Just got home from this - a wonderful weekend of great singing, storytelling, and...stepdancing!!! It was lovely to see and hear Packie; a very sprightly 85 years young. He's the only singer I know who can interrupt himself in a song and go on to tell a story or even sing another song before returning to the song he began with exactly where he left off!
It was also a treat to hear Sheila Stewart sing and talk about her life, and I relished coming across Mick Quinn for the first time. Danny Meehan is such a large man that a fiddle seems like a toy in his huge hands - and then he gets such sweet tunes out of it. I was stunned by the Orchard family who are real carriers of the English Gypsy tradition. Tom is a fine accordion player and a mean stepdancer, and his wife Jean and her mother Amy Birch sang a great version of "Broomfield Hill".
It was also a pleasure to hear Mark Bazeley, Jason Rice and Rob Murch playing old and new tunes so well. There are others I ought to mention but I can only say that the quality of the singing in the informal sessions was amazing all round.