Handley Village Festival, Derbyshire, UK

Subject: Handley Village Festival, Derbyshire, UK
From: Jess A
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 06:33 AM

Just got back from (playing at) Handley Village Festival which was in its first year. Had an absolutely lovely time so thought I'd let mudcat people knew that this new festival has the makings of a really good one.

Lovely site - good facilities using a junior school in Chesterfield (Derbyshire) which coped well with the wet. Plenty of food, cd & other stalls. Lots of activities for kids. Plenty of helpful stewards. And the backstage support for artists was fantastic - free and very tasty food all weekend, yum.

Nice lineup (well, maybe I'm biased :) from

Salsa Celtica
Back of the Moon
The Doonan Family Band
Chris While & Julie Mathews
Crucible
Flossie Malavialle
Judy Dunlop & Jon Scaife
Kerfuffle
Kris Drever & Martin Green
Simon Mayor and Hilary James
Sid Kipper
Tom McConville Trio
Hannah James & James Molyneux
Jon Gomm
Roger Davies
Hazel and Emily Askew
John McGrory
4 Square

The organisers had apparently had severe hostility from locals (including an attempt at an injunction to stop the festival happening last Friday) due to various misguided beliefs that there would be 20,000 drunk and drugged up festival goers rampaging round the area & causing a crime spree (..... eh??!!). This led to the festival site moving from Handley Village itself at a fairly late stage. Despite what must have been a very stressful time they still managed to run a very nice (and small, and friendly, and by no means any cause for concern for locals!!) festival.

Only problem, shared I'm sure by many a festival in its first year, was that there were not as many people there as we'd all have liked. Maybe the publicity didn't get to the right places...? Maybe it just takes a while to build up an audience...?

Anyhow, I'd thoroughly recommend it for next year to anybody looking for a friendly new festival to try.

ta,
Jess

http://www.cruciblemusic.co.uk

Subject: RE: Handley Village Festival, Derbyshire, UK
From: Folkiedave
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 06:51 AM

I was there too and again would recommend it for next year.

Great line-up and excellent facilities. The site coped well with the bad weather and Moor and Coast and Sesame (veggie and vegan food from a Sheffield firm Sesame.

And Crucible were excellent.

Subject: RE: Handley Village Festival, Derbyshire, UK
From: Michael
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 07:54 AM

I'll second (third?)that. Nice mix of artists, great location; grounds and buildings of a private school - with excellent showers -(inside too!)Really friendly laid-back weekend and very little rain after Friday afternoon.
I heard it rumoured at Beverely (sic) last weekend that it (or it's successor) may move to this weekend next year; I know which one I'll attend, and I live 75 miles from Chesterfield and 7 from Beverely.

Mike

Subject: RE: Handley Village Festival, Derbyshire, UK
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 07:59 AM

popped in on Saturday. did a quick spot on the open mic, caught Tom McConville's set before I had to go home.

Excellent, as you say!

Subject: RE: Handley Village Festival, Derbyshire, UK
From: Folkiedave
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 08:24 AM

I've just realised that that sentence should have read -

The site coped well with the bad weather and the catering stalls - Moor and Coast and Sesame (veggie and vegan food from a Sheffield firm Sesame) were wonderful. As usual the fish and chips from Whitby were great. As were the veggie burgers. Feta and black olive was my favourite.......

Subject: RE: Handley Village Festival, Derbyshire, UK
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 03:37 PM

Hmm, glad to have read good reports of this new festival. A recommendation from those good folk of Crucible is good enough for me!

Unfortunately, atrocious travelling conditions hereabouts on Sat prevented me from making the 100-mile trip, but I'd hope to support it next year.

Apart from mention of an open mic from Big Al above, all the feedback so far seems to concentrate on the guest-list and facilities. Were there any opportunities for singing, d'you know?

Subject: RE: Handley Village Festival, Derbyshire, UK
From: Folkiedave
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 03:54 PM

There was - rooms in the school were set aside for sessions.

There were no opportunities for pub sessions as such.

Subject: RE: Handley Village Festival, Derbyshire, UK
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 06:04 PM

Thanks FolkieDave for that feedback. Singing sessions in school rooms can be great, and acoustics are usually good. I'll try for next year then.