do you remember your first festival?

Subject: do you remember your first festival?
From: I don't know
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 09:55 AM

Sitting here thinking about my first folk festival had me thinking do you remember yours?
My first experience was in 1976 aged 16 when I went with a crowd to Norwich Folk Festival at Norwich University. I remember it was a pleasant weekend with good camping & a good well behaved crowd, but the outstanding memory was when my husband to be told me I would not like the guy on the outside stage (Richard Digance) & took me in the main hall to watch Steeleye Span. I loved Steeleye Span anyway & this was the first time I saw them live. After that festival I got my way & went to see Richard Digance who I think is every good.
I often wonder way festivals are not held in collages/universities more often? Is it cost & limited time of availability that stops it happening?

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: G-Force
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 11:21 AM

First festival: Bob Dylan, Isle of Wight, 1969.

First folk festival: Cambridge (UK), 1975.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Mark Ross
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 12:36 PM

My 1st was the Smithsonian in '70. Ralph Rinzler found my wife and I (we had hitchiked to DC on a whim) a place to stay, had lunch at Libba Cotten's house, got to meet Jimmy Driftwood and played with Viola Hensley. What a great time.


Mark Ross

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Bobert
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 12:40 PM

If we're talkin' "folk festival", I reckon it would have been 'round '66 at Wolftrap Farms... It was called the National Folk Festival... Very laid back...

B~

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 12:45 PM

My first folk festival was Saddleworth 2009, and since I didn't actually go to any ticketed events or stay overnight I'm not sure even that counts. (I wasn't really into folk music between about 1975 and 2005, which may account for it. Also I don't like camping.)

The OP reminds me that the first (only) time I saw Steeleye live was also the first (only) time I saw Richard Digance, who was supporting them; he was hilarious, more or less from the moment he walked on (Hello, good evening and welcome to Folk Club, my name's Roy Harper...). Top gig, although not at a festival.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Banjiman
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 12:48 PM

First Tolk Festival? Cleethorpes '69 or maybe '70. I was 4 (or 5)........ I remember the ice cream was good and I got stung by a wasp!

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: JHW
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 12:51 PM

Cleethorpes on the Pier in 1968. Wonderful. All you had to do was get on the Pier and everything was there. Concert or Ceilidh in the big hall, singaround in the bar, food in the cafe. Other shows too in the hall. I well remember Magic Lantern. When the dancing was happening the whole pier swayed on its legs.
Alas no real ale, it hadn't been re-invented and if you fancied singing a song yourself in the bar, probably standing, you'd have to have your first line and key ready to dive straight in the second the previous song finished. Maybe not very inclusive but good training.
An awful long walk back to the campsite way past the latter Winter Gardens and we thought we were done for when a load of Hell's Angels pulled up around our pitches. But no, they listened to lots of songs and left.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 01:31 PM

Summerfolk in Owen Sound, Ontario in 1999. Over-crowded camping with round-the-clock racket and no hot water, Edmund's blessed Coleman stove ... and wonderful music.

Unfortunately, that festival was on the brink of outgrowing its venue; within a couple of years its main-stage area was so overcrowded that I could not stand it. I would have been willing to put up with the daily "land rush" for seating and the horrid camping if the programmers had not turned away from traditional repertoire in favour of singer-songwriters whom we found much less likely to be worth the discomfort of the camping and the cramping.

It helped that, just when we realized we didn't like Summerfolk any more, we discovered the more sympatico Celtic Roots Festival down the road in Goderich.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 01:48 PM

Sidmouth about 69 or 70.
Cutty Wren Folk Club went en masse, with two big tents for boys and girlies (that's how it was in those days!)
Rosie Hardman singing among the fishing boats.
Ahh, the Beach Store!
Singing all the way back to the campsite on a very overcrowded bus.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 01:53 PM

this may sound sad... but I don't feel it is.
I am 52 years old.


This year's Sidmouth was my first proper camping festival of any kind.

AND IT WAS BLOODY BRILLIANT!

Ticking off the weeks until the next.

Moira Furnace this year was my second camping festival

AND IT WAS FABULOUS!

I can't wait until next summer.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Brakn
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 01:56 PM

First festival was 1968 National Jazz and Blues Festival. I had just turned 15 and I can't believe that my parents let me hitch-hike to London at that age!

I certainly do remember my first folk festival; Shrewsbury 2010!

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Diva
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 02:00 PM

Ohhh aye...Girvan 1980.....thought I'd died and gone to heaven...i nearly did cos for reasons best known to myself i poured part of a can of lager over Jack Foley's head when it emerged from under a table.......don't ask me why....

First proper away from home festival with camping was Newcastleton 1980.....

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 02:02 PM

Windsor Jazz & Blues 1967 - Cream, Jeff Beck, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac etc!

