Solfest 2024

Solfest, North Lakes Country Park, Cumbria. 22/26-August-2024 

Our previous, and first, Solfest three years ago was our first live music since lockdown happened. It was a delight with sunshine. Last year, which we were due to attend but had to cancel, also had good weather. This year the gods were cruel and delivered rain and high winds.

Sunday 18-August-2024.

We did a pre-visit to Solfest as volunteers to help out a friend of a friend with putting up the Palais de Phonix tent. This was the status as we arrived: poles up and the big top laid out.

The first move was to put in the wall poles at the corners and some at intervals around the edges. Then we crawled under the canvas and did some synchronised heave-ho me hearties on the ropes to haul the ridge poles up into position.

Unfortunately of of the ropes snapped under the strain and a cherry picker had to be brought in to install a replacement. Only afterwards did the crew member reveal that they were not keen on heights so extra kudos to them for stepping into the cradle.

Once the roof was up we put in the rest of the side poles, ratchet strapped them on place and put in the side panels. This was the state when we broke for lunch. We were at the back of the queue for lunch so, as they were nearly done, decided to head off for lunch at home.

So now I can add Roustabout to my CV.

Thursday 22-August-2024.

The weather had been so bad, lots of rain, that Thursday's event was cancelled. The fields were a mud bath and getting crew, equipment and attendees in and out was a nightmare for the organisers.

"URGENT UPDATE
Hi Everyone.
Due to last night’s adverse weather Thursdays Performances are cancelled and at this time we cannot let anyone onto the site.  After assessing the situation we want to pull all our teams together and work on making the site safer for your arrival on Friday instead.
We plan to open Friday at 11am and will be updating further this afternoon if this can happen sooner.
Many of us were up all night ensuring the tents and crew were safe.
We advise anyone who was planning to set off to stay at home and we will be emailing Thursday ticket holders about refunds or roll over Thursday for 2025 after the 2024 event [...]".

To give you an idea of the amount of recent rains, this is a run I went out on that morning. To say the paths were waterlogged would be an understatement!

Everyone agreed that the organisers made the right call albeit a tough one for them to make.

Friday 23-August-2024.

Even with the preparations by the organisers it was slow getting onto the site. We spent two and a half hours inching along the queue to get in. 

We had decided to go for the glamping option and hired a bell tent which turned out to close to the main entrance and also close to where we helped put up the Palais de Phonix.

It was "cosy". The bed took up one half of the tent but we had room for our camping table and two picnic chairs with all our bags in the eaves.

It turned out that the tent we helped put up leaked as it was a bit of a Frankenstein tent with four sections cobbled together from bits of other tents. In the end they had to take it down and rustle up a replacement in short order. The Palais was a 24 hr tent with a variety of acts and DJs some of whom put out thumping beats till 3am - not conducive to a good nights sleep as we were so close.

The skies had cleared even though the ground underfoot was still muddy and slippery. The first band we saw at the main stage were Toploader, best known for their 2000 hit single Dancing in the Moonlight.

The Solway Bar was host to a number of acts. Hardwicke Circus are a local indie rock band who were OK.

The next act were The Baghdaddies who rocked the Kasbah with some very Latin inspired tunes mixed in with Newcastle based folk songs. A lively and enjoyable set.

Back out in the field, on the main stage, we saw Tom Meighan, former front man with Kasabian who put on an excellent set.

Not being night owls we did not stay for the last act as we could still hear them in our tent.

Saturday 23-August-2024.

Saturday morning it was up early despite the sleep deprivation to do Silloth Promenade parkrun. A two lap, out and back course along the promenade in breezy conditions. Mary described it as 50% brutal and the Run Director agreed.

Back to the festival for lunch and a shower. The showers were excellent, nice hot water. We paid for off-peak showers as we were happy to pay less and wait till noon, especially on Saturday as we were doing parkrun in the morning.

Mylittlebrother are another Cumbria band To quote their FB page "Infectious harmony drenched indie-rock from the Cumbrian wilds. Single 'You Know Better' out now!"

