The Festival
The festival has developed considerably over it’s 39 years’ history and there is no doubt that this success can only be attributed to the hard work of those involved in the festival’s organisation. This year saw a change in the media liaison team and with it came some welcome improvements for the ladies and gentlemen of the press – shelter from the elements, seats to rest those weary legs and refreshments to keep those precious body-fluid levels up (and put a smile on the face!).
One change came at the detriment of the snappers, however, when they discovered that a camera ‘dolly track’ had been laid in the photographers pit for use by BBC4. At best the snappers couldn’t do their job and at worse there was a health and safety issue. To the credit of the organisers, though, the problem was quickly rectified to everyone’s satisfaction to serve as a good example of the professionalism and hard work of the guys involved.
But all these arrangements aren’t simply a happy accident. I stole a few words with Neil Jones, the festival’s Marketing Manager, to discover a little more about what goes on behind the scenes.
Neil Jones insights us…….
Q: How do your think this year’s festival is going?
A: I think it’s going fantastically! We’ve been extremely lucky with the weather first of all, which is always a huge factor, as anyone who went to last year’s knows. Looking like it was going to be a bit of rainy one at first but the weather’s been absolutely fantastic. The second big hurdle we had was the huge problems we had with traffic last year and we’ve put a new traffic management system in place and it’s work nicely, there’s been hardly any huge problems to report. And then of course, the artists, I think it’s been an absolutely great line up, bands like The Waifs turning out to be real, sort of, festival highlights, unexpected highlights, as well. And of course, the standing in at the 11th hour of Fairport Convention, which we would have loved from the outset to have them, but it’s never actually worked out in terms of planning it right from the outset, they do their own festival so the fact that ours was sold-out and they could stand in at the 11th hour has worked out perfectly and what a coo for the festival, to play it in the 39th year of its history.
Q: So, how did you feel about Linda Thompson being unwell?
A: When you hear of any cancellation you immediately think: “Oh, God!”, but then the replacement happened in such quick succession that it was just a case of “she’s cancelled, oh but, we’ve got…”. So it was kind of real mixed feelings, real disappointment that she couldn’t play and I know there was a lot of people looking forward to seeing her but then kind of, equally, at the same time just real excitement about Fairport.
Q: Has anything else gone wrong?
A: Not to my knowledge, no. I think it’s been…. and we’re sitting on wood, so touch wood ‘cause we’re not through the final day yet… I think it’s been an incident-free festival, which is absolutely fantastic - 10 thousand happy, smiling, dancing people.
Q: Traditionally, the festival sells-out very quickly. How has it gone this year?
A: They went as quick as ever, in fact the weekend tickets sold-out in record time and again, I think we’re so lucky, along-side Glastonbury, we’re one of these festivals, we call it the Glastonbury effect, where we would probably pretty much sell out even if we didn’t announce the bill. People enjoy it, not just the bands who are playing, it’s the Cambridge experience. I mean, we’re a festival that’s right in the middle of a city, which in itself is extremely unusual. So, yeah, demand at the box-office has once again been absolutely phenomenal and we thank all our customers for voting by buying the tickets so quickly and also to say to those people who tried to get tickets: “get in there early next year”, ‘cause it, touch wood, will be the same next year.
Q: Well next year will be the 40th anniversary, what celebrations are planned?
A: In terms of the planning process, all I know is that there will be some surprises, but those surprises are not even planned yet, but I think the fact that we know we need to do surprises they will be planned. I mean, it would be a shame to mark our 40th in just…without doing something a little bit special and they say; “life begins at 40” so life begins for the Cambridge Folk Festival next year!
Q: So how long does it normally take to organise an event like this?
A: In marketing terms, which is my job, given that it is the 40th, I’m already starting to think about next year, believe it or not. The acts tend to get booked right at the beginning of the year, so agents and promoters, we start having serious conversations with them from the turn of the year, sort of January onwards, checking out the availability, checking out who’s got a new product out, who’s going to be in the country and so on, y’know, who we need to fly into the country. So, pretty much straight away, really. We start with a de-brief on this festival, so I guess you could say that that de-brief is the start of the planning process for next year ‘cause we talk about ways of improving things, look at the customers’ comments which are always extremely useful and it really starts from that de-brief, which is a couple of weeks away.
Q: In terms of the artists, do they select you or do you select them?
