Paul Moran reflects

Now that we are safely returned to our "mountain" home I thought a few words of thanks were in order.

Clare and myself really enjoyed our day at the 10th Festival on Sunday, not only listening to some excellent music but also meeting up with some old friends.

The traditional "young" Jim gig in Blues Alley was as stunning as ever and some of the young bands I caught during the day show that Ian, Pete and the rest of the committee have not only kept up the high standards set by the first festivals but in many cases have surpassed them.

HighlightThe highlight of the day for me had to be drinking in the Combermere, listening to Vernon Fuller and Twin Frets with Phil sitting in front of me with a 2002 Audlem Festival T-Shirt on! What a shock – not only did it still look very clean but I never realised we actually sold any!

Talking of T-Shirts it was nice to be presented with the 10th Festival T-Shirts, it made me feel pretty cool to realise that all the work involved in the first six festivals was still so much appriciated by so many people – and because of the way it made me feel, I felt it was important to make sure the village web pages also carried a big thanks to some other people without whom there would have never been Festival number 1 – let alone the 6 that we did run.

FoundersThe original Festival committee was made up of Kim Maddocks (Festival 1-3); John Lawrence (Festival 1-6); Lorraine Kirkpatrick (Festival 1-6); Annabel Thornton (Festival 4-6); Ralph Warburton (Festval 1-???).

All of these people, plus my advisor/sound man/agony aunt Al Dean, deserve much credit for the success of the Festival for without their hard work and ideas we would have got no-where. Plus never forget the amazing support the Festival has always had from the village itself and its Parish Council – all of these are the people who really made it work.

So as nice as it is to be remembered as the "Founder", the reality is I was just one of a group of hard working people and all of the above are the true heroes of the first six festivals – a festival which is now in excellent hands and going from strength to strength.

We hope to join you again before the celebrations for the 20th.

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