All I know is that they always do a good rest-of-the-set, and they did a perfect Sunday afternoon set this year, closely followed by an even more perfect set by Keb’ Mo’. Once again, an artist I’ve seen before but could never fault, crude jokes and all. The female constituent’s (excluding myself and Beth) in my party squealed a lot through his show, as per always, and the men laughed in a manly fashion to his crude jokes, as men tend to do… I, still massaging my poor poor feet from the day before, sat on the floor, exhausted, and listened intently to a fine display of guitar playing.

Asleep At The Wheel were one of those bands that you “discover” at Cambridge Festival (always a few of those). To be honest, country music is not my bag. But they went through the well-loved Ralph-family driving-music repertoire of Bob Wills, Louis Jordan, Bing Crosby, Chuck Berry and the like. Almost every cover that Asleep At The Wheel did has been sang along to very loudly on our way to various family holidays at some point or another during my lifetime, and being the unashamed individuals that we are, we did our very best to drown out the band with our own versions.

The moment I most noticed the difference between my teenage presence and that of the hardened veteran folkies, was during Ralph McTell. I was right at the front of Stage 1, and don’t get me wrong, I thought he was exceptional. But nature does tend to call at unfortunate moments, and I was forced to crawl my way through the packed marquee to the toilets, only to collide with more than a few bearded Guinness-wielding Ralph-fanatics who tutted and sighed and made comments about “the kids not appreciating him” and “not another one not interested!”. I don’t want this to turn into a pro-teenager rant, but if they were about to combust, I wouldn’t have made comments about “the wrinklies just don’t get such great musicianship!” Whilst I find everyone Cambridge Folk Festival probably the most accommodating collective of music-fans I’ve ever known, I think there’s a few folk-fanatics who don’t appreciate the youth of today with our less rootsy palettes. However, the toilet/Ralph McTell incident was the only moment I noticed this.

Mariza, I missed seeing but heard her over the speakers from a distance (blame the spicy wedgies and chilli stall this time!), so I think I missed the true Mariza-hair/crazy-dancing/face-pulling experience, sadly. Luckily, I managed to fight my way back to the front for Beth Orton, socks and all, who went through all her classics as well as lots of new material. In fact, Beth Orton was probably my other highlight of the weekend, purely in the sense that she single-handedly held everyone’s attention so raptly. Plus her bad-mouth was more adorable than offensive. Besides, she was outstanding.

I even managed to catch a couple of minutes from both The Dixie Hummingbirds (finally arriving after their delayed flights) and even Cambridge-favourite Eliza Carthy managed to sneak her way onstage for a 2-minute performance, despite not being on the bill.

All in all, Cambridge Folk Festival 2004 was my best yet (I’ve already said that, but it deserves being repeated for dramatic-purposes) and, as always, didn’t disappoint once. I would recommend it to anybody to go; I’ll be there again. If you can’t spot me, I’m the one with the embarrassing dancing parents and the spicy wedgiesith chilli. See you next year!

Alice Ralph