Now that's out the way onto the good stuff, of which there was lots.
We wanted to help put up the trailer tent but Stan & Kas have it down to such a fine art now that's it slows them down to explain what we can do, so we pottered & helped where we could, with everything looking ship shape by about 9am I think.
Now Tara & I have tried to start a Cropredy tradition of bringing scones, jam and cream for all to start things off, we did this again today with extra strawberries & raspberries & Kas brought clotted cream. We even found some wheat free scones for Tara & Matt so all could tuck in. The next traditional event entails Dan, Matt & Tom going into the village to busk for a while & Stan, Kas Tara & I make our way to the cricket pavilion so they can meet up with old festival friends, the first pint of the festival is partaken which is the excellent Hook Norton Brewery 'Old Hooky' ( coke for Kas !) and then a 'scratch' Morris side is put together & they do a couple of dances. Kas met for the first time a friend she had on FaceBook relating to Croppers but had never met before, a very decent chap called Ian.
I running away with the story abit as poor old Chris & Ceri were still enroute after a litany of disasters made them much later than planned & unable to camp with us. I admire their tenacity as I think I'd have given up & gone home by now! However they made it!
Made our way to the arena field our pitch held by Tara until we arrived with chairs etc, Stan however gave the day up as a bad job & remained at the camper & went to bed early.
Opening act is traditionally an acoustic set by Fairport Convention followed by an interesting collection of old loons called Gryphon. Medieval Prog Rock if you can get your head round that. They weren't bad as it happens, especially the crumhorn, wielded by a bloke who looked like an electrocuted Catweazle! CoCo & the Butterfields were good but Hayseed Dixie were brilliant & probably my fave set of the whole gig. Any band who can do a country & western/bluegrass version of 'Ace of Spades' & 'Highway to Hell' aren't 'arf bad pop pickers! Madness rounded off day one & they are definitely a great festival band. The bar serves Wadworths 6X, a fine brew, supplemented by wine & bottled beer we'd brought along, my dinner was an Oggie ,basically a Welsh version of a Pasty. My Steak & Stilton Oggie was very nice & Tara had gluten free pasta and sauce.
Back to the camper , eventually, as we wrestled the cart thing back over undulating ground plus a couple of bottlenecks due the amount of people making their way back to tents, camper vans, mobile homes and caravans. Weather was a bit karzi to be honest. We couldn't believe it was going to be wet again. Surely we are due a dry Cropredy!
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| Festival hand and polish! |
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| Scratch Morris side do their thing. |
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| General view of Cricket Pavilion and old git. |
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| Memsahib and self on first night. |
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| Amusing signs on fence near stage. |
None of us were setting alarms or anything like that but nobody rose too late either. Day two started overcast but improved all the time and turned into a really nice hot day. Memsahib, done in from previous days early start and knackering walks plus other stresses of previous days decided to stay at the camper & chill today. Cart & bodies loaded with packs, chairs, bottles, snacks etc we trudged off to the arena field once more.
Not sure whether it was a sellout but the field filled up quicker & earlier this year than the previous two we've been.
First turn on today was Anthony John Clarke & Peggy , the Fairport bass player. An amusing set with some singable songs, I enjoyed them greatly. Next on the BBC Radio Two Young Folk Singer of the Year, a 17year old playing Hamish Moore Smallpipes (abit like Northumbrian pipes) called Brighde Chaimbeul (neither to I so don't ask!) from the Isle of Skye, alittle obscure for my taste but not bad. Sound of the Sirens were two girls from Devon who were quite good, I missed the next act as I returned to the camper to see Tara. Glad to say she was chilling nicely & could feel waves of angst and negativity lifting from her. So I poured her a Hooch. Probably the worst thing in my opinion about camping is lack of washing facilities in particular showers. There was showers provided. Sixteen shared by getting on for twenty thousand people so I was pleasantly surprised only to have to queue for 20 minutes or so before I could shower. It felt great!
