I Wanna Festival a Festival of my own

I’ve been to a few music festivals in my time and I’ve always thought that Bridgwater should have one. We’ve got Somer rock, a festival of tribute bands, which is brilliant, and we’ve had the Newt Beer festival, where the beer came first (but it means I probably can’t remember the bands) and for a while we had the Quayside Festival, which came out of the Big Bash, when we put a stage either end of Castle Street and had some alternative indie, soul, reggae, punk bands on organised by the Art Centre.

culture
Culture is the key

You go round the town and there’s pubs with pub bands, an art centre with arty bands, plus a bit of jazz and folk, and the McMillan with tribute bands and the occasional tourers.  Then of course the standout venue is the Cobblestones in Eastover, which has marvellously kept the flame of thumping original indie punk heavy glam thrash metal alive.

So why not put them all together in one big festival?  A Festival of Everything. Originals, covers, original covers, world music, local music, Morris dancers, people with large nets to keep an eye on the Morris dancers, and the other thing Bridgwater’s famous for…. It’s showtime cinematic stage musical chic as personified by carnival concerts and town hall shows.

Original

Some people ‘acting’ and ‘being filmed’

I’ve been driving an American band round to a few festivals recently. Gangstagrass play bluegrass but with rappers instead of singers. That’s original. More stuff like that I say.

Festivals needn’t be big tent cities in a field or ten. I remember trying to even find the Glastonbury festival in the mid-70s. You’d get to Glastonbury, avoid the cafes with ‘No Hippies’ signs in the window and ask people who looked like they might know. Then you’d follow them. A few years later they’d built a wall around themselves and only let Guardian readers in.

brian
‘Bridgwater’s got talent…”

Idea

Many towns simply have their festivals in the existing venues across the town throughout the same week. That’s what we should do. I reckon.

And the good news is Town Council’s director of Community services has had the same idea and we’ve said, ‘Go for it!’. So, if you’re a pub, a venue, a band or a one-man-festival…expect a visit. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

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