Cambridge Folk Festival 2011 Sunday

Last day today and the weather is beautiful- blue skies and fluffy clouds and so warm! Just time to swim at the Leisure Centre before catching the bus to the site for a Fisherman's Friends  workshop in the club tent at 10.00am. When I arrived there was already a queue to go in, with a few disgruntled people grumbling that more than so many people had turned up. Strange- it wouldn't be a workshop if only a couple of people turned up, would it?

Anyway, we all had a lovely time singing along to sea shanties in the down to earth humorous way I've come to expect from the Fisherman's Friends. No frills or fancies, just good old fashioned community singing- just the thing for a Sunday morning!

After they'd ended with a 'stripped back' version of Bellowhead's New York Girls it was off to the Folknet Cafe for breakfast and a bit of blogging before going over to the Mojo signing tent for Peatbog Faeries to sign my copy of their new album 'Dust'. I'd happily have paid the £12 just for the one track I'd heard -the Naughty Step- but more of that later. I could the Spooky Men singing again and wandered over to the back of Stage Two where they were running a children's workshop- very entertaining watching the children watching the Spooky Men doing the actions for their beard song!

On the way over to Stage One I heard Simon and Garfunkel songs coming from the beer tent and discovered Passenger giving an impromptu performance. A reminder to catch up with him in the Den later.


Port Isaac's Fishermen's Friends put in another great performance on Stage One, their second of the day. I loved the applause for the Port Isaac World Heritage status, before the audience realised it was joke. The whole show was like that. Relaxed banter, loads of songs and the ability to get grown men in their fifties (the audience, not the band themselves!) pretending to be sailors and doing action songs!

A quick exit- well, quick in Cambridge terms- as I nipped over picnic blankets and chairs to see Damien O' Kane in Stage Two; this was a real treat, with the master of the bodhran JohnJoe Kelly, Ed Boyd (guitar) and
Duncan Lyall (double bass) all in his band. Kate Rusby was watching from the side and applauding as he played a tune he wrote when their daughter was only a couple of days old.

 Emily Smith was next, with Duncan Lyall and Brian Finnegan joining her on stage. Emily sings traditional folk songs from Scotland as well as writing her own material and I sat outside in the sunshine listening to her.

Then it was back to the Den to see Passenger, who , I think, may well be my favourite performer at this festival. He sings sad sensitive songs like 'Words' with lyrics like 'sometimes no words are the right words to say' that could potentially be maudlin and miserable but in his hands become something different. It's impossible not to emotionally engage , not to feel sad, even tearful, but that's the sign of a truly great performer. He is charming and eloquent- able to get the audience on their feet and joining in with 'Holes'  but also singing 'The Sound of Silence' with such intensity and  passion that there was stillness in the air. Passenger gigs loads and generally busks in the town he is performing in during the day. Go and see him, and spread the word. You won't regret it.

After that engaging performance I was disappointed by Villagers on Stage Two. I've got the album and saw him last year at Meltdown, where he was energetic and passionate, but there was no sign of this at Cambridge.After a couple of songs I left for the colour and flamboyant dancing show that belonged to Femi Kuti,listening to his impassioned views on Africa and politics before getting dinner from the very good veggie stall handily positioned between the beer tents.

As I went into Stage One for the last time, it was hard to believe that Cambridge was nearly over for another year. It seems to have gone really quickly, yet at the same time been the most relaxed ever, with people milling around for Mary Chapin Carpenter, some even sitting down in the marquee instead of squashing to the front to hear her. Maybe the weather was responsible for the sparse crowd inside, with many preferring to make the most of the last of the sunshine outside. Mary had just flown in, presumably from America, and blamed her jet lag for appearing confused. I didn't notice it, her time on stage flying by and soon her audience left, to make away for the generally much younger Laura Marling fans.

 Unfortunately, by the time the crowd settled into their new positions I found myself tucked behind two guys, each being about 6'4, so I could do little more than glimpse Laura from time to time. She's still the slight elfin faced girl I remember from three years ago, still with that big voice, but she seems more at ease with her fame and well, just more grown up and confident I suppose. 'Rambling Man' was as good as it sounds recorded, Laura commenting that Cambridge was the only festival where she could perform acoustically like this, but stand out song for me was 'All My Rage'.

Last band of the night (again) and of the festival were Peatbog Faeries, fresh from their triumph the previous evening. Everyone seemed really excited waiting- Laura Marling had been late finishing so PBF fans had been arriving during the last songs of her set- and the stage crew tried really hard to turn things around as quickly as possible. However, within seconds of the Peatbogs beginning to play it was apparent there was something majorly wrong with the sound- there just wasn't any. The band seemed as upset and confused as the crowd, who were shouting 'We can't hear' and 'Turn it up'. I can only imagine what it looked like from stage- an audience pointing and shouting and definitely not having a good time.

Fortunately, there was a happy ending. The band, having been forced to stop while the crew sorted things out, returned to the stage to play their hearts out, trying to cram as much as possible into what remained of their little stage time, with Peter Tickell removing his tshirt only adding to the excitement!

What a way to end Cambridge 2011!