aka Ten nights in Sidmouth and Five nights in Shrewsbury.

Well, this is all a bit late, but the end of the festival season brings other priorities, like ensuring the gazebo is bone dry before winter storage, and scrubbing from windbreaks the red mud of Devon, Shropshire and Herefordshire.

The first return to festivalling came with Ely Folk Festival in mid July. Cannily, the organisers had planned for the eventuality of lockdown not easing quite at the pace hoped, so when it came to pass that full easing was delayed, while others fell by the wayside, Ely was able to go ahead with remaining restrictions. All stages were open air. There were yellow rectangles suitably spaced, in which bubbles could sit; a bird’s eye view must have looked rather like a Zoom conference with everyone talking at the same time. No question, for most, this was their first live music in 16 months and that was joyous, though more so was just meeting people, unplanned, unexpectedly, spontaneously. But dancing was still off the menu, and despite best efforts, little transpired of informal singing sessions.

Sidmouth did not pitch itself as the actual festival, instead dubbing a collection of events as » Continue Reading.