It was Moniaive folk festival at the weekend. Moniaive is a village in Dumfries & Galloway in the south west of Scotland, and along with the folk festival also has a bluegrass, a blues and a guitar festival. Not bad eh?
we played at the guitar festival last year, so were looking forward to the folk festival. On the drive down to Moniaive from Glasgow it didnt look too good as heavy rain, high winds and even sleet buffeted the car, so we were starting to rethink our camping plans. Incredibly though, Moniaive was swaythed in bright sunshine, which although pleasant to look at must have been that new kind of freezing cold sun that you seem to get a lot in Scotland these days. We got the tent up fast as though while the rain stayed off which left a handflu of minuted to get to our firt gig of the day in the local cafe / tearoom. Acts had been playing 15/20 minute slots all Saturday afternoon and the place was packed to the gunnels and we got there bang ontime to start and very pleaant it was too with folk sitting around drinking tea / coffee / fruit infusions and with no amplfication to worry about, the whole thing had a nice intimacy. And so far not a single beer consumed. On the Saturday of a folk festival i ask you.
Earnestly singing in the Green Tea Room
Our night time show was in the Memorial Hall which was great as the old hall was turned into a club for the night and the sound by Sound Travels was excellent. After we went for wonder around to see if we could get in about any of the pub sessions. We met a lot of old friends and it was a pleasure to meet Neil King, of fatea magazine fame who we have spoken to over the interweb for along time so it was good to finally meet in peron. Moniaive has been called the "coolest village in Scotland" and the realisation set in at about 11 or 12o clock that it certainly was. This was confirmed by a thermometer that showed the temperature was just above freezing, and given we and many others were camping, there was only one thing for it. Get drunk enough to not feel the cold. 5 hours later as were were again sitting in the Green Tea Cafe having a resusitating coffee before dealing with the complexities of sleeping bag this had been nicely achieved and i can honetly say i did not feel the cold.
Frost on our car on Saturday night
Bizarrely enough, although it was freeing when we retired to go to sleep, a handful of very short hours later we woke up due to the tent being like an oven and Sunday brought glorious sunshine. A quick guitar workshop later we hosted the open mic afternoon of which the standard of musican ship and songs was fantastic and then had to leave far too soon as the town looked like it was gearing up for another great night of music. Roll on the next one!
A tractor getting towed out of the campsite on a glorious Sunday afternoon
