 sj |
||
|
||
do you remember your first festival?
|
|
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: Rasener Date: 28 Apr 22 - 03:49 PM Whitby Folk Festival UK |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 28 Apr 22 - 11:54 AM how did I miss this thread when it started? A friend took over a folk club in 1995 & I went along - WOW, a whole new world! A couple of years later I went to my first festival in his spare tent, sleeping on a thin mattress, I only remember the discomfort of sleeping one inch off the ground. Our folk club was booked for a concert & my friend handed out his preferred version of Wild Mountain Thyme so everyone sang the same words. I have fuller memories of the 2000 National Folk Festival, my little rent was almost overwhelmed on the 2nd & 3rd nights when latecomers put up their tents far too close - first one had a peg under my bed & he snored! I just realised I could have probably kicked him to shut him up. 2nd had a peg so close to my entrance I had trouble getting out. But this meant I met a famous performer who was camping nearby & breakfasted with him & his partner for the rest of the festival. We became friends & pics I later took of him are on wikipedia. I was very impressed by a shanty singing friend who had left his program in his tent, so "glanced" at mine & when I later wanted to check what I was planning to see,recited everything I had marked! I was also impressed by the shanty concerts & singing sessions. It was also the first festival where I took my camera & I have since attended every NFF (apart from 2020 & 2021) plus 2 or 3 other smaller festivals each year (except for 20 & 21!) tho I gave up camping some years ago & new prefer on-site caravans or hotels. I still spend most of my time at singing sessions & singing workshops, & only attended 3 concerts at this year's National, & I take lots of photos of dances & kid's workshops. I really enjoy watching young kids participating in tunes, songs & dances. sandra |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: GUEST,JennyBean Date: 28 Apr 22 - 11:10 AM National Jazz and Blues Festival, Windsor Racecourse 1966, moved from Richmond and run by Harold Pendleton of The Marquee. Had another one in 1967, but Eton Rural District Council had a lot of local complaints and the bands had to turn the music down, which didn't please some of them, or us, for that matter. Not much jazz about it though .... subsequently moved to Sunbury (just up the road), then Plumpton racecourse, finally, to what became Reading. Pretty much the same time, IOW (3), Stonehenge and The Windsor Free. Brilliant. Not much folky stuff, if that's the thread .... Sorry !! |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: Sailor Ron Date: 15 Sep 10 - 09:31 AM The last of the 'old' Liverpool Folk Festivals, I was on a ship in Birkenhead at the time [1970?]. Saw Bert Lloyd for the first and only time, but the highlight was Shirley & Dolly Collins. I fell in love then and there with Shirley [still am, not that she knows it]. |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: theleveller Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:44 AM Whitby in, I think, 1965 with my friend, John Wardell, now sadly deceased. It was an amazing thrill as a young lad of 16 to be taken under the wing of such nice people including Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick. I couldn't go into the pubs in those days but joined in sessions on the pier and the beach. |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: GUEST,Sean O'Shea. Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:17 AM First Cornwall festival in Wadebridge 1973. Brenda Wooton.Charlie Bate.Martin Wyndham-Read.Headington Quarry.Mervyn Vincent. Fish and chips for lunch and tea.Paradise Found. |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: Fidjit Date: 15 Sep 10 - 06:41 AM Cambridge '72. Steeleye Span Sephan Grapelly Diz Disley. Bought my concertina from Neil Wayne Chas |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: GUEST,Morris-ey Date: 15 Sep 10 - 05:02 AM All Folk Around the Wrekin 1974 |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: GUEST, Sminky Date: 15 Sep 10 - 04:54 AM GUEST,Gail - if you remember, BJH took FOREVER to set up (not surprising, I suppose, with a full orchestra behind them). They played ONE piece, which was fantastic, so they played it again. I got a summer job that year to pay for the trip. If anyone ate or drank at Charnock Richard services on the M6 during the summer of '71 - CLEAN YOUR TEETH NOW!!! I had my money stolen on the journey home. Luckily, my mate had some luncheon vouchers so we didn't starve. |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: Wolfhound person Date: 15 Sep 10 - 03:43 AM 1st Norwich FF - 1970. Stewarding, working with Alex Atterson. Guests - Nic Jones, Peter Bellamy, Sam Sherry (I think), Noel Murphy..... Dancing in The Barn.....morris men with rhubarb stalks...... Earlier than that....being forbidden to go to Isle of Wight festival by parents 1968 or 9...... Paws |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: Ralphie Date: 15 Sep 10 - 02:35 AM First festival? 