Cherry Hinton Blues

Occasionally Updated. Rarely Rated.

Monday, August 01, 2005

The Girl Who Couldn't Do Any Wrong

Yep, it was another cracking Cambridge Folk Festival. There can't be a better music festival in the UK, can there? Everyone seems to have such a good time, there's no trouble, and the atmosphere simply couldn't be any more relaxed. So, what were the highlights? Kate Rusby was as adorable as ever, and launched her new album The Girl Who Couldn't Fly a month ahead of it being in the shops. Needless to say, plenty of us (several hundred, in fact) were besotted enough to queue up for over an hour to get their CDs signed:

Also memorable from the weekend, for me anyway, were KT Tunstall, who justifies the hype, and Idlewild, who played a low-key, small-stage "acoustic" set, very different from their performance supporting REM which I caught a couple of weeks back. The Peatbog Faeries were fantastic too. I didn't like everyone (Jimmy Webb was hard work, and Martha Wainwright didn't live up to the reviews), but that's what festivals are all about. My only criticism this year was the number of bands only performing once over the weekend who were scheduled against each other (Proclaimers vs Peatbog Faeries, Christy Moore vs Idlewild, etc). Better planning next time please.

Less than 24 hours after the event, and the fences are already down, the concession stands have gone, and as I look out of my bedroom window, our park is well on the way to being back to normal. Roll on next year!

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