Festival Frisby

One of my loves each year, and the great bonus's of a Cambridge festival, is that you are never too far from the music. Waking on Friday morning knowing there's a good six hours 'til the stage music begins, you can wander the stalls and eat soggy burgers, or do as I did and be delighted by some of the acts playing under the trees, in the Guinness tent, or on campsite. Amateur musicians and professionals alike, take great pleasure from playing to the smaller crowds - some come to Cambridge purely for this experience and they're to be warmly encouraged.

One of the bands delighting crowds this year, as in past years, were the Fabulous Bonker Boys.

First on stage on Friday was a Musician's Union stage skills workshop in the Club tent, hosted by Martin Carthy. I would have loved to see him play one of the bigger stages this year, and as he muddled through and answered some pretty inane questions from the crowd, I'm sure he felt the same. Nonetheless, and questions aside, Martin gave us some great songs, told us some interesting and enlightening stories of his first performances back in the 60's, and appeared in fine voice.

Having settled in to the Club tent, it seemed an ideal opportunity to sample some of the emerging talent of the Cambridge Folk Club (www.cambridgefolk.f9.co.uk). Notable acts of the afternoon were Pete Cross, who I have no doubt we'll see more of in future festivals, Empty Vessels, Paul Goodwin and Mark Gamon all gave impressive performances.

My first visit to the Main stage of the festival, saw the evening's performance by American artiste Ani Difranco. To many, Ani is still an unknown force. If you had never heard any of Ani's songs before Cambridge, you may have been left with a rather vague impression of her after the performance.

Those who caught her early enough, and have sampled several of the 13 self-produced albums in her career, knew they were watching a vastly talented singer / songwriter and guitarist. Ani seems to travel at the speed of light through most of her songs. If you didn't know the lyrics, frankly you would've had a hard time keeping up and consequently felt left out in the cold. I did see some fans singing along gallantly towards the front of crowd, but most seemed bemused.

I have to say I like Ani immensely, and she was one of the reasons I decided to be at Cambridge, but as it turned out, this for me wasn't the performance of the festival.