garden and home.
After a brief chat with the immensely energetic organisers, we had a sound check with Adey and a chance to have a warm up before the audience began to arrive. This was the first full concert we had done in a while, so we had been rehearsing hard in the previous days. However, it is nice to get properly tuned up and a feel for a venue before going on.
We played well and Adey’s sound was excellent. The audience was exactly our type of audience – interested in our tales and stories, and appreciative of the hard work we had put into writing and crafting the songs. At both half time and at the end of the show, it was lovely to chat with members of the audience. For many, this was the first folk event they had ever been to – all the more pleasing to report that they had had an excellent evening and were buying our CDs!
Eventually, people began to drift away. We had a last chat with the organisers and then lifted the gear into the car and set off home. We were pleased with our performance. However, as mentioned many times before in this blog, it was something of a trial having to get up at 6.00am the next morning to do the day job.
Thank you again to the organisers of Fringe in the Fen – they deserve every success. We hope they raised lots of money for a truly great cause. We salute their vision, ambition and energy!!