The Amy Winehouse Band. Several members of Amy's original backing band with additional members. The singer was good, very similar to Amy (but obviously not as good).

De La Soul were good but we had done enough standing around so we slipped away and listened to the rest of the set from our tent.

The fancy dress suggestion for the festival was Greatest Hits but I saw many more people dressed as pirates. It was as if lots of people looked in their dressing up box and said "All I've got is Jack Sparrow so I'll go as that". You can't go wrong with a pirate outfit.

Sunday 24-August-2024.

A friend of ours is a member of Bjamba Samba / fusion drumming band. They had a slot on the Saturday in the general arena. 

On Sunday they were the opening act on the main stage. As the roadies were still setting up equipment they performed an energetic set on the ground in front of the stage. All still smiling and obviously having a good time despite the wind and the rain. The people who braved the weather to watch must have been family and friends. Still the band outnumbered the audience.

We then went back to the tent for lunch and listened to the rain drumming on the canvas. Looking at the horrendous forecast we decide to bail at that point. We ferried everything back to the car, fortunately not too far, and with the help of a borrowed glamping wheelbarrow managed all in two trips. It was then back off home for a warm bath and a relaxing evening.

It was a tough decision as my nephew, Chris, is a drummer with one of the main stage bands that evening: Dutty Moonshine Big Band. We were so disappointed to miss them. 

In the end the weather was so bad that the management team decided to abandon the main stage and transfer the acts into the tented venues. Presumably the acts scheduled for there got bumped off although I understand that they let the schedule run on a bit to give more bands a chance to perform.

Crap weather notwithstanding we have booked for Solfest 2025 and an off-site cottage so it should be a more relaxing affair. A little bit of a commute but quieter sleep and more civilised than a tent.

The Hound of the Baskervilles at Theatre by the Lake

Keswick, Cumbria. Saturday 17-August-2024.

Mary spotted this piece of entertainment at Theatre by the Lake (TBTL) and thought we would take advantage of our Old Gits(™) bus passes and go for a matinee. That way we could get there and back for free. It also meant I could have a drink or three.

My father had two Sherlock Holmes omnibus editions, one of the short stories and one of the novels which I read multiple times during my teens so the tales are embedded in my brain. Not quite sure what I was letting myself in for based on the description but always game to have a go at another interpretation. 

This production was basically farce with a fair amount of slapstick thrown in and the fourth wall was not only broken but smashed to smithereens. All parts were played by just three performers with an emphasis on cross dressing in true Pantomime Dame fashion. It was all very clever and entertaining. 

Having been here a few times now and been impressed by every performance we feel lucky to have this gem of a theatre in our area.

Afterwards we had booked ourselves an early supper at Bar eS Tapas and had some time to kill before our reservation so went for a beer at The Crafty Baa. We had been to one in Windermere but this Keswick bar was a new discovery for us, a decent craft ale bar with a an extensive collection of bottle beers and half a dozen on draft. I had the stout and Mary went for a weiss beer. Neither us were particularly impressed by our beers, they were OK but nothing special. 

We have been to Bar eS Tapas before and we enjoyed a selection of dishes, five between the two of us was their recommendation though we did add a sixth and had no trouble finishing them all.

After the meal we had time to wait for the next bus so we went into a nearby wine bar which we had not tried before: Lake District Wine. It describes itself as a tasting room and shop. You can buy by the glass and they also offered the option to buy a bottle off the shelf and pay corkage. I had a Puglian Appassimento and Mary had an Alvarino. Too late we noticed that they offered a tasting flight of three wines so next time we are in Keswick we will give that a try.

Then it was back home on the bus having had a very jolly afternoon and evening out. 

Kendal Calling 2024

Lowther Deer Park, Cumbria. Friday/Sunday 02/04-August-2024.

Despite the name “Kendal Calling” it is not held at Kendal. Apparently it was for the first few years but then grew too big for the space and so relocated to the Lowther estate near Penrith.

I was expecting something similar to Cropredy or Solfest. It was, indeed, similar to those in many respects: lots of people in a field with several stages and food and drink stalls but this is on a massive scale by comparison. 

