Read previous reports: [ July 1997 | July 1999 ]

I ALWAYS LOOK FORWARD to this festival as it marks the start of the Bluegrass Festival season, and being a festival organiser it's one time I can relax and let someone else do the running round.

We arrived to good sunny weather late Friday afternoon and were glad to see that the field already had a good sprinkling of folks. By early evening the site was looking quite full, people were settling in and catching up with all the latest gossip. The Friday night band this year was Baker's Fabulous Boys who put on a great show to a packed room, They played a mix bag of material, with some of their well known songs and instrumental and a few new things I've not heard them do before - all in all a well-rehearsed set and greatly appreciated by a well-informed audience.

Saturday was a nice sunny day with lots opportunities to pick with friends and there were instrumental workshops organised for people who wanted to join in. By late afternoon organiser Terry Holland had sorted out most of the evening scratch bands. Some were taking it serious by finding time to rehearse their allocated three numbers while others such as us were lighting the barby and letting their three numbers take care of themselves.

Organisers Janet and Terry

By tradition the Saturday night concert starts off with scratch bands. Some are put together on the weekend while others are people who play together regularly; but all enter into the spirit. A good laugh is had by all and hopefully, as happened this year, some good music is achieved. After the scratch bands we witnessed a fine set of western swing music by masters of swing The K.T.Playboys and topping the Saturday concert was A Band Like Alice. ABLA delivered a great spot with that punchy sound, lots of good instrumental backing and some fine lead and harmony singing. The audience was well satisfied and, after a few encores, went away smiling.

On Sunday there was a Dobro get-together and a mass fiddle bash outside the pub - once again, lots of picking. Terry and Janet put a lot of effort into this weekend event, and it's nice to see that people are beginning to support what has now grown into a nice, friendly picking festival, just right for the first of the season. See you all there next year?

Kevin Garratt, Leeds.

28 June 2000