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: I don't know
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 03:05 PM

Great to read peoples memories & well done to VirginiaTam on your first camping festival, great fun even in bad weather & to Brakn for making Shrewsbury your first FOLK festival, may you attend many more.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 03:05 PM

Yes! I was about eight. It was this: http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/rougham-tree-faire-1981.html

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Anne Lister
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 03:23 PM

Cambridge 1971. Newport Folk Club went up in a minibus driven by "Dublin" (Bertie) Moran. Stopped along the way to lay in stocks of food and drink (apples, cheese, Newky Brown). Shared tents. Drove home into the dawn on the Sunday night, singing some of the way and dreaming for the rest of it.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 03:26 PM

Hexham 1967 guests were The Spinners, The Watersons, Harry Boardman and Tony Green. The following morning The Sunday Sun had headlines regarding the wanton orgy that the festival was; drunken revellry and promiscuous petting in public.
Disgusting.............I didn't get any.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Little Robyn
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 03:50 PM

Yes, 1965 in Wellington NZ. And I've been to most of the other Wellington/National Folk Festivals since then - only missed 1972 and 1990. Both times I was in Britain and we went to other folk festivals instead.
Some NFFs were in High Schools or the University but we outgrew the venues. It was held in the middle of our winter, (beginning of June) and folkies from outside Wellington had to be billeted.
Now it's a camping festival, held as summer is beginning, (end of October) with a huge marquee and lots of tents but also bunk houses for the people like me who no longer wish to sleep on the ground. Been there, done that, not any more thank you!
Robyn

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Bernard
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 05:07 PM

Sidmouth 1969, camping. The tents opposite were occupied by the Yetties and families, and have been friends ever since.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: GUEST,oaktree
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 05:42 PM

My parents were folkies so my first festival was Broadstairs or Sidmouth in utero and, no, I dont remember it. ;-) I remember later festivals as a kid though and I enjoyed them all. Growing up in folk's nomadic village was one of the best things about my childhood. Outstanding memories include: the Hooden Horses at Broadstairs; being called on to sing for the first time at a singaround (John Kirkpatrick sang too); and the first time a professional storyteller asked if I'd teach her one of my stories (I was a teenager by then). Endless fun. Thanks to all the older generation of adults who created folk's nomadic village and made it work.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: The Sandman
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 05:48 PM

Bertie Moran, I think I knew him before he became famous., he once Accompanied me on his gadget.
My first festival, I think I remember, but maybe my memory is playing tricks, it was certainly memorable

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 06:36 PM

Sidmouth 1968. The campsite was opposite the building that had been the station until Dr Beeching closed the line, and I first heard June Tabor (singing Dido Bendigo round a campfire). In the Beach Store I first heard Swarbrick playing with Carthy, Pete Coe singing with Chris Jackson (before she became Chris Coe), Tony Rose...

Kitty

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Soldier boy
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 07:03 PM

Whitby Folk Week 1995. Never missed a year since!

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 08:33 PM

First festival of any kind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_International_Pop_Festival_%281970%29

First bluegrass festival: Hoboken Georgia (near Waycross) 1975

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 08:48 PM

Fox Hollow 1969. It rained.

No Duh!

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 08:54 PM

Morris Brothers, 1971.

Russ (Permanent GUEST)

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: GUEST,Erich
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 01:09 AM

@ Herga Kitty: I though Chris Coe was a former Chris Richards (not Jackson), according to "The Wide Midlands"-LP.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 02:06 AM

Illawarra Folk Festival at Jamberoo, several hours south of Sydney, Sept? 1998. It was fantastic - lovely spring weather, great music & company. I've been to this festival every year since - even to it's now held in mid summer & I normally stay indoors in hot weather.

It was also the first time in my life I'd ever been camping - I was 46. Friend driving me lent me his old tent. It was a shabby old canvas 2-person tent & I needed help putting it up (did I say I'd never been camping before?) & we looked in envy at the family nearby putting up 2 dome tents. Soon after I bought a small 2-person dome & used that for years until me poor old knees got too sore to kneel, so replaced it with a large dome I can stand in!

sandra

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: GUEST,Gail
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 05:53 AM

First rock festival: Weeley (UK) around 1971. I was 19, my sister 16, and our parents were so worried, they had a phone installed at home for the first time so we could ring them twice a day. We had saved up for ages to buy our tickets in advance and when we got close to Weeley we stuck them in our back pockets so everyone could see how cool we were, going to a festival. Obviously the tickets had been nicked by the time we got there and we had to pay again. Shortly afterwards, it was declared a free festival.

First folk festival: I think it was Whitby around 1978. Never missed a Whitby since, though I generally only go for 3 or 4 days now. It's lovely to watch our family's next generations excitedly staying awake for their all-important bit of 'come back next year' heather from the garland.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 06:20 AM

Towersey , 1968 , after I came home from the Middle East - when it was ALL in one field , which he Festival Funds bought , then built the Rugby pavilion . I seem to recall one year a Quartet from Lancashire were booked , one of whos members was a guy named Steve Heap - Always wonder what happened to him !