A: I think it’s a bit of both. I mean Eddie Barcan is the guy who books the acts. It’s a combination of availability, getting in there before other festivals, people actually…there is an element of people queuing up to play the festival so it’s a combination of those three things which usually brings results. We actually struggled a little bit this year, in that we didn’t have a clear, sort of, headliner. In previous years; Robert Plant, Joe Strummer, I mean, we had a big act still to fill but we always maintain that we don’t have a hierarchical bill, if you look at our posters, for example, the bill doesn’t go from the top of the page to the bottom it goes across the page in lines. No one act is any more important than others, people may sell more records than others, people may be more known but that’s not the point of the festival, we don’t actually call them ‘headliners’, although if you have a Robert Plant or a Joe Strummer, the crowd calls them the ‘headliners’. Steve Earle, for example, this weekend is technically the ‘headliner’ but he’s not the last one to go on stage, he’s followed by Shoogelnifty. So it was interesting that this year we had a sort of last minute scurry to get somebody in place and I think that The Saw Doctors and Julian Cope were the last two acts to be confirmed this year. But as for next year? Who knows, I think it’s gonna have to be someone nice and big!
Q: The festival has been going for 39 years, how did it all begin?
A: You’re asking pretty much the wrong person on that question because I’ve only worked on the last three festivals and I’ve got a basic awareness of the history, but I know that Ken Woolard started it 39 years ago. I was talking to somebody earlier who had been here 21 years ago and he was saying that there was no main stage; there were just a few crates with a few people sitting in front of it. As the years have gone on it has just developed into what it has become now and each year obviously new technology becomes available and new ideas become available and we take it forward. 39 years in Cherry Hinton and long may it continue!
Q: Are there any plans to extend the festival or are you restricted with the size of the site?
A: I think we’re restricted because, I mentioned earlier that we’re in the middle of a city – this is a park in the middle of a city – so there is a finite amount of space and in terms of that, it’s not just the public area you have to have the backstage area, the place to park all the cars, the traders space and stuff, so yeah, we are limited in that respect. I would say that there are no plans to expand it from a geographical perspective, whether we can do anything with it; last year, for example, the first day started at six o’clock, this year I think it started about 2 o’clock so there is the opportunity to expand it in that respect, to do more with the time we’ve got.
Q: Over the years there has been a move away from the real, traditional folk music, has that been deliberate?
A: It has, yeah. We always incorporate the traditional…. I think what’s happened is the audience for the Cambridge Folk Festival now is split. You have the old, traditional ‘folkies’, if I was going to be cruel some people would say; “the bearded type with the tankards” and they are an integral part of the festival, but at the same time it’s now a festival that a range of different people come to and so what we try and do is present a bill that would not alienate any one of those audiences. So you’ve still got traditional folk represented, you’ve still got something a little bit ‘quirky’ like Julian Cope this year, for example, Nick Cave a couple of years ago, something a little bit ‘on the edge’, on the fringe of what folk’s about. And then, the acoustic element, the Americana element, all these elements just to cater for… no matter what kind of off-shoot of folk you’re into, you’re gonna be catered for these days.
Q: The festival is also very family-orientated, isn’t it?
A: I would say that Cambridge Folk Festival is the best family-orientated festival in the country, without a doubt. Not least of all in terms of the facilities, the fact we have a crèche, but also the fact that we programme things for kids to do. There’s workshops where they can learn how to play the violin or stuff like that, and for those kids who can play the violin they can jam with others, but there’s also kids’ ceilidhs that are programmed on the actual stages. So it’s really done with the family audience in mind. It’s one of the safest places to camp as well. It’s the kind of place you can bring a family to for a weekend, enjoy some good music, soak up the sun, have a drink, there’s as much for the kids to do as for the adults.
Q: Your first year in this capacity, Neil, how does it feel to be part of it?
A: It’s good; it’s fantastic to be at the ‘thick’ of it. Last year I was, kinda, out on a limb managing the folk tent and it’s really funny managing the internet café last year when the only music I actually saw was streamed live on Radio2 via the computer. I could hear it behind me but I could only see it on the computer and it was quite strange to be at the festival and watching it on a screen. But this year it’s been fantastic.
Q: Can you actually enjoy it with the amount of responsibility you have, though?
A: I think, as busy as we are, we would all be lying if we said that there’s isn’t a buzz when we stand in the photographer’s pit with you guys and you’re so cross to the band, so close to the action and you’ve got the crowd on one side of you and the artist on the other and you’re literally in the thick of it.
Q: What better job could there be?
A: Exactly, and that’s when you get your buzz.
I’ll second that one!
And So The End Is Nigh
They say that time flies when you’re having fun and judging by the speed at which the festival went by this year, I must have had a blindin’ one! Apart from one little shower, the weather couldn’t have been better, the organisation was first class and, despite my reservations in respect of the line up, there were some very memorable performances.
So will I be here next year? You bet! As Neil said, the festival’s life begins at 40 so next year promises to be the big one and who would want to miss that?
Until then……….
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Signing off Little CAT Diaries 2003
Call CAT on 0780 362 3662
Email: allison@cat.eu.com
Visit: www.catmedia.eu.com
All photos courtesy of Nick Elliott at www.nicksgreatestflix.co.uk