Saturday at Purbeck Folk Festival ends in a communal jam session with friends old and new

Saturday seemed to be the main fancy dress day as there were so many pirates, mini-pirates and busty wenches walking round. I was dragged into the festival far too early by my 3 year old, but it was buzzing as people were enjoying the variety of breakfasts on offer. Enormous door-step bacon sandwiches, roasted bananas with honey and granola or some local sausages; with the wood fires being lit ready to cook the hogs for later.

We wandered over to the Poop Deck Children's Stage, past the Angel Café already serving coffee and breakfast cakes, for some early morning singing. Captain Barnacle had us all stretching with 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' and back at the 'Sofa So Good' area next to the High Barn, we caught the fiddle and guitar workshop, where you could bring an instrument and be taught a song, or just grab a sofa and have a listen.

To keep the children entertained and active for the day, a treasure hunt had been organised. We collected our treasure map from the Information Desk and then hunted the whole site looking for treasure chests from which we could collect letters and stamps to solve the riddle of who held the hidden treasure.

Captain Barnacle kept us entertained at his pirate shows, or wandering round with his incontinent tortoise. His lunchtime pirate show was full of stories, a death-defying tight-rope show from Vivien the Vixen (the long-lost sister of Basil Brush), and lots of references to bogeys, wee, poo, hairy tiger bum guitars, blowing whistles down the toilet and a spooky ghost story; but festival kids are tough and loved it!

Across from the Poop Deck Stage was a children's craft tent, where they could make swords, waistcoats and pirate hats to dress up in for the weekend. Never a quiet place!

For the grown ups, it was tricky deciding which workshop to enjoy. Crochet and bunting workshops in the 'Folk Front Room' (another covered area full of sofas), or Morris Dancing, Maypole Dancing, Improv Drama and singing out in the fresh air. There was never a quiet corner of the festival.

After all that excitement, we found a spot next to the Wishing Tree and Fire Stage, and stayed put for the afternoon listening to the chilled acoustic music. The beard competition we'd been looking forward to watching had been postponed to the Sunday, so we made do with tea and cake from the Angel Café, and local Purbeck ice-cream for our little one, whom wasn't quite daring enough to try the Red Chilli flavour!

Even the busking was great and drew a crowd; as we stumbled upon the next Jimi Hendrix, a young lad playing an electric guitar nearly as big as him. He rocked!

As the sun got tired and the evening drew in, Saturday's music was alive and kicking with the Dorset Ceilidh Band and caller hosting an awesome hoe-down in the High Barn. We had a couple of jigs with our little one, and then got out of the way of the frenetic square-dancing and returned to the Long Barn for an evening of impeccable music.

First up was The Catherine Burke Dand, with our host entertaining us with her comedic (or are they true?) tales of boys, loss of willpower, more boys, girls that aren't quite as good as her, and comparisons with Mrs Robinson. Drawing lots of laughter in between the dancing, Catherine set us up for a great evening in the main venue.

Moulettes were up next. About to go on tour supporting the Levellers on their acoustic tour, they played a quite orchestral version of folk, with a fiddler that drew men's eyes with her multicoloured hotpants.

Time for another visit to the bar before the headliner of the evening, KT Tunstall, who had been wandering round all day and enjoying the festival herself. Fitting in with the mud clad earlier on, Katie had changed into her sparkly dancing trousers and played a set of both well known and newer lesser known tunes.

Warning us that she wasn't exactly going to stick to the traditional folk theme, Tunstall went straight into her trademark live-looping, with her 'friends from Taiwan' at her feet. A new song about climate change, written on a trip to Greenland, followed by her classic 'Other Side Of The World To Me'. But knowing we wanted a good sing-a-long; then came 'Black Horse & A Cherry Tree', with loads of audience assistance with the "No no nos", segued into a mash-up of 'Seven Nation Army' on the kazoo – brilliant! KT's "drum machine" was readied for a ‘Barnyard Beatbox' and a massive chorus of 'We Will Rock You'. The rest of her set stayed in a dancey mood, "for all the fluoro-wearing ravers in the barn".

Thinking it was all over for the day, we retired to the comfort of the sofas, ready to wind down for the evening. But no, the night was not finished yet!

Stalwarts of the local music scene, Quinns Quinney fired up the thinning crowd, continuing the dancing theme with their up-tempo diddly skiffle tunes, and a finale of 90s rave classics in a bluegrass stylee. Marvellous!

Returning to the campsite for a communal jam session with friends old and new, past the Open Mic stage that was drawing in stragglers not quite ready for bed, a shooting star lit up the sky, signalling the end of a wonderful day.

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