Unable to find online satisfactory camping arrangements for the Winchester Mayfest 2007 and keen to pay a first visit to this historical city described by Winchester City Council as
packed with historic buildings, museums, family attractions and tranquil green spaces,
Country Bumpkin Hopcott gave up his camper-van for the day, borrowed a smart fleet of foot Ford Focus Zetec and headed for the City delights to investigate.
Over one hundred miles later, the decision to leave the camper-van behind proved sound as the only parking that seemed available was in a multi story car park which would have been out of bounds for the high-top camper-van.
Immediate reactions were that Cathedral Green was a really nice place to sit on some grass and watch the world go by. It was also the starting point for the Festival Procession of dancers before they proceeded up the High Street which was pedestrianised (which makes a huge difference to the friendliness of a place) and full of buskers with smiling faces.
The dancers in the procession certainly put on a great show with over 20 sides with styles from Morris through Appalachian to Step, Clog, Bhangra and Bollywood. It was a truly eclectic and joyful experience.
As always, my main interest is in finding an instrumental session to blow some tunes on my flute and soprano sax. A helpful organiser pointed me in the direction of the Bakers Arms, Winchester and the Eclipse Inn, Winchester.
The Bakers Arms was rocking to the sounds of serial Irish music when I arrived with a good variety of instruments and one great singer. Later on, a sole traditional English musician managed to get a tune in but it was a tight squeeze in between the Celtic tunes that merged into each other with great rapidity.
Later, the Eclipse Inn proved to be a different story with a variety of music being played from Gospel to Bluegrass, with some English traditional folk music thrown in for good measure.
With a three hour drive to return to the green Exmoor gorse of home, I decided not to stay for the evening folk music sessions.
However, if I can sort out somewhere to park my camper-van, Winchester Folkfest would be a nice folk music festival to go back to.
Bye for now
Rob
(Rob Hopcott – online author, avidly seeking the perfect folk festival session)
