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Author Topic: Blackthorn Festival  (Read 6356 times)

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My login is Henrietta

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Re: Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #14 on: August 10, 2014, 02:26:24 PM »
Must admit I though it was on here but I automatically delete events when they've passed unless they have secondary posts of interest so can't verify - It could be that I missed putting it in the events section, in which case it was simply an oversight. However, this thread was started before the event occurred and had links to the festival site. And the details were retweeted by The Marple Website on 20 July too - that's still there - so it got pretty much the normal exposure from here considering that no information was sent by the organisers to let us know about it.
As well as the dreaded Facebook and Twitter it was on various websites - Forever Manchester, Visit Manchester, North West Bands, to name but 3. Perhaps a note to the organisers to contact the Marple Website would be in order. Perhaps they don't know we're here -

Blackthornfestival@gmail.com.

admin

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Re: Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #13 on: August 07, 2014, 03:45:47 PM »
Must admit I though it was on here but I automatically delete events when they've passed unless they have secondary posts of interest so can't verify - It could be that I missed putting it in the events section, in which case it was simply an oversight. However, this thread was started before the event occurred and had links to the festival site. And the details were retweeted by The Marple Website on 20 July too - that's still there - so it got pretty much the normal exposure from here considering that no information was sent by the organisers to let us know about it.
Mark Whittaker
The Marple Website

Tricky

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Re: Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #12 on: August 07, 2014, 03:06:24 PM »
Is there a reason that this event was not even mentioned by any admin?  (on this site or the twitter feed)


Seems odd to not promote it..
meh

Dizzy Penguin

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Re: Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #11 on: August 04, 2014, 08:35:50 AM »
If we're honest the sign on Market Street is (present tense cos it's still there) a bit crap. It just says 'Blackthorn Music Festival' ... no date, no venue, no acts. Unless you make a mental note to google it later, and unless you remember that you made that mental note when you finally have google to hand, you're not going to know about it despite having seen the sign.

Just my opinion and no offence is meant. Just... get better sign-makers next time  :P

My login is Henrietta

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Re: Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #10 on: July 30, 2014, 11:25:47 PM »
Henrietta,
I would have thought that it would not be my cup of tea at first glance: I am old enough to remember going to the Cambridge Folk Festival a few times in the seventies and my musical tastes have changed a great deal as I have grown older. The thing that caught my eye was the alternative bill of an 'acoustic tent', I checked out some of the artists on YouTube as I have never heard of one of them but discovered that they seemed to be pretty similar (though thirty or forty years younger) to the acts in the folk clubs of the seventies.  My wife refused to go to Blackthorn and even worse, my fear of being the oldest swinger in town were exacerbated when I went into Marple Stationery Supplies and I recognized  the Mozart Clarinet Concerto of all things playing on the radio so really thought that I now live in a totally different musical world and could be making a big mistake and that I would be out of my depth but took a chance and bought a ticket for Saturday and what a great day it turned out to be. You say that it is not your cup of tea but you never know until you taste it live. The acts on the main stage were totally beyond my comprehension but musical rebellion is a gift of youth to be enjoyed by the young. In between acts I watched at the acoustic tent there was what I believed to be an appalling racket pumping out of the speakers and I commented to a friend that it seemed to lack any musical merit and asked what it was. He couldn't believe that I had never heard Arctic Monkeys before but he commented that if I heard it a few times it could grow upon me. I very much doubt it but what I then remembered I was a concert at the Free Trade Hall in the seventies: when I found Mahler's Fourth Symphony was the work after the interval I was tempted to just go home but then thought 'I have already paid for the ticket - give it a try'. I am sure that I could not have listened to it on the radio for more than a few minutes before turning it off. It was weird, it was mad, it was totally unlike anything I knew to be musical but when tasted live it proved to be the foundation for addiction for the next forty years. Keep your mind open: there is always new music to enjoy and you may find it in an unexpected venue such as Blackthorn.

