Thursday

Cambridge weekend was it's usual glorious self, bright, sunny and ideal for lounging around listening to great music with friends. Unfortunately the 38th Charles Wells Cambridge Folk Festival was a weekend later than usual. During that intervening week there was rain and thunderstorms and Nick, one of the site's photographers managed to put his back out.
We arrived on site on the Thursday following a glorious lunch, in bright sunshine to discover parts of the site were a trifle damp. For the first time I could remember, there was water pooling in parts of the site and bark had been laid to protect the sodden ground.
Did it matter? Not one iota, this was Cambridge and people were here to enjoy themselves. There were so many tents up by the time we arrived it was difficult to believe that it was still only Thursday.
A quick glance around quickly confirmed that in terms of layout not much had changed. The final preparations were being made to ensure the Radio Two Stage and the Club Tent were ready for the evening.
Time for the first pint of the festival, traditionally served in a Cambridge Festival Tankard. This activity also took us close enough to the food mall to see what was happening there. The donut stall appeared to have been replaced by a kebab stall, which I thought I might check out later.
For the time being it was time just to chill out and look for those old familiar faces amongst the general people watching.
Pretty soon it would be time to make the first music decision of the festival, Ben Waters or The Broken Family Band. Ben had played the legion just 'round the corner recently so it was the Broken Family Band that won out.
So it was off to the Club Tent. There was time to meet up with Graeme Surtees, Rob Williamson and Raoul Plimer, the crew that makes sure the whole thing works. These are the guys that have got to turn around more acts than the rest of the stage crews added together.
In the end it turned out to be the right choice. It wasn't just the Broken Family Band, it was the band plus guests. Like the band themselves a number of the guests were from the local Cambridge scene, but some had come from further afield.
The Broken Family Band have been going for about a year and fall closest to the sound that's been described as alt. country. The sound was good and the songs well crafted. Rob Jackson, who would be playing the next set joined, them on stage for a number.
The next guest was a bit more of a surprise, Inga Thompson of Drop The Box. It seemed a long way for her to come down from the Shetlands for just one song, but it was definitely worth it.
I caught up with Inga outside later. It turns out that as well as being in Drop The Box, she's also joined another band, Harem Scarem(?) that have an album out in September that should be worth looking out for.
Rob Jackson was up next, but as he was up against Chip Taylor with Carrie Rodriguez and John Platanias the chances of me staying around to catch he set, were, unfortunately, pretty close to zero. Time for a change of stage.