The capacity is 40,000 people which temporarily makes it the third largest town in Cumbria (Carlisle 108,274; Barrow-in-Furness 55,251 [Demographics of Cumbria]). It was so extensive and crowded that it was much harder to meander between stages and catch bits of multiple acts, it was like several separate festivals all spliced together.

A couple of people had commented that it was very much for the young folk, but I did see a number of oldies and people with young children. The latter presumably have been coming to the festival for years, have since produced children but continue coming to the festival. We saw a large number of trolleys used for transporting tents and children to and fro.

Friday 02. Four of us went together, us and the Wrights. Unfortunately I had an urgent dental appointment that afternoon so the three of them decided to walk there (about 6 miles) and I joined them later with the car. 

After the walk, Mary was happy to sit down in one place, opposite the main stage, for most of the day and just wander around to explore during the breaks between acts. We caught a couple of tunes by Dead Letter and enjoyed The Snuts, CMAT, Keane and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. 

CMAT (Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson) was amazing. Great voice, really high energy, amazing stage presence and really knew how to work the crowd. One to watch out for.

The Snuts are a Scottish indie rock band who put on an enjoyable show.

The crowd loved Keane and even though I only recognised the hit single “Somewhere Only We Know” I still enjoyed it. Meanwhile the people around me were singing along with every track, they knew all the words.

The same was true with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. Not a band we listen to but the audience knew every word of every song. My criteria for assessing a band whose music I am not familiar with is how different each song sounds from the last. Are they writing new melodies and playing different tempi, different instrumentation. That is a good indicator of their skill and artistry. Noel's set fitted that bill.

At Solfest three years ago we spent ages wandering about in the dark trying to find our car. Aiming to learn from our mistake, I dropped a What3Words pin as I parked the car with the plan of using that to navigate our way back to it in the dark at the end.

Fine in theory - we tried to use the What3Words pin and Google Maps to navigate our way back to the car. Unfortunately, Google only knows about tarmac roads and not gravel tracks. So we missed our turn and went in a big loop, stumbling around in the dark, until we finally tracked down the car. It took us a good hour of walking including the last bit through wet grass and nettles. No fun when you are tired and just want to get back to your own bed.

Lessons learned: In addition to w3w make a visual note of tracks and waypoints by looking backwards at junctions, turns and recognisable landmarks. That worked well the next night.

Saturday 03. We were less static than Friday, visiting other stages to hear different bands. 

This was our viewing order for the day. 

• Melanie Baker 
• Delagrave 
• Beatles Dub Club 
• Heather Small (ex M People)
• Tors 
• Molotov Jukebox
• Kate Nash
• Sugababes. I stayed to watch them while Mary went off to see the Lightning Seeds

We have seen local band Delagrave several times and it’s nice to see them appearing here which has got to be good for raising their profile.

Beatles Dub Club worked their way through large amounts of Beatles back catalogue with a high energy performance. Very nostalgic and good fun.

Heather Small was full of energy, bouncing about the stage on high heels and in excellent voice. One of our party was amazed at her energy when they realised that she was 59 years old and four years older than him!

Kate Nash was good, a somewhat autobiographical singer-songwriter with an upbeat pop sound - a bit like Lily Allen.

The Sugababes were in fine voice and also did a lot of dancing around the stage. Now I did know their greatest hits.

We decided not to stay to the very end and left before The Streets who we’d never heard of. We met up after Sugababes / Lightening Seeds and were led through the fantastic Woodlands area by the Wrights. 

This tree root display was clearly inspired by Avatar's Tree of Souls.

We managed to successfully navigate our way back to the car and were back in Penrith in time for an entirely unnecessary beer in Fell Penrith - much tastier than most of the beers on offer at the festival. 

Sunday 04. We bagged a decent spot at the main stage and stayed there for most of the day. Great bunch of artists, mostly unfamiliar to us so lots to add to our playlists. We only missed a couple whilst away getting beer and / or food. 

We enjoyed Red Rum Club, Royal Otis and Pale Waves then went for a wander and came across a very lively and enjoyable set by Youth Sector in the Woodlands. Then back to the main stage for The Reytons who were very loud so sounded great at the back while we ate. 

