The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #113212   Message #2405257
Posted By: CharleyR
04-Aug-08 - 07:11 PM
Thread Name: Review: Cambridge Festival
Subject: RE: Review: Cambridge Festival
Well, I really enjoyed it - apart from getting rained on and there's nothing anyone can do about that! I know it's not the same as other events which are called folk festivals, but whatever label you give to it personally I like it for what it is and no doubt I'll be going again in the future.

I did notice a surprising amount of what I call 'normal people' in the audience, by which I guess I mean conventional people you wouldn't expect to see that many of at a folk festival, and the musical instrument stalls tend to get the guitars on display rather than the melodeons like you get at more traditional festivals. As someone already mentioned, the noisy families/people with enough stuff to set up camp for a fortnight/people reading the Sunday papers (why??) can be avoided if you go nearer the front of the stage, which isn't usually difficult if there's only one or two of you and you don't take up a lot of space.

Personal highlights were The Levellers, The Chair (high-energy Scottish music), Ross Ainslie and Jarlath Henderson (Scottish and Irish pipers/whistle players) and Altan.