Moniaive Folk Festival It's A Long Way From Woodstock
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Saturday
Saturday starts with a full Scottish breakfast, think an English breakfast with a slice of haggis instead of black pudding, at Causies Cross. I can't think of a better way to start the day at a festival than a decent breakfast. Even in a relatively contained site you would be surprised at how much distance you can rack up during the day.
After a bit of writing up of the previous night, it's time to venture out into the rain for a whirlwind tour of the workshops. Unfortunately I don't get the chance to do one, though for the people that know me would probably be cracking up imagining me taking part in the Irish dance workshop.
My first stop is the Masonic Hall. There's two workshops going on here. Simon Mayor is delivering a mandolin workshop in the main hall. It's well attended and again seems to reflect the success of the festival booking policy. Like the booked bands, the attendees are a good blend of age groups. It's busy but not crowded and everyone is enjoying it.
For some reason, the second session, Robyn Gray's fiddle workshop is going on in the kitchen, rather than in the larger backroom. It's a bit cramped, but seems to be going well. Robyn is one of the younger performers at the festival, but she knows her stuff. Close quarters give her the chance to really see what's going on with people's playing. Again it's a good mix of young and old.
I pop across the road to the Appalachian Dancing workshop in the George. It's quieter than the instrumental ones, maybe the idea of physical exertion before midday is too much for the more indulgent festival goers. They do have the honour of having the youngest attendee though. It looks like it might be good fun and those that didn't make it would appear to have lost out.
Next stop is the Old Bakery, normally a private house, but opened up for two singing sessions. Both appear to be well attended. There's an intense debate going on in the front room as the singers debate the merit of different singing styles and the importance of pronunciation in singing.
The backroom are in the process of doing warm up exercises, which partly includes making faces. The, mainly, women in the room are a little concerned they are going to look silly on camera. Deciding that discretion being the greatest form of valour I beat a retreat to the Irish dancing workshop in the marquee.
Like it's Appalachian cousin, it's quiet at the workshop so I head off to see what's happening at the Music Bus. On the way there I pass a number of people warming up for the piping contest, a lesser known aspect of Moniaive's folk festival.
As I reach the Music Bus the heavens open. It gives me an opportunity to really get underneath the Music Bus and it's objectives. These are covered in a page on the site about the bus, but suffice to say I begin to get a real understanding as to why there are so many good, young musicians hail from the region.
The person running the Music Bus is also the person that's doing the sound for the open mic session at the Masonic Hall. We bite the bullet and head across the village to the Masonic Hall to set up.