The joys and perils of solo festival-going

I write this in the short, overcast days of late January which seems like a very good time to look both backwards and forwards. Looking backwards, I’m going to indulge in a little review of a couple of the highlights of 2022; looking forwards, I anticipate some of the pleasures 2023 has in store.

Regular readers of my blogs may be aware that, halfway through last year, I acquired a micro-camper which opened up new possibilities for the summer. You can read more about the story (and back-story) to my micro-camping escapades in my slowly unfolding companion blog Travels with my Dulcimer - Micro-adventures in a micro-camper …with a dulcimer. After a ‘maiden voyage’ to Ross on Wye in early August to test out van-life I travelled down to the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset for the Purbeck Valley Folk Festival.

Among the many acts I saw perform at Purbeck were the cello/accordion duo Good Habits (who I’ve been raving about on this blog ever since reviewing their debut album in 2020.) In fact, I got to see Good Habits twice on consecutive days. Chatting with Pete and Bonnie, it turned out Pete is from my hometown of Shrewsbury. In the evening, I caught the much-anticipated and recently-formed ‘folk supergroup’ The Magpie Arc, the Sheffield/Edinburgh collective involving Nancy Kerr, Martin Simpson, Findlay Napier, Tom A Wright (of The Albion Band) and Alex Hunter. Martin Simpson (who I’ve seen solo several times) seemed to be having way too much fun playing electric guitar. My first evening at Purbeck was rounded off by the amazing N’famady Kouyaté ­– balafon maestro from Guinea (now based in Cardiff.)

The next day, it’s Purbeck Rising – a showcase of emerging artists and outstanding among these is Den Miller, a singer-songwriter from Keighley in Yorkshire. Not only does he perform a powerful song on the autoharp but Den also wows the audience with his satirical ‘Right-Winger Folk Singer’. The second evening draws to an end with Show of Hands.

Despite having had fairly major dental surgery just days before I decide to put myself down for a half-hour slot on the open mic stage. This seems to go okay but it’s only later, when I catch my reflection in the mirror, that I realise my face is so swollen and bruised from the dentistry the audience must have thought I’d been in a bar-room brawl. 

The real highlight of Purbeck, though, wasn’t my swollen-faced open mic set but two opportunities to see the great Gabriel Moreno. Readers of this blog may have seen my review of the Gibraltarian poet and singer-songwriter’s album ‘The Year of the Rat.’ I love Moreno’s way with words and his dark, warm Leonard Cohen-esque delivery. It was a treat to see him taking part in a songwriters’ forum on the final day of the festival, alongside Steve Knightley (of Show of Hands) and Michele Stodart (the bassist and singer from The Magic Numbers.) After this, Gabriel performed a brilliant set with his band The Quivering Poets. The evening was rounded off with an exuberant show by Celtic fusion band Shooglenifty.

Making hay while the festival season sun shone, I headed home from Purbeck only to set off a few days later for Shrewsbury Folk Festival. As I mentioned earlier, Shrewsbury is my hometown but, in many ways, spending three or four days at Shrewsbury Folk Festival is a very different experience to spending a few days in Shrewsbury. Several dulcimer friends were at the festival, providing introductory workshops to the instrument and – though I hadn’t planned to – I helped them in a small way with some of their dulcimer activities.

On my first day I catch Scottish folk trio Talisk, (including guitarist Graeme Armstrong, whose debut solo album ‘You Are Free’ was another one of the best folk albums of 2022.) Whether I’m soaking up the music and the sunshine or playing a bit of dulcimer, the weekend goes well until the Saturday evening when someone steals my folding camping chair. One of the hazards of being a solo festival-goer is that there’s no one to watch over your chair while you head to the beer tent for a refill. Having left my chair a couple of times at Purbeck it never occurred to me that anyone in Shrewsbury would steal it! Luckily I’ve got a back-up picnic blanket but, at my age, a man likes to sit in a chair (albeit one that is collapsible) while watching the acts. 

The loss of my chair is disproportionality shocking to me. I'm angry and shocked because I feel sure nobody from Shrewsbury would be so wicked as to steal a camping chair and I'm also upset because they have taken advantage of the fact that my late wife is no longer able to keep an eye on it for me (as, of course, she is no longer sat in the camping chair next to me!) It's not just a chair I'm missing. I try to convey some of my dismay to the stewards who are all lovely and kind but can do nothing to remedy the theft. Still, I’ve learnt my lesson. Next time, I’ll have to risk appearing weird by making friends with the audience members sitting next to me – or else take my chair with me and risk losing my carefully chosen spot.

And thus, it's in a supine position on a picnic blanket that I find myself, on August Bank Holiday Monday afternoon, lying in a field while Judy Collins sings ‘Both Sides Now’ and tells anecdotes about her contemporaries – Dylan, Joan Baez and Leonard Cohen. Remarkably, the 83-year-old’s voice is still clear and distinctive, with that same searing gaze that inspired Crosby, Stills and Nash’s ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.’ And this is all happening in my hometown, where the 12-year-old me used to repeatedly play Judy’s 1973 single ‘Cook With Honey’ on a little record player in the front room.

Shrewsbury Folk Festival is an unusually immersive experience. Camping areas are interspersed within the festival site and, in the bars, the impromptu sound of English and Irish music is omnipresent. There’s a strong emphasis on dance, too, from Morris dancing and frenetic late-night ceilidhs to a French dance workshop with the Rheingans Sisters. Workshops and activities form an essential element, giving children and adults the opportunity to try out unfamiliar instruments and learn new skills.

The production values of the concerts are outstanding with excellent sound and lighting and large video screens projecting the on-stage action. Along with Judy Collins, The Unthanks were another highlight, as was the delicate English Americana of Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage, huddled – bluegrass-style – around a single microphone. I chatted with Hannah after their afternoon set, (discussing the pros and cons of playing the dulcimer standing up) and bought a copy of Hannah and Ben’s beautiful album, ‘Ink Of The Rosy Morning’ – another superb 2022 release. Later that day, I saw Hannah and Ben play again on the Bellstone Marquee and once again caught Good Habits on the ‘village stage’ before bumping into them wandering around. (I’m sure they think I’m stalking them now, having followed them from Purbeck to Shrewsbury!) 

The vibe at Shrewsbury Folk Festival is very different to Purbeck – Shrewsbury festival-goers seem keener on taking part in activities (and they’re very big on dancing) but are perhaps less open-minded about the music. For example, the Haitian voodoo rock of Moonlight Benjamin was evidently a little too raucous for some, and yet the audience didn’t seem to mind bagpipes, from the high energy Scottish folk-rock of Skerryvore to the Galician pipes of Carlos Núñez, who in the festival finale, had no trouble finding countless volunteers to clamber up and dance on the stage.

And now it’s 2023. I’ve already booked a return trip to Purbeck where this year I’ll be able to see, among others, global folk collective Mishra (whose ‘Reclaim’ was my favourite album of 2021.) Also among the 2023 lineup at Purbeck is the duo Touki (French-American Cory Seznec’s collaboration with the great Senegalese musician Amadou Diagne – featured on this blog in 2017.) Apart from Purbeck, I’ll be going a-dulcimering in Somerset again and hope to take in one or two other festivals. And, this year, I’ll be keeping a close eye on to my camping chair.