After 32 years of folk-festival drought on the banks of the Avon, the anticipation was dripping off the walls of Colston Hall on Royal Wedding day. Rather than bounce through every band, singer, dancer that BRoutes had the pleasure or otherwise of standing (or sitting - more in a moment) through, the proposal is to pick a few disparate highlights, to laud Bellowhead's set to the skies, and to be somewhat less than complimentary about Seth Lakeman. Patron he may have been, for which many thanks, but he might as well have screamed out "HELLOOOOO BRRRISTOL!" during his trudge-rock set. To follow in future postings.
For the moment, given that Bristol Folk Fesitval has excitingly announced it'll be back in 2012, a couple of points on the venue.
An indoor festival was always going to be difficult to pull off, particularly on one of the warmest May Bank Holiday weekends on record and particularly because nobody ever appears to have worked how to air-condition the Colston Hall. That comes with the territory. But whoever decided to keep the front stalls seating down all the way through until the ceilidh on the third day has some questions to answer. Athene Roberts, fiddler with the frenetic 3 Daft Monkeys, was (uncharacteristically) close to despair when gazing out across row upon row of seated philosophers. A brave few cantered down the mid-seating aisle, but a 3DM gig needs you up and pogoing, not knocking into the back of someone's chair. When the seating was finally removed on day three, the breath of release was audible.
More difficult to solve may be the conundrum of the smallest stage, right up at the terrace bar on the third floor. Serendipity is part and parcel of festival-going. But the happenstance of wandering into the wonderful unknown is difficult to achieve when you have to make the conscious decision to climb up to a part of the venue where there may be no other reason to go there. On the third day, a ceilidh band set itself up by the main bar on the second floor, competing with the earnest singer-songwriters upstairs, which may provide some kind of answer - use the second floor bar... Or perhaps setting up a few of the merchants' stalls on the third floor could help draw bigger crowds up to the terrace bar. Festival-folksters love a bit of between-set shopping. Thoughts would be appreciated.
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