Purbeck Folk Festival is such a wonderful weekend

Sunday was a scorcher, and another early start to enjoy breakfast under the brilliant blue sky. Then into the festival for some more singing and dancing over at the Poop Deck. It was much quieter in the festival early in the morning, taking a while for everyone to wake up and mill around after the frivolities of last night.

This was to be a day for basking in the sunshine; and we did so with great gusto, relaxing at the Fire Stage for the afternoon listening to yet more great music. Tummies rumbled, but there was a roast dinner on offer at the 'Rustic Wraps' stall, with locally produced roast pink veal, with proper roast potatoes, and better Yorkshire pudding than can be found at a gastro pub! A real first at a festival and a big treat, albeit the plastic fork that snapped half way through eating. The stall across the way was also doing a roaring trade, with chips and proper curry sauce for those nursing hangovers. Speaking of food, which was both plentiful and very reasonably priced, another great stall was 'Pizzas Of Eight'; for £5 you could make your own pizza: rolling the dough, adding the toppings you wanted and then watching it being cooked in the wood-fired oven. A great idea for the children to make their own dinner, and popular with adults too.

The Fire Stage finally played host to the long awaited Beard Competition. Hosted by the festival's resident poet, the first round was won by a lady who used her long hair to make a most impressive beard. A well deserved award, even if just for the ingenuity. The second round was a dead heat though, as not even the clap-o-meter could determine the better of the two home-grown face gardens.

With winners given a festival t-shirt and sent away with the promise of a date with Catherine, the Poetry Slam final took place, with finalists reading their poems in front of the gathered crowd. The open air stage was a busy place in the sunshine, but a small bar kept folks lubricated and kids large and small could write a wish to hang on the Wishing Tree; something we'd only seen before at Larmer Tree festival, and a lovely idea.

Mother Ukers, who had performed an extended set the previous night (the projector for the late night movie couldn't be found for a while), were busking when we headed to the High Barn and gave us renditions of 'Step On', 'Purple Rain' and 'You Sexy Thing'. Not that we could get close enough to see, they drew such an audience. Past the busking spot, picnic blankets were strewn on a grassy bank, a great place to sit for some bluegrass action from the High Barn opposite. With September approaching, the afternoon cooled fast, so a retreat to find a spot in the Long Barn was in order.

Thinking the music couldn't possibly be any better than the previous evening, Sunday evening's acts showed how wrong we were. Tyde, whom we had got to know and love at last year's Folk by the Oak festival, played their sets of fiddle and accordion, and feet started tapping.

For some reason, the programme had to be swapped around, but this resulted in the Monster Ceilidh Band being able to take time to plug in for an electric set instead of their acoustic ceilidh. Our daughter's favourite of the weekend, she was in awe at the fiddle playing of the beautiful Carly. The band started out somewhat traditionally, but in a break between songs, asked if anyone liked Drum and Bass? Befuddled by this, we soon realised what was meant, as the traditional turned to futuristic, and the barn roof was lifted by the sounds of an awesome Drum and Bass ceilidh with live instrumentation!!

The pace was now set, and The Destroyers had a hard act to follow. Arriving on stage in mis-matching attire, the guys from Brum set the barn on fire (not literally). Rumour has it that the lead singer used to share a house with Lemmy back in his Hawkwind days, and the hedonism showed with his stage presence. Balkan beats, and furious fiddles. A favourite for many, but ours was yet to come.

Rounding up those that were thinking of sleep, we took our places for our highlight of 2012's festival season, Pachango. Hailing from Bournemouth, this 9 piece band plays a fusion of everything – ska, latin, Columbian, afro-beat, and more. Dancing is obligatory. Pachango won their Purbeck festival slot at the 2012 Dorset Music Awards, and we've had the honour of seeing them at a couple of festivals this summer. Pachango have been the find of the year for us, and deserve to be booked for many more festivals in 2013 (and will hopefully be invited back to Purbeck).

After the festival was closed in such carnival style, there was only one thing left to do, and that was to drink the bar dry before heading for the final Open Mic of the festival. Whoever ordered the bar got it just right though, with the ale not running out until about 11 on the very last night, cider around for another half hour, and the remaining wine being sold off cheap to clear the shelves.

On the subject of drinks, the one and only gripe of the weekend was not being able to find drinking water. The bar only stocked bottles of water, which worked out expensive with a thirsty three year old in tow, and we were unable to find any taps to fill out bottles, although we did see water pipes. Don't change anything else, but please put some signage to drinking water or provide at the bar, it would make such a difference to those with little ones...

As the bar emptied, and the stragglers headed tent-wards, music from the Open Mic stage drew us in for a last sing-a-long. Andy Stock is at the mic, and how we wish we didn't live so far away and couldn't see more of him. Singing his own Frank Turnerish songs, with some Dylan thrown in for good measure, we are elated when Joe from Pachango is pulled in for a freestyle jam over Bob Marley beats and strings. Wow! That's all that can be said. Those guys have such talent.

But it's all over too soon. Allie, our compere for the evening, finally pulls the plug as the sound engineers are knackered. We're treated to one last song, and then it's off into the night, ready for the long drive home in the morning… Purbeck Folk Festival: Paul Burke, Catherine Burke, Phil Watkins and Mick Callaghan. Thank you for such a wonderful weekend. We'll be back again next year, and will be telling all our friends (but not too many; as it's lovely, just the way it is).

Latest Updates