The sun shines out of her camera!

WOMAD - Day 1

In preparation for my weekend away I spent last night in Lancaster with my friends Carol and Alan who, as always, treated me to marvellous food and conversation - not to mention a comfortable bed for the night and a hot shower ahead of my forthcoming 3 nights of roughing it!

I was collected at 8.00am on the dot by my weekend camping companion, Mel, who had travelled down from Cumbria and who drove us down to Wiltshire stopping en route to pick up the third member of our party, Linda, just south of Birmingham.

We arrived at the festival site in the afternoon, set up camp and headed for the action...

I was very keen to meet up with lovely fellow blipper Arachne and we finally tracked each other down in time to see one of the most breathtakingly spectacular performances I have ever experienced. If you ever have the opportunity to see The Manganiyar Seduction I urge you to do so. Words don't really do justice to this hour long performance by Manganiyar musicians from India so please have a look at this bit of film which gives a brief taste of what the performance was like. I was so glad to see it with Arachne who is, of course, just as wonderful as her journal would lead you to suspect and whose picture I snapped immediately after The Manganiyar Seduction as we headed to the neighbouring stage to see Jamaican legend Jimmy Cliff just as the sun was setting.

What an evening!

Other acts I saw today:

Hollie Cook (UK) - her dad is a Sex Pistol! She was once a Slit!
The Wilderness of Manitoba (Canada) - the new Fleet Foxes?
Peatbog Faeries (UK) - funky bagpipes a-go-go!

I'm aiming to set up a WOMAD blipfolio folder over the next few days as it's impossible to capture the whole experience in only one picture per day - I'll let you know when I manage to get it organised! Meanwhile, further back blips will follow in due course...

Please bear with me as I try to catch up with what you've all been up to over the past few days! I'm looking forward to it!