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Great British Folk Festival

Venue: Butlins
Town: Skegness
Date: 2nd-4th December
Website: http://www.bigweekends.com

Sunday

Whilst Jane Taylor is signing albums the stage is being prepared for the man who is arguably the best known folk singer of his generation, Seth Lakeman, who, it has to be said, has taken folk music to a wider audience than most. His band includes the third Lakeman, Sean, on guitar. Thinking about it if Sean's partner Kathryn Roberts had sneaked onto a stage, the whole of the Equation would have been on stage during the weekend.

Seth's set turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment, especially compared to the other times I'd seen him. It didn't seem to have the natural flow of previous gigs. I tried putting my finger on what the problem was, too many instruments seemed to be the answer. Seth played a lot of different instruments during the set and it sort of broke the flow. You got into where he was going and would stop and change instruments, it felt frustrating.

With the likes of Benji Kirkpatrick in the band it's also un-necessary, let Benji work on the instrument changes and concentrate of building the atmosphere, that or tie a few more songs with the same instruments together to avoid too much stop start.

Judging by the tightness of the audience on the flat floor in front of the stage, it appears that I may have been part of a minority opinion. One thing I definitely can't fault is the enthusiasm that went into the songs, similarly the band and Seth gave them everything they needed. It's not that I didn't enjoy it, I just thought it was a little stop start.

I had intended my next band of the evening to be back at Centre Stage, watching the Dylan Project to bring to a close my first Great British Folk Festival, it didn't quite work out like that. As I was picking up my camera rucksack I sneezed and sent my back into spasm. A large part of the next stint of the festival is spent lying on a hard floor back at the apartment doing exercises to get my back back into shape.

I really enjoyed my first Great British Folk Festival, despite this being only the second one, they've got most of it right. With a few tweaks there's the potential to raise it from a good folk festival into a great one. I already get the feeling it's going to become part of the fixtures and fittings and the traditional end to the folk festival season.

Personally I'd open up JAKS in the evening as an emerging artists stage. Open up Reds in the afternoon to provide a wider choice, have someone busk the queue, maybe a ceilidh or busking stage in the Skyline Pavilion and perhaps a workshop or two in the bars, but that may all be for next year. The Great British Folk Festival was a great way to end 2011 and I wish it all the best for the future.

Many thanks to Dave Hill, Phil and Bev, Jae, Sue and the rest of the Fatea team.

Words & Pictures Neil King