We learned very late on the there was a fancy dress theme and it was The Sea. That morning I passed the local toy shop which surprisingly was open on a Sunday. I popped in and bought a small plastic shark which I stapled to my baseball cap and I got several compliments. Mary found a suitably stripy sailor t-shirt at home and bought a cap from the Hospices at Home charity ladies to complete the ensemble.

Pale Waves played a fine set with a lead female singer, Heather Baron-Gracie. Wikipedia tells me they are "often described as 80s-inspired indie rock or synth-pop; their second and third albums, however, owe more to the pop-punk genre".

The Reytons were an indie rock band but I found it disconcerting that every single sentence the front man uttered included the word “f*****g”. Call me old fashioned but I found it unnecessary.

By now we were bored of the beers on offer so bought some wine!

Although he was a headine act Paolo Nutini was almost unknown to us. I didn't recognise any of the songs which must have included some hits single. Still he passed the "every song distinct" test and we very much enjoyed his set.

There was a spectacular firework display at the end. Kudos to Sarah who took these photos  

Back to the car and a slow crawl off the festival site as the bulk of the festival goers all left at once.

Mary learned a second lesson: Consider your footwear very carefully. Do NOT under any circumstances make a very last minute decision to change to some wellies that you have not worn for at least 20 years! She ended up with blisters on her toes.

After the festival, our homework is to listen again to all the bands that made an impression and expand our listening horizon.

Grand Tour 2024 - Carcassonne

Carcassonne, France. Monday/Wednesday 22/31-July-2024.

Table of Contents:

• All posts
• Bari, 25-June-2024.
• Fiesole, 26-June/02-July-2024
• Vienna, 03/09-July-2024
• Konstanz, 10/17-July-2024
• Freiburg, 18/21-July-2024
• Carcassonne, 22/31-July-2024.

Monday 22: Fifth leg of this year's interrailing adventure. A long day - eight hours on the train. We took the TGV from Mulhouse to Marseilles (5 hours) then the Bordeaux train as far as Carcassonne. We decided not to rely on there being a buffet car and made ourselves a very nice picnic to have on board.

Our home exchange host very kindly met us at the station and conveyed our luggage to the apartment while we walked (she had a small car and couldn’t fit luggage and us both). 

That evening we went for a delicious Japanese meal at Miyagi. It is ages since we were able to dine Japanese so it was a treat to have a bowl of Ramen. They also had Komasa, a Japanese gin that was new to me so I just had to give that a try and it was delicious.

Tuesday 23: We were near the river, close to both the the Cité (old town) and Bastide (new town) so well placed for exploring in either direction. When I say "new" we are talking AD 1160 as opposed to the Roman origins of the old citadel. The first day is always a day to relax and we went for a stroll to explore the Cité up on the hill and had lunch in the tree shaded courtyard of Les Terrasses de la Cite. The route took us over this iconic footbridge.

Then it was back to the apartment for our usual siesta.

Carcassonne has a music festival for the whole of July and, as well as major events in the Cité amphitheatre, there were a number of free events at stages around the new town. After a tasty supper at La Table de Marie recommended by our host we went down to the riverside to watch Natasha St-Pier and her band do a very entertaining set - very Pop/Rock. 

Wednesday 24: A day to explore the new town. Mary's hair has been getting a little longer than she liked and she spotted a classy hairdressers that was able to squeeze her in for a trim. Then it was time for lunch at La Petite Café, siesta and then a wander back into town for supper at Le Passage.

Thursday 25: An old friend, Jane, who I have known since primary school has a holiday home about 45 minutes east of Carcassonne. As luck would have it she and her husband, Brock, were there at the time of our visit so they came over and took us on a drive around the area including a visit to the Abbey at Caunes-Minervois dating from the eighth century and noted for its outstanding red marble. If it weren’t for luggage restrictions, Mary would have come away with a beautiful red marble rolling pin!

We then went for supper at Relais Chantovent with an amazing view of the gorge of the River Cesse where Jane and Brock are clearly regulars known to the staff. After an excellent meal, Brock was a hero and drove us back to the apartment while we snoozed in the backseat. 

