Reviews
Wath Festival 2008
Wed 30.04.08 - Mon 05.05.08
Montgomery Hall
Wath-Upon-Dearne, Rotherham
There's an extraordinary sense of a community spirit that you couldn't fail to absorb upon arriving in the Montgomery Square area of Wath-upon-Dearne on a May bank holiday weekend. You may choose to join the festivities right at the very beginning, attending one of the Eric Sampson Schools Concerts, which take place sometime during the midweek period leading up to the bank holiday weekend. You may on the other hand choose to come along early on Friday evening, plying for one of the best seats in the house for the first of the five concert sessions, which would no doubt feature one of your favourite names on the folk and acoustic scene. You may even decide to skip all that and just come along with guitar in hand to attend the final informal session at the Sandygate on bank holiday Monday afternoon. Either way, you would be guaranteed a community atmosphere and a friendly face to meet and greet you. So carefully planned is the running order at the Wath Festival these days, that satisfaction is almost guaranteed for all.
The festival, which is organised by several passionate souls who collectively share one single vision, which is to bring this tangible sense of community to a wider audience, celebrates thirty-five years of its existence and its popularity grows year upon year.
Centred around Montgomery Hall, the festival has grown over the years to the extent of including a large marquee for various children's events, tucked away nicely behind Montgomery Hall, the main venue for all the festival concerts, and just a short distance away from yet another concert venue up on Sandygate Hill. The Sandygate Hotel, would be the ideal place to grab a bite to eat whilst taking in performances from additional invited artists such as up and coming acts like Jamie Roberts and Katriona Gilmore, Charlie Barker, the Jon Chapman Trio, Tim Eveleigh and Kayla Kavanagh. There's every chance you might also get to see one of the main acts up close and personal, who will be appearing on the main stage at some point during the weekend. This year for instance, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan made such an appearance on Saturday afternoon.
Between the town centre and the Parish church, where bread buns would be traditionally hurled from the tower at precisely twelve noon, you are likely to witness a variety of traditional dances, street performances and workshops, appealing to spectators of all ages, whether they be visitors to the festival, local townsfolk or just curious passers by. If you're at a loose end on May bank holiday weekend, where better than at the Wath Festival to be?
I wasn't at a loose end over the weekend. On the contrary, I'd been looking very much forward to this year's festival for a good twelve months since attending the last one and so becoming an instant convert. Upon arriving, I did what most festival goers do, that is to carefully scan the programme to see exactly who I might see and who I might miss due to scheduling cross-overs. Suffice to say, this festival is geared towards ensuring a ticket holder doesn't miss much at all.