As it turned out there were plenty of fifty and sixty somethings as well as plenty of children with their parents there so I was delighted by the age range. Yes the food was sourced locally and the loos were fine. There was plenty of room for many more to watch the music but the relative inaccessibility of the site and lack of parking other than for those who camped for the weekend was a constricting factor. I left for the 384 at 1030 - I spoke to Stagecoach on Thursday and they knew nothing of the festival. I asked that they leave double deckers on the 383/384 route on Saturday evening and they did just that. The organizers arranged a Smiths of Marple shuttle to Marple and then the Rising Sun for the all night 192s for those who left late.

All in all a magnificent effort and I wish the Blackthorn Festival success and a few more punters next year. I just hope that they market it more effectively next year.
Thanks for that Rambler. On your recommendation I might give it a whirl next year.  8)

Duke Fame

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Re: Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2014, 11:47:29 AM »
Perhaps the Blackthorn audience and the contributors to this site may overlap more than you think: its just that many who contribute to and read this website may just have thought it wasn't for them but would have been pleasantly surprised had they come along. Last weekend this silver surfer was at the Blackthorn Festival, the weekend before the Halle at the Bridgewater Hall, the weekend before the Hazel Grove Orchestra and the weekend before that singing at the Marple Choral Society concert. Who says that you can't have diverse tastes? I enjoyed singing ABBA along with the ukelele group at Blackthorn just as much as as singing the John Rutter Gloria with Marple Choral Society and you can't get more different than that. The great thing was that the ukelele sing along group who took the stage during the interval would themselves, I am sure, not state that they delivered a polished, highly technical performance but they had the bottle to stand on a stage (a few of them, I suspect, for the first time) and sing to an audience , get the audience singing along and deliver an enjoyable performance so they have my admiration for having the bottle to stand there on the stage and make music for an audience. It was a priveledge to give them a round of applause.

There are very few festivals where a visitor will not find anything to like. Sadly i didn't go to the Blackthorn having only noticed the signs late last week.

Thanks for the report 'rambler, I hope it made enough money / broke even for the organisers to give it a go next year.

marplerambler

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Re: Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2014, 12:53:13 PM »
Perhaps the Blackthorn audience and the contributors to this site may overlap more than you think: its just that many who contribute to and read this website may just have thought it wasn't for them but would have been pleasantly surprised had they come along. Last weekend this silver surfer was at the Blackthorn Festival, the weekend before the Halle at the Bridgewater Hall, the weekend before the Hazel Grove Orchestra and the weekend before that singing at the Marple Choral Society concert. Who says that you can't have diverse tastes? I enjoyed singing ABBA along with the ukelele group at Blackthorn just as much as as singing the John Rutter Gloria with Marple Choral Society and you can't get more different than that. The great thing was that the ukelele sing along group who took the stage during the interval would themselves, I am sure, not state that they delivered a polished, highly technical performance but they had the bottle to stand on a stage (a few of them, I suspect, for the first time) and sing to an audience , get the audience singing along and deliver an enjoyable performance so they have my admiration for having the bottle to stand there on the stage and make music for an audience. It was a priveledge to give them a round of applause.

Dave

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Re: Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2014, 10:27:35 AM »
I suspect that - with the distinguished exception of marplerambler - the inhabitants of this forum ( >:() and the audience at the Blackthorn Festival ( 8)) are very different groups of people....... 

marplerambler

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Re: Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2014, 09:47:11 AM »
It seems to be a shame that we had a music festival on our backdoorstep that attracted a large number of people but no-one seems to be interested in making a comment, be it good, bad, indifferent, comic or just downright contentious (Duke, I thought by now that there would be a comment about bringing back National Service or that civil servants or local government officers sit around all day doing nothing so perhaps they could teach themselves to play guitar or keyboard while they are ignoring the ringing phones!). There are lots of teens, twenties and thirties who look at this website.Any chance of a review from someone younger (or even older) who liked the music in the main tent (or, of course, the acoustic tent)? Someone told me that they were impressed that Reverend and the Makers were playing at this small festivaL What did you make of them and of the other acts? For heavens sake get off your indifferent bums, write a review to persuade more people to come next year.

