Bideford Folk Festival
Bideford Folk Festival is a small event hosted and organised by the local folk club. This is their fifth event and it sounds like it is growing every year. It mixes concerts with sessions and with workshops, using churches, a classroom in an Art Centre and local pubs.
We went to the first concert on the Monday night, it was in the Methodist Church, a traditional galleried and pewed building with a lovely acoustic. The problem was that they were using a PA and getting the levels very wrong - so much so that at one point the audience protested and suggested they just unplug and sing - they didn't, but they could have trusted a building designed to be a soundbox and done so. We were worried about what we had come to - not just the acoustics but the performers were the organisers and their friends and the standard was enthusiastic amateur. By the end of our time there we were really impressed - yes it was a combination of amateur and semi-professional, but the standard was on the whole very good and most of all it was inclusive. We went to music and song sessions in the local pubs where whoever turns up with an instrument or a song can join in, many of the songs encourage everybody to sing along, finding the harmonies that suit - and it works.
The space was used in a variety of ways. In concert format in the church and in the upper room of one of the pubs, it was straight lines with a stage at the front. In the Art Centre it was a semi-circle with performers in the centre - but able to interact and involve the audience - with a bias towards people joining in. The music and song sessions are done in a circle - where you can see and hear one another - and seemed to be the way that people were most comfortable. There was an atmosphere of encouragement, an interest in the stories and songs that other people brought, a willingness to share information about instruments and sources, a real friendliness not just for those who are regulars - old friends meeting up, but for the likes of us, strangers who just turned up and joined in. By Friday morning, when we had planned to leave, we were sorry to go - but move on we did.
The spirit of encouragement was also evident in the people invited as performers. Some had been noticed playing in the sessions in previous years - and invited back as performers. Others had been spotted at Youth Festivals and invited to participate - it was good to see these young musicians playing at every opportunity, they had, and to hear the encouragement they were given by older participants.
We are also learning a variety of camping patterns. Bideford were using a site just outside the town and had provided a mini bus running between the venues and the campsite, which meant that any movement of vehicles which might churn up the campsite was discouraged. However, on Thursday morning a campervan trying to leave got well and truly stuck - and we were leaving Friday morning. We nearly made it - but got stuck just short of the gate, but there was a little tractor there to pull us out. I think we need a 4x4 campervan!
So Bideford was good - might look to go back.