A Tale of 3 Festivals:(2 and 3)

2. Sunday 7th July Bulkington Food and Real Ale Festival 
          And so on to the following day. Warwickshire again. This time Bulkington Food and Real Ale Festival,set in the imposing grounds of Weston Hall.Originally intended as three days of Peace Love and Gluttony,with the music provided by North Warwickshire's three major Folk Clubs. 

         As things turned out it was actually condensed into Saturday and Sunday.  It had fallen to Nuneaton Folk Club to provide Sunday's afternoon's entertainment and because I knew that weekend was busy for many of our regulars,I'd decided on two sets from Nunc with one from Dragonhead sandwiched in between them.

           To be honest,I had feared the worst when I found out we'd drawn the Sunday. The Festival was due to close at 6pm and with the counter attraction of Bulkington's Annual Carnival and Fair nearby,I thought even that we might be packing up early. How wrong i was! Having checked that road closures for the procession would not deprive us of access,we were setting up by 10am. This had the advantage of trucking the gear in before the stallholders had set up and getting Paul Moore to a midday Christening without any divorce papers being filed. 

         With the acts playing in a vast Wedding-style marquee and a copious beer supply handily racked up inside, there were also all kinds of goodies on sale at stalls outside. A sort of Woodstock with Pulled Pork and Leek and potato pies. There were swing boats and donkey rides,roundabouts,Craft Stalls and a CAMRA stand. It was all rather lovely,and despite it being very warm outside the sumptuous marquee was packed by the time we got under way.Here is a glorious photo of us all packed onto the stage. And for once you can actually see:there are six of us. 

           Providing our own P.A. had proved a bit of a logistical headache. The plan was to use a combination of the gear owned by John Harris and Paul Moore with some extras chucked in by myself and John Kearney. I have to say that it worked. It sounded great,there were few glitches.  Ann Harris drove Dragonhead's mighty mixing desk rather well. Friends and family beefed the audience up and with (thankfully) plenty of quality Real Ale left (including some Church End) still flowing things went very well.  

        I doubt we'll ever have the luxury of playing to an audience who were mostly seated in armchairs for a while. Or the benefit of toilet facilities that were what you would expect of a Great Western Hotel. 

        Nunc played two one hour sets and Paul "Five bands" Moore also guested with John and Anne.  So there were some very tired tootsie pegs at the end of another very long day.  I managed by dietary input better though and managed to keep a good blood sugar balance. I think we all slept well that night. 

3. Sunday 14th July North Earlsdon Neighbourhood Association  Fair

       This was the homeliest of all three. It was staged in Coventry's Spencer Park:a community asset where local residents pay for the upkeep and maintenance of all amenities. Which,(as you might expect being Earlsdon)includes Tennis Courts, a Pavilion, Kiddies Play Equipment and a bowling green

      I was most impressed that Jon Harrington's ex Esther had arranged a flypast of a Lancaster bomber over the park just before we started,but I was disappointed to discover later that this was merely a coincidence. I confess also to a tremble of excitement as Des Patalong was spotted wandering through the park with a drum under his arm. But he had not come to see us. Oh no. He was off down the road to play with the other Artisans at a session in The Windmill .
      Once again it was a DIY set up,with the Nunc guys trucking in all manner of sound equipment before setting up on the steps of the aforesaid Pavilion. The other band booked had not turned up,so once again we did an extended set list,this time playing for nearly two hours without a break before falling down exhausted.  

      Here you can see that once more bassist John Harris is hiding. Behind some imposing trellis work this time. But he is there. You can just can see the outline of his guitar. Just to the right of him,Anne Harris once again,did a sterling job on the mixing desk.

       It was a proper family occasion,with gazebos,deckchairs,and blankets on the ground. We all thought it would rain-but once again-it didn't. We had our usual crowd of young fans gyrating about right in front of us. I commented on this over the mike, pointing out that some of our audiences were probably missing out on early bed times by not playing their toddlers Howling Wolf and Robert Johnson to dance them into soporific oblivion. 

      Flossy and Martin cleaned up on the raffle prizes which made us feel a bit guilty but as we donated our appearance fee to the NENA Fighting Fund,we didn't feel so bad about it really.