Chaversham 2016

Subject: Chaversham 2016
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 02 Sep 16 - 05:36 AM

Anybody going to Chaversham this year? I am giving it one more chance.

Usual sing in the Crown and Anchor?

Any other folk sings?

Subject: RE: Chaversham 2016
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Sep 16 - 05:04 AM

When Is it? And why does it need one more chance?

Subject: RE: Chaversham 2016
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 05 Sep 16 - 01:49 PM

This thread is only of relevance to those who go to Chaversham festival.

It was an acceptable experience - just. Many food stalls, some nice beers and ciders.

I did not manage to get into any sing (if there was any sing) in the Crown and Anchor, and on Saturday when I popped in and had some of the Festival ale (which was very acceptable) the landlord said it had been as quiet as the grave on Friday night.

The campsite unisex bogs in the school were unacceptable. One WC out of order. One WC no seat. The rest marginal. Taps iffy and not turning off. Hand-drier not working. Huge puddles on the floor (so the lino was dangerously slippery). Mouldy ceiling. The floors (particularly behind pipes and frames) brown with congealed dirt. And that school opens this week for pupils! Couldn't the festival organisers (if the school was incapable) have addressed the plumbing and tileback issues (so stopping tap water getting on the floor) and put a man with a jetwasher and disinfectant through on Thursday, and somebody with a mop every few hours?

G/F reported that the campsite chemi-loos were humming by late afternoon Saturday. Maybe a few more would have been better.

I found no campsite facility to empty a caravan loo.

We did not risk the showers.

Only a few morris (and vaguely similar) sides.

Some truly horrifying singing on the Spitfire stage (maybe the foldback was inadequate). G/F described one song as "the worst cover of that song I have ever heard", and the harmonies (different band, different song) that I heard were dreadfully off-tune.

The Folk Stage was hidden down at the end of West Street with pretty well no space for anybody to stand and listen - and some PA issues as well. Probably very disheartening for the booked folk performers (and there were some good ones there).

Good sound equipment on the Brewery Stage, but poor sound balance. One singer doing an acceptable Janis Joplin cover that I noticed.

No folk that I found in any pub, not even in what used to be the Chimney Boy and is now the Limes (why the change of name I wonder?).

The various teenage screamers on the Masterbrew stage were poor every time I passed.

The various bands in the back of the Railway were loud and quite incapable of getting the feel of any of the reggae and soul covers I heard them do. One band totally murdered "We are Family" not least by swooping up to the all-important opening vocal notes of each line.

I chatted to one urban warrior (a man in his 40s with a bright orange cockatoo hairstyle (very old-fashioned punk) and a middle-aged middle-class woman in the unisex loos. He reported that Saturday night the streets felt threatening – teenagers getting drunk, fighting, getting drunker and fighting more. She said that she had been warned that if she wanted to go into town in the evening she should make if Friday because Saturday was dangerous – but did say she heard a very good band in one pub.

Much less crowded on the street on Sunday, but at least a couple of the hired security guards looked more like hoodlums than forces of order.

The state of the Ladies loos in Partridge Lane on Saturday afternoon left no doubt at all that those who had been there might well have been female but were definitely not ladies!

I'll probably give it another go next year, and if the weather is clement aim to spend more time in the Hoppers' Market area.

Subject: RE: Chaversham 2016
From: GUEST,Girl Friday
Date: 06 Sep 16 - 07:59 AM

Haven't been to this Festival in years because of various issues . Main one was the parking being moved to way out of town for those not staying the entire weekend. /it was made very clear to us when, once we tried to use the school parking, we could not as we weren't camping. Another issue is the marginalisation of Folk Music that has made it easch year, less of a Folk Festival. The loud music eminating from every stage has been awful, and the lack of any organised music in the pubs is shocking. We ended up being THE entertainment in the Chimney Boy the last time we went. His booked folkies were stopped from performing because he had to have noise limiters! I can't imagine why Richard Bridge would even contemplate a 2017 visit after their campsite experience.