49th Towersey Village Festival

Hello again, it has been a while. Recently, I have been to the Towersey Village Festival (TVF- http://www.towerseyfestival.com/). Not as exotic as Dublin, I know, but still an interesting journey. The reason for my visit was due to volunteering on a physics-based stall, but that isn't important. What is important is what I thought of the event.

Background

This was the 49th TVF, which traditionally takes place on the August bank holiday weekend. They didn't seem to worry about larger festivals taking their audience away. The main genre of music was folk, though you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. You didn't have to venture far to find bands performing "gypsy-jazz", reggae and rock n' roll. This all acted to allow new people such as myself to find something new which they enjoyed (for me it was the gypsy-jazz).

Beer (and Food)

If you wanted it to be, you could ensure that this was hardly a sober event. On offer were 20 real ales (at a guess), all from independent breweries around the country. The wonderful thing about independent ales is that if you find a bad one (unlikely), you aren't likely to have it again soon. If you find a good one, well, that's just a bonus. The ales varied in colour and taste, from flaxen to dark, bitter to not-so-bitter. For those who wanted to test their tastebuds, there was an one off ale-tasting event on the Friday morning, which you had to be aware of. It wasn't on the main schedule and had a low capacity, resulting in several people only finding out when it was too late and being turned away.

Food was available, but if you are low on funds then I recommend taking your own. Nothing against the festival itself, it's just festival food prices. Sorry.

Dance

There was wide variety of dancing on offer, ranging from drunken stumbling to waltz. Granted the waltz was part of a ceilidh, but it was there. Ceilidh dancing, for the uneducated (like myself), is a group dance. It involves a lot of spinning, turning and hopping, which means you can get caught up in it very quickly. If you are a novice, like myself, then take the following advice. Have a drink (a real ale perhaps?), turn up nearer the beginning of the event, grab a partner (politely) and just get involved. Believe me, you want to dance in it while you can.

Bands

The bands, as I mentioned previously, was mainly of the folk genre. However, other types were easily available. One of my favourite bands there was called Manière des Bohémiens. They were a gypsy-folk/eastern European swing band, who weren't afraid to suddenly delve into a bit of classical music. I found them to be a refreshingly intense change from the mainstream, who were more than able to get the crowd jumping. They are also all fantastic guys, who were very easy to chat to and to drink with!

                                                                                                       

                                                                

Another band who I enjoyed thoroughly were a band called Orkestra Del Sol. Through the use of brass instruments, which you would normally associate with slow and dull music, they delivered a truly electrifying show. They were more than happy to laugh at themselves (and the audience) through the use of props (fake hair), quick drama pieces (a Towersey news report) and on-stage music battles. If you ever see the name Orkestra Del Sol against a more mainstream band at a festival, I say this from my soul (sol?) that you should ditch the mainstream and see the Orkestra. You will not regret it.

Orkestra Del Sol, in all their glory. Notice the dressed up man in the middle.

Those were two of my favourite bands at Towersey, I could rattle on about so many more (Sunjay Brayne, Jess Morgan, etc...) but I would bore you.

Location

If you going there by car, great. You'll be fine, as there was free parking. If you are not as lucky (like myself) and go by train and walk the rest, here is a word of warning. Get a decent map. I'm not talking Google maps. Go for Ordnance Survey as a lot of the walking takes place on public paths through fields, rather than roads. Other that than, you'll be fine (Watch out for the cows).

Summary

To sum it up: If you need to detach yourself from the everyday world for a while, then there is no better place. Ditch the laptop, smartphone and all-sorts and grab a partner for the ceilidh. Thank me later. Perhaps with a real ale?