Refreshed & squeaky clean I left Tara & returned to the arena field. Willie and the Bandits weren't bad , their influences being Cream & Hendrix though Kas thought they were more Fleetwood Mac. Then came a band I really wanted to like, Headspace, their keyboard player is Adam Wakeman son of no less a rock luminary than Rick. If their set hade been half the length it was I'd have thought they were great but being prog rock it had to go on! The frontman Damian Wilson was very energetic, jumping on and off the stage & even singing while milling about in the crowd at one point. He had a powerful voice and used it to good effect, I take it he too enjoyed the Cropredy vibe as I saw him next day taking in the festival.
I have never seen Steeleye Span before ,I've got quite a few of their albums, and albums from Maddy Prior & I was looking forward to them. They were OK but , again in my humble opinion, their song choice was rather dull. There's lots of great songs to join in with but they didn't seem to choose them, thank gawd they played 'All around my hat' which I could bellow out. Tara was convinced she could hear me from the camper!
This evenings gastronomic delights were from the Northfield Farm stand offering various burgers ,sausages etc from their own animals, all top quality stuff and it tasted like it. I had a sausages in a bun tonight with a side of chips. Absolutely delicious. With recommendations from Rick Stein and Clarissa Dickson-Wright I couldn't go far wrong!
Headliners for this evening were The Bootleg Beatles. Got to say they were brilliant & I surprised myself by how many Beatles lyrics I actually knew.
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| Suggs from Madness. |
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| Goodnight! |
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| The excellent Northfield Farms stand. |
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| Dusk. |
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| Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span. I should add a note about my photos, you may notice a strange black mark in mid air, no idea what it is, reckon it must be something inside my camera as the outside lens looks fine.
So the final day of the festival dawned. All on parade today which was great, made our way to the field for midday to catch Richard Digance who regularly starts proceedings on Saturday. He's quite amusing & always gets everyone on their feet to make the biggest Morris dance side in the world. Not sure whether this has ever been challenged! Can remember nothing of substance about the following two turns, Maia & then Gilmore & Roberts. Not because of an alcoholic haze but generally just chatting, chilling, walking with Stan to the bar and back. Demon Barbers XL were good , with added Morris, Clog & also Street Dancers. They were abit different ,I liked!
Pierce brothers were awesome! Two Aussie lads who have been busking their way round Europe & after this gig off back home. They left the stage to tumultuous applause & even got a little emotional to the Cropredy crowds response to them. They were very good! Babylon Circus came and went , I did like them but it was a mix of Ska and sort of Indie and lordy knows what else. Now I know this will be considered heresy but I though Ralph McTell was abit boring. He did 'Streets of London' luckily so all could join in.
At some stage we had our eats. Tara had a gluten free quiche and I headed straight for the Northfield Farm stall again this time for an excellent cheese burger, lovely!
As Cropredy is masterminded by Fairport Convention, as well as opening the festival they also close it this time with all the bells and whistles of electric instruments and a proper drumkit for Gerry Conway. They end their set with the song 'Meet on the ledge' which by tradition (there's alot of tradition about Croppers) everybody belts out & links arms al la 'Auld Lang Syne.' That wraps up the whole event. It was great, our third festival will testify to that though we are still playing at it compared to the others who are well into double figures with Matt coming here everyone one of his 21 years!
Bed and asleep by about 2am & up 9 ish for breaky, then we broke camp. Said our goodbyes, by far the worst bit & headed home. Dropped Tom enroute & arrived back about 3.15pm to a much improved and freshly painted kitchen courtesy of Kevin.
Brilliant few days as always though we probably won't be able to get to next years which is a shame as its the 50th Anniversary because we are saving our pennies to go and see Alec & Laura who will be in Australia by then, with abit of luck the Pierce Brothers will be playing a local venue to them!
Please do follow this link to the Cropredy Blog run by Tom, Dan and Matt. They have uploaded songs and interviews with performers and spectators alike. Link : http://youtube.com/cropredyblog you'll also find them on FaceBook. It's very interesting!
 General view of the crowd looking up the field.
Stan near Mecca (ok the bar!) getting the beers in.
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