Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Wellyfest Lives Up To Its Name, Again.

Another Wellington Folk Festival has come and gone. As is usual for any event anywhere in country on this long weekend, weather is unpredictable and indifferent to what's best for your event. The Brookfields site this year boasted frost, wind, sun (a little), rain, some more rain and above all, mud. Daunted we were not.
Pat higgins writes:
"Thanks Wellington Folk Festival Organisers. We had a great weekend, in spite of the cold on Friday night and the rain on Saturday night. Very good mud-co-ordination this year, really good quality and distribution.
"The old-Timey crew from Virginia were great (Martha Spencer and Jackson Cunningham), they do great authentic mountain music, the real stuff, great frailing, dancing guitar picking and mandolin playing.
"Had some nice sessions late into the night.
"In my opinion the Wheeze and Suck band while fine harmony singers, don't really make the grade. I've seen better pub bands round Dublin. I'd stay for the whole gig, if they just sang a capella.
"Enjoyed Ian Goodsman on the slide guitar, learnt a lot from his workshop and playing.
"The coffee was disappointing this year.
"The Balladeer was a great success, nice warm atmosphere. Also the Spooky Mens Chorale were fantastic, Loved their monumental self-aggrandistic style. So much so we went to their "Monday night concert in town. What a delight, great to experience man-firmation.
"Lovely to see so many talented and well-behaved teenagers in the mix. There was no rubbish I could see left in the top field, and we were last out. Thanks Organisers for all the hard work to deliver such a great event."
Have to agree with all of that. Especially the coffee. It was all there - just needs a good barista.

The layout of the site requires that all traffic (foot and vehicle) travel through some pinch points and these are the areas that always become quagmires. Perhaps a little pre-emptive maintenance could bulk these areas up a bit. The stage looked a lot better this year with blacks extending above neck height (otherwise the Spooky Men would've looked like so many disembodied bobbing heads!).

Congratulations to Gerard and the crew - another one down in style!
Mike Moroney
(Photo by Gerard Hudson)

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