A Busy (and Sideways) Summer

It seems incredible not to have updated this blog for so long, but so much gets in the way (and to be honest, Facebook doesn't help). However, since the last post about being a guest poet, there has been the SOS Global Challenge (July) or the 'Things you can never learn; Don't whatever you do accept an invitation to perform at an event which you can see no possible reason for anyone to come to. If you can't, the public won't either!' And why can you not learn it? Because of those times when enough confirmations haven't yet come through, so you're worrying about say practice pitching your marquee or whatever...Well don't. Something else will turn up, and you'll wish you hadn't! As I say, some lessons almost can't be learnt. You think it's something you wouldn't dream of doing again and then...

   But this whole summer has been one of communication failure. At first we (Widsith & Deor Storytelling Theatre) thought our first main festival (after the Exeter Respect) would be the Imploding Inevitable Festival (in Cumbria) and then (having booked us ages before), they cancelled the booking saying that they hadn't had enough ticket sales to cover performer's fees, and so were pretty much only having music and comedy and reducing the festival! So first of all, we thought we were going to Cumbria, then it seemed that we weren't...Next the Nova Festival got back to us asking for more details, as they had only just seen our e-mail as it was stuck in their spam filter! So we packed off the details, but of course (as we hadn't been given a mobile number or similar) it happened again, and so they got the details too late! The same kind of thing happened with the Boomtown Fair (again, we had the availability check), and of course we didn't do Glastonbury or the Big Chill as both weren't running due to the Olympics! And then, just when we were thinking everything had fallen through...Kendal Calling got back to us - where was our risk assessment form? What? we asked? We'd been booked, but this time it was us who hadn't got the e-mail...! So off to Cumbria it was, after all...