It was the Warwick Folk Festival over the weekend just gone, and I decided that I should enjoy summer while it’s here. Nipped down to the ticket office on Friday afternoon, purchased a ticket for the entire weekend, and then zipped home after work to grab the D80, lenses, flash, and battery packs. Hopped on my bicycle, and headed over to the Warwick School grounds somewhere around 6 P.M – a nice, easy 3 mile ride, mostly downhill.
Turned out that the main show didn’t start until 8 P.M., so I kicked around a bit, taking a few photos of various stalls and people, growing hungrier by the minute – smart me forgot to stop at a hole in the wall to get some money, and I also forgot to eat dinner before I left. Once the show started up though, I pretty much forgot that I was hungry, as I was rocking along to the music (if one can rock along to folk music). Artists for the night were 4Square (a group consisting of 4 young musicians), The Maerlock (a jazz-folk mix), PJ Wright & Dave Pegg (the latter an ex-member of Jethro Tull) and Oysterband ended the show.
I’ve attended rock concerts before, and I know how manic fans can be. I never expected to see a folk group get welcomed by screams of adoration. Except, Oysterband aren’t a folk band, they’re folkrock – a slightly subtle difference. They’re damn good showmen, and pretty darn good as a band too – the music on their MySpace page is nice, but it doesn’t hold a candle to their live performance.
Managed to wiggle myself into the front of the stage, and shot around 200 photos, all flashless. Also managed to have a brief conversation with one of the professionals shooting the concert, and got confirmation that all of them were shooting ISO 1600 or higher to avoid flash use.