Friday 26: Parkrun is currently suspended in France. It never came back after Covid because of a requirement to have a medical certificate to participate in any competitive events. While that might make sense for races or events like Marathons it is nonsensical for parkrun and contrary to their ethos to be all inclusive. Parkrun HQ are in negotiations with the French authorities to get this requirement lifted. 

Originally it looked like we might have to miss a parkrun but Mary spotted that Ryanair fly from Carcassonne to Stansted and that we could fit in a cheeky mid-Carcassonne trip back to the UK on the Friday, stay with our friend Andrea in Witham, fit in a parkrun on the Saturday and fly back on the Sunday. All at reasonable times and at a reasonable price. So that is what we did.

We flew into Stansted, picked up a hire car and drove over to spend the evening with Andrea. 

Saturday 27: In the morning we drove over Great Notley near Braintree and got our weekly fix of parkrun. 

Then off to the Queen's Head in Maldon for a pub lunch with Andrea followed by a round of crazy golf. That evening we met up with a couple of other friends and went out for an excellent Turkish meal at Astare restaurant in Witham.

Sunday 28: Sunday morning we returned the hire car and had lunch at the airport. We flew back to Carcassonne where we were met by the shuttle bus into town. There are so few flights in and out of Carcassonne that the bus timetable is geared round the flight times! Evening meal was at Cafe de la Comedie where I had the classic regional specialty cassoulet. 

Monday 29: The main reason for leaving Cisternino in July and August was to escape the Puglian heat however the heat seemed to follow us around Europe. Carcassonne was predicted to be 38 / 39 °C for our last few days. We do like a river cruise - or in this case canal du Midi cruise. It was a scorching hot day so we thought sitting under the awning with a bit of a breeze would be a good way to pass the mid-afternoon, peak temperature hours.

I did a canal holiday along this stretch many years ago, but so long ago that cruise didn't ring any bells. 

The excitement on a canal holiday is going through the locks. The Canal du Midi is a formidable piece of early canal engineering connecting the mediterranean to the Atlantic requiring a fair number of locks to get up over the watershed.

That evening, we dined at Le Bistro D’Alice for another classic French meal. 

Tuesday 30: Sting 

Partly we came to Carcassonne because we had heard that it was a gorgeous medieval town and partly was to see Sting in concert. We went up to the Cité early to complete the full tourist checklist: we went round the castle and ramparts plus a circuit of the inner wall.

We decided to have a proper restaurant lunch in town followed by an evening snack up in the old city. Another recommendation from our host: we walked half an hour out of town in the blazing heat to Le Jardin De L’Estagnol where they did a “menu complet” for a mere €20. We dined al fresco in a lovely shaded courtyard. We both ordered gazpacho, tuna, and a pineapple dessert, together with a rosé wine that was so pale it looked like a white. The whole meal was delicious and amazing value.

We ordered a taxi back into town as it was too hot to walk. When the taxi company reported back that they were significantly delayed the Madame very kindly gave us a lift into town in her own car. 

After a short rest it was time to walk back up the Cité to join the queue for the concert. It was unreserved seats so it was worth getting there early and eat a baguette whilst standing in the queue. 

Sting played song after song with very little chat in between. The set was very much drawn from the Police back catalogue with the same power trio lineup of bass, guitar and drums. His voice was holding up well. The full set list can be found on setlist.fm.

Wednesday 31: Fly home into Manchester airport. We had bought train tickets with seat reservations for two hours after we were due to land to allow contingency. As it turned out everything went smoothly and we had time to kill at the station but then the second part of our train journey (from Preston to Penrith) was cancelled. This was the first problem we had on our whole train journey! Rather than risk getting stuck at Preston we bought new tickets and jumped on a train that went direct to Penrith and got home in plenty of time. We have to give credit to Trainline who refunded the price of the whole original journey.

In the words of Frank Sinatra "It's very nice to go trav'ling, But it's, oh, so nice to come home", to sleep in our own bed and look back on our grand adventure.