Kettle Bridge Concertinas

 

Open for visitors

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Before our recent performance at Severndroog, we were allowed to practice at the nearby Woodlands Farm. As a "thank you" to them, we were very pleased to perform at their Apple Day celebration which is a public open day featuring numerous stalls and attractions — this year including an excellent concertina band!

We arrived before the official opening and were allowed to park on site. This was very welcome as the event is extremely popular and on-street parking can get tricky. We made our way to our allocated spot which was between two barns, one of which was to be used as cover if the weather was bad. Thankfully this was not needed as we had dry conditions all day.

In a slight change to the original plan, we had three half-hour performing sessions rather than two longer ones, and we alternated with Skinner's Rats, a fine fiddle and accordion folk music duo. Our location was ideal for acoustics as the sound bounced off the walls of both barns and produced a fine sound.

We selected mostly well-known songs for our programme and these went down very well with the audience. In fact for "The Policeman's Lot" we had an impromptu vocal accompaniment from someone in the crowd, and an excellent voice he had too! We also had enthusiastic audience help with percussion for "Liberty Bell".

The interludes between performances gave us the opportunity to explore what else was going on and there were plenty of stalls providing a wide range of goods including food and drink. The burgers and bacon butties were delicious and the fudge irresistible. Of course, being an Apple Day celebration there was a wide variety of apples for sale together with cider and freshly pressed apple juice. The café did a brisk trade and was well stocked with cakes (until Kettle Bridge descended on it, of course!) and tea and coffee. Children were well catered for with pony-and-trap rides, junior archery and a treasure trail.

Once we had finished all our playing there was just time for a photo opportunity with a couple of local celebrities before we made our way home. It was a great day, well-organised and very enjoyable. Many thanks to Woodlands Farm for making us so welcome.