Seeing a lot of folk I’d not seen in many (25!) years. Among them Stephen Parker, Chris Warren and Ross Reid. Nice to see my old friend Val and back on home turf too. And Kathryn Williams, someone else I am very fond of who I had not seen in a long while. Kath has made a lovely new record and it was a treat to hear her sing and play some of
the songs from that plus a great cover of Ivor Cutler’s ‘Beautiful Cosmos’.

Another highlight for me and the family was The Dulwich Ukulele Club. These guys are a lot of fun but shouldn’t be mistaken as novelty. They write really good songs and are great entertainers. The first four rows of the audience was made up of kids aged between 4 and 10 who spent the show calling for requests (‘Lewisham, Lewisham’). Their very own Bromley Contingent.

Probably my lasting memory will be from Sunday afternoon. I looked out of the tent and into the rain as the tent filled up with the sound of laughing hippo’s courtesy of Chris Watson. A surreal and beautiful ‘feelgood’ moment made even better knowing that everyone in there was having one too.

It was a truly memorable weekend in a very special place organised and ran by some genuinely lovely people. The fact that we managed to have such a good time and be invited back next year is tribute to their liberal and generous nature.

Jeff, all pictures by Neil Thomson