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: GUEST,MC Fat (at work)
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 06:41 AM

Inverness in 1974 with Al O'Donnell, na Fili, Swan Arcade, Archie Fisher (I think)I met the girl I later married there too and although we are now apart (but still friends) I had two wonderful children from that marriage. It has a lot to answer for !!!

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 07:23 AM

My first real festival as opposed to dropping in to a single concert was Pontardawe 1981, staying with my friend Gabe who sold mead at the festival.
He got free tickets in return for putting up guest artists and it was here that I first met several people on this forum, including Herga Kitty.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: mattkeen
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 07:23 AM

Cambridge 1972

Main memory seeing Martin Carthy just drinking Guiness in the beer tent

Realised that even guitar heroes (he was and is one of mine) have a life outside of playing

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Susan of DT
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 07:27 AM

Fox Hollow 1969. It became my ideal for what a folk festival should be.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 08:50 AM

Depends what you mean by first festival.
First festival I went to but only went for an hour Leigh Folk Festival 2008.
First festival in a field went for a day Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2009.
First complete weekend at a festival Oxford Folk Festival 2010.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Drumshanty
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 08:59 AM

Keith Festival, but I can't remember the date - early 90s. I do remember floating off to bed around 7.00am on the Saturday and Sunday mornings and drifting off to sleep to the muted sound of fiddles and singing in the bar two floors below. It was brilliant and it had a huge effect on my life.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 09:05 AM

GUEST,Gail - Weeley was my first too.

Have you seen this great website? Ah, memories......

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: sciencegeek
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 09:10 AM

yikes! I can hardly remember what I did last week.... lol

But I do remember my first Mystic Sea Music festival back in 1985... and we keep going back for more.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 09:48 AM

Sidmouth !! In 1965 ; I was stationed at RNAS Yeovilton, and used to go to local Folk Clubs ( Yeovil, Dorchester,Weymouth etc ) as half of ( crap !) duo " Robin & Roger".Robin (Tedbury's)   parents owned the "Winter Gardens" on Fore Street,just off The Esplanade ( now Brown's Bar, I think ??), so I had my own room; no camping necessary !! Bit different in those days ; LOADS of EFDSS (I was one) members on the Esplanade, and VASTLY more activity than there is today,in the "Black Horse" (outside of which I proposed to first wife in 1971 !),which was always packed with singers,dancers and musicians,spilling out of both entrances.There was a "heady" atmosphere back then , and camp-fires on the beach at Jacobs Ladder !

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 09:51 AM

PS   I believe that 1965 was Pete Coe's first Sidmouth,too,but I don't remember him from then !!

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: I don't know
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 10:16 AM

Thank you everyone for replying to this thread. I meant any festival but mainly folk. All the postings are interesting, I wonder how many are still running? I know Ely celebrated 25 years this year & was fantastic.
Who can remember which festivals they have done over the years? or should that be a new thread.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 11:40 AM

I love threads like this.
Despite the distance and the sometimes differences between the UK and US reading into the post you can tell we all feel the same about our festivals. I wonder how similar they were? Of course all our (UK) festivals are different to each other, so we could never compare.
Perhaps when Max is back on the ground he could offer a comparison.
Meanwhile enjoy.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 11:46 AM

Perhaps when Max is back on the ground he could offer a comparison.

Miskin Man, Max already offered the following comparison:

"Whitby Folk Week is amazing. Very much like folk events I've been to in the US, like Folk College and The FSGW Getaway, but on a scale that is wholly unbelievable. Folkies take over this whole seaside town for an entire week, 10 workshops, concerts, pub sings are going on at any given moment around the clock. The choices are impossible."

---

Please note that anonymous posting is no longer allowed at Mudcat. Use a consistent name [in the 'from' box] when you post, or your messages risk being deleted.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 12:07 PM

That must have been in the back of my mind when I wrote the above. I was chatting with Max near the end of the tour about his impressions of the UK scene.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: billybob
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 12:14 PM

Sidmouth 1970 ish!

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: topical tom
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 12:34 PM

It was an old time music/bluegrass festival near Lachute, Quebec. Lee Moore, the "coffee-drinking nighthawk" of WWVA fame, was there. I think the year was 1978. It was a very small festival but it launched me on the festival lovefest!

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Mooh
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 12:35 PM

Either the first or second Home County Folk Festival in London Ontario Canada back in the '70s. I was a wild teenager...or a teenager trying to be wild. Drank too much cheap wine, slept in the dew (or rain?) in the festival park under a tree. Can't remember the folks with me, or even the girls' names.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: The Barden of England
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 12:58 PM

Sidmouth 1991 - I'm a latecomer to Folk Festivals, but not to folk music. Been to every one since. Why? It's magic of course.
John Barden

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 01:11 PM

My first "festival" in the late 60s was simply a long concert in a marquee in the garden of the pub that hosted one of our local folk clubs. The only act that I remember was Dave and Toni Arthur.

Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival?
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 02:21 PM

Erich - of course you're right, the point I'd meant to make was that it was so long ago that Pete and Chris hadn't married yet, but clearly I was having a senior moment in my earlier post!

Kitty