Webfree

For the last five days I have been webfree whilst at Stokes Bay Festival, Hampshire with my partner. Respect to Peter Chegwin who managed to secure yet another new venue for this event and, unlike festivals such as the 2009 Big Green (non) Gathering cancelled with less than a week to go, to overcome opposition from certain residents and councillors alike. Having finally secured the license with a couple of weeks to go, the camp site was given the go-ahead at the last minute by the Secretary of State! Next year, we were assured, the festival will return to Wickham. I wish the organisers well…they deserve our support.

We had made a deliberate decision to go to this festival, sharing several quality acts with the consecutive Cambridge Folk Festival, which we have been to for several years. So what did we miss? A choice of stages (Cambridge has three)…but it did give us the time to get on the bikes and see something of the locality. The beer tent had no peanuts…something I can never understand; the food was not as good (Senor Moon’s veggie chili…); and we missed Proper Records and the musical instrument stalls. But the camp site was quiet (excepting stereo toddlers who whined unfettered from pre-6am), there were hot free showers on site, and the music :). More of that tomorrow…

I will be publishing loads of images on here and on my flickr stream. Some might even be nae bad. Here’s a taster of my out-takes (as opposed to the polished, beaming, rule-of-thirds…yep, you’re so right..whaaaat???)… Oysterband’s touring guitarist Dan Donnelly in full flight…