Fingers

Where to start? Well, obviously in a queue picked out by Secondborn's unerring nose for coffee (she used to run a coffee shop) then by taking 45 steps to the singing workshop in the arboretum. It's always been a perfect start to a WOMAD day but this morning a very loud sound check was happening on the main stage beyond the trees. Elena was valiant about carrying on and impressively good-humoured, 'Great, they're in the same key as us!' but it wasn't much fun.

We then flopped about trying to decide whether it was too hot to traipse our warm clothes back to our tent, give this band or that a bit more benefit of the doubt, go and buy a crêpe, get our waterproofs out just in case the fine rain got denser...

While we were listening to Elaha Soroor and Kefaya and I was moping about Afghan women being able to play music only because they are exiles, my ex-boss at the refugee charity where I used to work came and tapped me on the shoulder. Such is synchronicity...

We listened to Folknery, who collect Ukrainian folk tunes from around the world and who played us one they'd never heard until they picked it up in New Zealand. Where in the world, I wonder, will Ukrainian folk music be found in the future?

Fulu Miziki Kolektiv were wild and high-energy. I wish I'd wormed my way to nearer the front to see their ingenious instruments made out of scrap.

It turned out that Taxi Kebab couldn't get here so I didn't realise until the end of his set that the stylised keyboard hands projected above his head belonged to Beardyman but I had fun trying to photograph (extra too) the dancing hands seeming to reach out to his. Beardyman has been on my radar since 2006 when he became the first National Beatbox Champion (via a regional heat in Southampton at which Firstborn was eliminated - that night is quite a story).

I saw the impressive B.Dance on video last week and was keen to see them live but there's no point watching skilled dance when half the forms and all the feet are hidden behind stage speakers and other people's heads. We retreated to hear Johanna Juhola from Finland playing tango on accordion. Didn't need to see her feet to appreciate the performance.

Project Smok, a young folk band from Inverness, were astounded to be playing at WOMAD and astounded at how many people had turned up to appreciate them at half past midnight. Ali Levack, who can play pipes faster than it's possible for fingers to move, was wide-eyed with excitement which fed and fed off the audience - soon everyone was breathing dopamine. We grinned all the way back to our sleeping bags.