Cropredy opens with The Gathering and Supergrass

It was our first Cropredy, although we were going camping with friends that have been for many a year and were well versed in how to get that elusive spot near the river. For us, that meant getting up at some unearthly hour in order to get to our meeting point at the motorway services. Unlike most other festivals, at Cropredy you can camp next to your car. Whilst this is great in that you can take more equipment, you are supposed to camp in the first spot you are directed to, and there's no saving spaces for friends. Hence the early start in order that we could arrive, and therefore camp, together. The gates opened well in advance of their supposed opening time of 9am and we had tents up and the kettle on just before the heavens opened.

The rainy morning set the precedent for the remainder of the weekend. Rain, sun, then more rain, maybe some sun, and finally some more rain just for good measure. Somewhat different to last year's event, at which they had a scorcher.



Afternoon heralded the search for food, and an exploration of the site. Again, unlike many other festivals, there's only one stage and one big arena to hold the 18000 strong audience. This seemed strange to begin with, as we're used to much wandering between stages checking our snippets of acts, before moving onto the next one. Still, it wasn't so easy to get lost, and we did get to see more full sets that we have done on previous weekends.

The arena is set on a gently sloping hill, with the stage at the bottom, and various food, craft and music stalls on the two sides, and of course the obligatory bar! The top of the field is given over to a small children's area with juggling, making stuff, etc, and a spattering of charity stalls. Tents, vans, and other such places to sleep are in the surrounding fields, all within easy and quick access of the arena.

The arena gradually started to welcome more festival goers, the majority of whom had brought chairs, tents, and more flags than I've ever seen. It seems that marking one's spot is the order of the day at Cropredy; although the programme does insist that the tents are taken down in the evening and lights are turned off. Disappointingly, most people take no notice of this, and the dark evenings see much tripping over the assortment of canvas in the arena, and flashing lights on poles off-putting when trying to view the stage. That said, in the daytimes, the assortment of flags does make for some games of spot the country.

Late afternoon and it's time for the first band. Whapweasel are first up and play their blend of ska and folk to the increasing audience. They seemed to go down well, but I was getting sleepy and crashed out on the grass, entirely missing the next band whom I was supposed to be photographing.



I woke up just before The Gathering came on, and was glad I did. They were easily my favourite band of the day, which is probably unsurprising considering they're mainly made up of current and former members of Fairport Convention, whom host the weekend. The Gathering were better I thought than the headliners, Supergrass, who took to the stage just after 9pm to close the first day.

A strange choice for what is mainly seen as a folk festival, but shows that the organisers are not getting stuck in a rut of only booking tried and tested bands that the audience know inside out. Supergrass started their set with 'Diamond Hoo Ha', and then took us on a journey of mainly newer material, interspersed with old favourites 'Moving' and 'Caught By The Fuzz', and even a cover of an obscure Police B-side 'Next To You'. There appeared to be an exodus of people not long after Supergrass came on, but by the end, the audience seemed quite receptive and were shouting for more. Alas, we only got the one encore, and then headed off for our cocoa and sleep after such an early start to the day.

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