marplerambler

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Re: Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2014, 01:52:07 PM »
Henrietta,
I would have thought that it would not be my cup of tea at first glance: I am old enough to remember going to the Cambridge Folk Festival a few times in the seventies and my musical tastes have changed a great deal as I have grown older. The thing that caught my eye was the alternative bill of an 'acoustic tent', I checked out some of the artists on YouTube as I have never heard of one of them but discovered that they seemed to be pretty similar (though thirty or forty years younger) to the acts in the folk clubs of the seventies.  My wife refused to go to Blackthorn and even worse, my fear of being the oldest swinger in town were exacerbated when I went into Marple Stationery Supplies and I recognized  the Mozart Clarinet Concerto of all things playing on the radio so really thought that I now live in a totally different musical world and could be making a big mistake and that I would be out of my depth but took a chance and bought a ticket for Saturday and what a great day it turned out to be. You say that it is not your cup of tea but you never know until you taste it live. The acts on the main stage were totally beyond my comprehension but musical rebellion is a gift of youth to be enjoyed by the young. In between acts I watched at the acoustic tent there was what I believed to be an appalling racket pumping out of the speakers and I commented to a friend that it seemed to lack any musical merit and asked what it was. He couldn't believe that I had never heard Arctic Monkeys before but he commented that if I heard it a few times it could grow upon me. I very much doubt it but what I then remembered I was a concert at the Free Trade Hall in the seventies: when I found Mahler's Fourth Symphony was the work after the interval I was tempted to just go home but then thought 'I have already paid for the ticket - give it a try'. I am sure that I could not have listened to it on the radio for more than a few minutes before turning it off. It was weird, it was mad, it was totally unlike anything I knew to be musical but when tasted live it proved to be the foundation for addiction for the next forty years. Keep your mind open: there is always new music to enjoy and you may find it in an unexpected venue such as Blackthorn.

As it turned out there were plenty of fifty and sixty somethings as well as plenty of children with their parents there so I was delighted by the age range. Yes the food was sourced locally and the loos were fine. There was plenty of room for many more to watch the music but the relative inaccessibility of the site and lack of parking other than for those who camped for the weekend was a constricting factor. I left for the 384 at 1030 - I spoke to Stagecoach on Thursday and they knew nothing of the festival. I asked that they leave double deckers on the 383/384 route on Saturday evening and they did just that. The organizers arranged a Smiths of Marple shuttle to Marple and then the Rising Sun for the all night 192s for those who left late.

All in all a magnificent effort and I wish the Blackthorn Festival success and a few more punters next year. I just hope that they market it more effectively next year.

My login is Henrietta

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Re: Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2014, 07:56:22 PM »
And for those who are unaware of it, website is http://www.blackthornmusicfestival.co.uk/

Compstall, this weekend.

Tickets are available at:
Compstall post office
Romiley newsagents
Double 4 records glossop
Double 4 records marple
Stationary supplies marple
Piccadilly records manchester
And direct from The Blackthorn Office on 07591004691


Not my cup of tea (but then I'm old enough to remember Woodstock - just) but it looks like fun if it's your sort of thing. Inexpensive too.

Wide choice of food. Might be worth going just for that. Here's hoping it's been sourced locally.

Have good time.

sgk

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Re: Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2014, 10:18:27 AM »
There's been a banner across the Stockport Road end of Market Street every since the carnival and it was mentioned on here round about the same time

And for those who are unaware of it, website is http://www.blackthornmusicfestival.co.uk/

Compstall, this weekend.

Tickets are available at:
Compstall post office
Romiley newsagents
Double 4 records glossop
Double 4 records marple
Stationary supplies marple
Piccadilly records manchester
And direct from The Blackthorn Office on 07591004691


My login is Henrietta

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Re: Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2014, 12:09:30 AM »
I've only just realised about this, was the local marketing a little too low key?

It's a great line up, right on our doorstep - Support it!!!
There's been a banner across the Stockport Road end of Market Street every since the carnival and it was mentioned on here round about the same time

Duke Fame

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Blackthorn Festival
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2014, 11:26:31 PM »
I've only just realised about this, was the local marketing a little too low key?

It's a great line up, right on our doorstep - Support it!!!