Founder's reflections on Festival

Whilst it was really nice to read the short piece on Clare and myself attending the Festival on Sunday, please never forget the work that Annabel, Loraine and John did to make those first six Festivals the success they were.

It was not a one man show, and let's not forget Ralph who has worked on them all and whom I left on Sunday working out how to find the money needed for the 15th Festival next year!

Yes, we did find the Festival "flourishing", the work done by Ian, Pete, John, Rueb, Ralph, Jack and the rest of their team is amazing – we left all that to the pubs and just ran the Town Hall and that was hard enough!

Also thank you for the welcome we got from all the old friends we met – we buzzed all the way home.

The Festival itself may look very different but the philosophy is the same – opportunities for local talent -and there is so much of that!!

My best moments were not the 'names' on the main stage but the support acts we put on with them – Jim Kirkpatrick's solo set before Geno Washington, Big Blue House supporting Dr. Feelgood, Blue Cafe fronting the first Festival's Friday Folk Night and who can ever forget the now legendary Defense supporting both The Connie Lush Band and The Climax Blues Band!

Local young people on the main stage at our Festival – thrash punk meets serious blues....magic.......by the way what ever happened to that young Jack out of the Defense, always thought he may have a bit of talent!

So here's to Number 15 – we might even do the whole week-end. In the meantime, make sure the organisers are looked after, it's no easy task!!

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