I was a Cropredy virgin..

And then last Thursday morning I found myself in a field to the North East of Banbury, just outside the small village of Cropredy, erecting my tent (along with my girlfriend Denise and her colleague Caroline). We erected our tent, surrounded by 20,000 other people. We were there for Fairport’s Cropredy Convention, an annual music festival.

I was not a complete festival virgin, if there can be degrees of virginity, for I had been to the Cambridge folk festival about 15 years ago. Denise had introduced me to Fairport Convention and I had assumed that Cropredy would be another folk festival along the lines of Cambridge, so while her and Caroline had been in previous years I had taken myself up to North Wales to walk up mountains.

This year however, was different. Denise announced that the headline act on Thursday evening would be Alice Cooper, the great rock musician. There and then I decided that I would go to Cropredy this year.

And I have to say that, on the whole, I had a really good weekend. Some general musings on the weekend.

Thursday

Arrival, set up, then – Alice Cooper!!

Friday

Sitting in a field, listening to great music, drinking beer and chilling out, and looking at clouds: Nimbrostratus, stratocumulus, cumulus fractus.

We stake our claim with groundsheet and chairs. We mark our position in the throng with a flag pole.

Quote of the day from the Levellers:

“When I live the life I choose, then I will be a free man.”

Richard Digance

(So old that other boys in his class at school became chimney sweeps).

I haven’t laughed so much for years. Thousands of people on their feet acting like children, waving hankies around pretending to be morris men. “Great Britain will be great again, I just don’t know the date”

It has to be said that there are a number of pros and cons to the whole thing.

First, the cons:

With 20,000 people in one field there are some major queues getting onto the field, getting off the field, for the loos and for the food. Queues bring out the best, and unfortunately, the worst in people.

The marshals asked us to keep to one side of the roadway on the way in to the site, so that emergency vehicles could get up and down if needed. Most of us complied, but some chose to ignore the requests and stood then sat in the middle of the road.

May be they just didn’t hear the requests in the first place.

If one wanted to get a really close view of the performers then it was possible to go down the front and stand right in front of the stage, as I did for the Medieval Baebes. Otherwise the performers were barely visible on the stage. But they could be seen on the big screen to one side of the stage. So you could either have the full on concert experience – shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of others, or you could sit on a chair and try to see the stage, or watch a big tv screen – like being at home but with the view blocked by someone standing or sitting a few rows in front.

We took our own breakfast and lunch but then had to buy dinner from one of the vendors in the field. We took some beer but still had to buy beer from the beer tent. Being a captive audience the prices were more than one might pay in a store. What’s worse is that I think it was the beer that gave me a poorly stomach. May be I should have had wine instead, with no exercise all day, pain au chocolate for breakfast and lots of beer during the day my blood sugar control was way out all weekend.

On the plus side though:

There was a great range of bands with some amazing music. Over the whole weekend there were only two acts that I didn’t enjoy at all, but on the whole it was great. Some amazing new alt prog folk rock bands like the Peatbog Fairies and Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar. Highlights of the weekend were:

Fake Thackray – John Watterson performing the songs of Jake Thackray

Levellers – I don’t think I can agree with their politics but there was plenty of energy in their music.

Mediaeval Baebes – I love it that there are groups singing songs in latin and early english.

Richard Digance – a fantastic show, I’ve not laughed so much for years and years. Tears of laughter streamed down my face for the whole of his show.

And of course there was the great Alice Cooper.