Beardy Folk Festival Is Go
17th - 20th September
As with so many other music fans, a large chunk of twenty nineteen was spent planning out what music festivals to put in the calendar, what leave to book, which ones to cover, which ones just to go to and what festivals to help at/put on.
There was already a bit of a cloud at the start of twenty twenty with Corona Virus beginning to appear on the distant horizon. We got lucky and managed to squeeze in Love Folk and the accompanying Busk Love Folk going ahead and then it was all systems go for Fatea and Laurel Canyon's Spring Fest in April, except it didn't happen.
Like so many other early season festivals it fell victim to lockdown, was hastily rearranged for September and finally cancelled. Longstanding Summer Festivals, Glastonbury, Cambridge, Sidmouth etc. also fell victim, fingers were crossed that at least something would survive as hope after hope faded and then the rearranged dates for Beardy Festival were confirmed, September 17th to September 20th is going to be festival time and with most of the original bill intact.
Needless to say we found ourselves having a chat with festival organiser Dave Spire about the how, what, where and why. Beardy Folk Festival as a beacon of hope.
"We've had a number of things running for us and the first of those is our risk manager. He's got plenty of experience and works for the NHS in his day job, which means he's already worked with a lot of the pitfalls. We must have walked the site hundreds of times, refining, changing, sorting out the people flows. Big questions needed asking where do you put the toilets so that they are easily accessible and able to be cleaned and refreshed easily, how do people get to the music from the camp site, where do the queues for food go, all of it had to be revisited. There's still going to be a great selection of food and drink on site and a drink card to bulk buy and cut down on using cash.
Fortunately we also have a site that makes it easy to adapt, there's only going to be two stages, one inside the walled garden and one outside it, with a new bar in place to cut down on the requirement to move around the site to get refreshment, add to that a team of volunteers that are like a big family all helping to ensure guests know what to do and where to go."
One of the big elephants in the room is Corona virus, which raised a number of questions, it's not just about social distancing and reduced capacity even a very quick scan of the music groups on social media identifies a gulf between music fans chomping at the bit to get out there and others, sometimes in the same family being a bit more risk averse, were there any surprises?
"Well, we're operating at twenty percent of our licensed capacity to ensure that we can manage the space safely, but yes there have been some surprises. There are people that say they will be giving this year a miss. Often it's not for them, other family members or friends might be at greater risk, so part of it is showing solidarity with them, but there are also a lot of people that definitely want, need, to get out there and get in some live music to help with their own health. People are still cautious they've bought into events that, through no fault of the organisers, have had to cancel and that causes worry. From the point of view of an organiser I'm worried, Beardy is part of a festival season, not a one off we're lucky, we're happening, next year the worry is who might still be around."
That naturally lead into the next question, with capacity reduced to twenty percent, just how viable does that make it?
"Beardy isn't a big band festival, yes there's bands to make sure the evenings end with a bang , but we have an audience that listens to music. Folk music works really well with smaller numbers, four can be considered a big band, there are a lot of very exciting acts that are trios, duos and solo artists and that really helps with the logistics. Its not just the bands, people forget that a lot of the food stalls, hire companies, toilet companies all really on the festival season to make their money they need to be out there working as well. We had to look very carefully at the figures to ensure that it worked for everyone."
A quick view of the festival line up shows just what a fantastic job Dave Spire and the Beardy team have done in ensuring that they've put together a festival that works for everyone. There's a fantastic blend of the more established acts as well as the rising stars. As I write this, there are still a very limited number of tickets left, don't blame me if they're all gone by the time you read it. IO asked Dave if there was anything else that he thought you might need, there was a short pause.
Don't forget to bring a chair.
For full details as to who is playing, ticket prices etc, see www.beardyfolkfestival.co.uk)
The Gigspanner Big Band - Awake Awake
Fatea Showcase Sessions
The Fatea Showcase Sessions are a series of downloads featuring acts that we've really enjoyed and think that more people should get the chance to hear.
Corsair is the current session and features 16 fantastic artists check out the website to find out more about them and download your copy
www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk for all the artist information.