1974/5? Barnsley Eastertime. James and I were invited by Dave Burland. Camped behind the pub (The Cut??)next to an Australian couple named Bruce and Sheila. I'm not joking! It was bloody freezing! The landlord of the pub took pity on us poor campers, and we were allowed in at 10am into the bar! I seem to remember his daughter distributing drams of Drambuie! Highlight of the weekend? Doing a support spot for Martin Carthy, on the Monday afternoon. Barnsley Civic Hall! |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: Bugsy Date: 15 Sep 10 - 12:58 AM Stevenage 1965, A one day, one off, festival. And get the lineup! The few I remember were; Bill Monroe & the Bluegrass Boys Bill Clifton & the Echo Mountain Boys Tom Paxton Derek Brimstone Rick Norcross I think there was a group from up north. The Tannahill Weavers springs to mind. and some old dude in a cowboy suit who played Country on guitar and one of those miniature harmonicas that you hold inside your mouth! That day changed my whole outlook on music! Cheers Bugsy Oh, and Bill Monroe played a request for me (The Orange Blossom Special) |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: Bob Bolton Date: 14 Sep 10 - 08:43 PM G'day Joybell, Round about then (1966/7) I was working on Murray 2 Dam in the Snowy Mts Scheme ... living at Khancoban ... just over the border from Corryong and Nariel Creek. I was aware of the Nariel Ck Festival ... but working 6 days a week and long shifts. I did get down to Corryong on Saturday nights for Con Klippel's bands (really ...) Old-time dances in the Corryong Hall ... but I never managed to get to the Nariel Creek Festival! I had heard of planning for what became Australia's National Folk Festival ... during stopovers in Melbourne, between dam construction jobs in Tasmania, ACT and the Snowy ... but I didn't get to a National FF until Adelaide (South Australia) in 1971. That was far more low-key than all folk festivals have become since ... Regards, Bob |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: Joybell Date: 14 Sep 10 - 08:21 PM I love these threads, too. Thank you I-dont-know. Nariel Creek, Victoria, Australia. Late 1960s. We slept in a beetle Volkswagon beside the creek. I remember driving along the highway thinking that every hitch-hiker must have been heading there. They weren't. It was a small festival then. The dance in the local hall was a high point. Fairy lights in the dark bush and the old wooden hall shaking with the dancing of a hundered feet. The Nariel Creek Band with their button acordians, drum kit with South Sea Island sunset, and a piano. Cheers, Joy |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: Tattie Bogle Date: 14 Sep 10 - 07:55 PM Met my husband-to-be, a Sidmouthian in 1972, so gradually got into Sidmouth Festival after that. They only knew about "the dancing" and we'd walk up the Knowle Drive and peep between the trees and bushes for a free view, while my very much younger sisters-in-law-to be went to the Hobby Horse Club in the Blackmore Gardens. I rooted out the other music myself, and we went to concerts in the Beach Store and the Drill Hall. My first whole weekend camping Festival would have been Killin Festival by Loch Tay in one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland in about 1999: I went every year until sadly it ceased to be a few years later. |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: GUEST,Ed Date: 14 Sep 10 - 04:57 PM Cropredy (Fairport Convention) 1989. It was OKish and Steeleye Span on the Friday sounded good to my young ears (Would probably hate what they played now!) Glastonbury the next summer was something else! Think that I was lucky that I managed to be at the last 'hippie' (traveller) festival there. |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: Leadfingers Date: 14 Sep 10 - 03:20 PM Thinkin about it , first Folk Weekend wsnt really a festival but was a EFDSS weekend at Pontins , Weston Super Mare Spring of 1965 when I was getting into Blues Whistle but hadnt really started singing Folk - Didnt stop one of the locals putting my name down at the Singaround WITHOUT telling me ! Talk about a Baptism of Fire !! Made a complete Pigs Ear of 'The Coal Owner and the Pitmans's Wife' and never looked back ! |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: GUEST Date: 14 Sep 10 - 02:50 PM GUEST,Sminky - thanks for the Weeley link, it cleared up one mystery for me. I have often thought that I saw Pink Floyd doing a full orchestral Atom Heart Mother at Weeley, but I now realise it was Barclay James Harvest I was remembering. (Atom Heart Mother was at Doncaster Top Rank that same year, I think) But weekend tickets £1.50! And yes, I really did have to save up for mine. |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: PercyBysshe Date: 14 Sep 10 - 02:34 PM The festival formerly known at Fairport Convention's Annual Reunion in 1984, and the t-shirt still fits (just). Fab festival - I was 19 and didn't drive. A friend's parents dropped us in the camping field on the Friday (yes there was just one) and collected us on the Sunday. My main reason for going was Steeleye Span, but also there were the Oysterband, Pyewackett, Richard Digance (!) ....it was wonderful, and the sun shone (unlike this year!) |
|
Subject: RE: do you remember your first festival? From: Mrs.Duck Date: 14 Sep 10 - 02:26 PM My first festival was Cambridge 1976. I had never camped before so took pot noodles. My 'friends' laughed so I didn't eat them with the result that I got so drunk that I spent a lot of the festival asleep in the market area! I didn't go to another festival until 1993 when we went to Whitby for a couple of days during folk week. |
|
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 |
|
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: 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: 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: 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: billybob Date: 14 Sep 10 - 12:14 PM Sidmouth 1970 ish! |
|
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: 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."
Thanks. -Joe Offer- |
|
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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,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: 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,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: GUEST,Russ Date: 13 Sep 10 - 08:54 PM Morris Brothers, 1971. Russ (Permanent GUEST) |
|
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: 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: 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: 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: 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 |
| Share Thread: |