Paul's Woodford. Day Two

Friday 28 Dec

Sometimes things just work out better than you ever imagine.

This morning's first gig at the Concert Tent was one of those things.

The rain hasn't let up, and there are some rumours flying around of a cyclone building, so everything is wet, windy, treacherous. My tent is leaking worse than an incontinent octogenarian (it had humping goannas climbing over it last camping trip), and last night's sleep involved lots of manoeuvring to avoid the drips. But the coffee is hot, the cider cold, and the music, well, musicy.

But back to the gig. I've never been any good at judging numbers, so let me just say that the concert tent is one of the bigger Woodford venues, and it was stuffed to the gills.

When you get applauded at your soundcheck, you know you have a great audience. People danced, shouted at the tune-changes (in a good way!), listened to the songs and gave us a standing ovation. There couldn't have been a better start to the festival for us. It was grand. One of the best things for me was to look out over the crowd and realise that there was no more seating left, and that people were standing 2-deep at the edges.

Anyway, Trouble in the Kitchen, Angus & Julie Stone, The Cat Empire, women in docs and Andy Irvine all await, so I'm going to stop here. I'll just add that if the rain keeps up for the rest of today, then I might look into buying a pair of Wellies. All I have are the Old Yellow Cats, my suede comfy shoes and a pair of old sandals (that I bought for Woodford 2003!). We'll see...