Get Out More.............................................Festival Review

BELPER MUSIC FESTIVAL

04-06-2008

While Glastonbury was hogging the headlines and taking up screen time, Simon Gray was hanging out with the folkies at Belper Rugby Club in Derbyshire.

I went to Glastonbury once, in 1990. I actually played at it, but since the reality of that experience is much less impressive than how it might sound, I'll just leave that comment as is. But my basic point is, I had the 'Glastonbury Experience' once, and once was all I needed - and especially in later years the price is far too expensive (though undeniably still representing excellent value), and there's just plain far too many people there.

Moving on many years later, it was during a chance visit to Matlock Bath that I picked up a flyer for the first Belper Music Festival. 'That looks like it could be fun', we thought, 'especially for £30 for a weekend ticket'. And, unlike Glasto - which it always seems to coincide with - we've gone back again and again, with this, in its fourth year delivering the same high quality we've all got used to since it started.

Broadly, the festival programming is seated within the genre of Folk -though attracting acts from further afield such as Leeds, Wales, and Cambridge, it showcases mostly bands local to the Derbyshire area. And from that, you can conclude that just as Manchester is the home of Indy, Bristol is the home of TripHop, then clearly Derbyshire is the home of Folk.

I'd be lying if I were to say every single band who played were totally to my taste, but it's certainly an undeniable fact that every band was absolutely top notch - both in terms of accomplishment on their instruments, and musical sensitivity.

Highlights of the festival for me had to be, in order of performance, Ylem, playing music from the broader European folk tradition, Wholesome Fish, described in the programme as 'Acid Folk-Punk Anarcho-Funsters' but to me more of a Cajun-influenced folk rock band, Hedgepig, playing more overtly traditional Scots / Irish folk rock, and the mighty R. Cajun and the Zydeco Brothers.

And a separate mention surely must go to one of my all time favourite bands, Loscoe State Opera - firmly rooted in the folk traditions of the British Isles but quite definitely doing 'folk with rock' rather than merely folk rock, they are everything the Levellers could have been but weren't. Yes, that's what I'm saying, a band way ahead of the festival favourites of the 90s.

A nice touch in programming was Sunday afternoon, ending the festival in relaxed frame of mind with an acoustic concert, including an unaccompanied mixed voices choir and traditional folk session bands; the hardest decision being at what point to miss an act in order to pack the tent away!

The challenges ahead for the organisers though have to be how to develop the festival further for the future - on the one hand preserving what is special about it (one of those things being keeping the numbers to a level manageable enough to make it feel intimate), whilst on the other hand allowing it to grow and stay fresh and ahead of the game.

At one point the compere Ben Daglish emphasised the principle that it's the Belper Music Festival, but I wonder if more workshop activities, allowing participants to learn a bit about the music they're hearing, or other participation such as having one band run a full-on ceilidh session would be beneficial in helping the festival grow from strength to strength?

Either way, Belper is only an hour away from Birmingham on the train -so Belper Music Festival is unarguably too close to miss!

Read more by Simon at www.star-one.org.uk ~ www.pandaeggs.org.uk

More pics from Simon' trip to Belper here

Seen something you want to share with other readers? Contact editor@thestirrer.com

DISCUSS THIS ON THE STIRRER FORUM