I've cut a few people off (backblip)

...but this is WOMAD! World of Music and Dance festival, now in its 42nd year. My sister K drove us over to the site, near Malmesbury. We only got a bit lost. As we drove up the drive, the phone started ringing, and it was my nephew N and his girlfriend F, who had driven all the way from Lancashire and arrived at the same time as us! We loaded up the trolleys with camping gear, walked down to the site, and found a (crowded) place to set up camp. My friends K and M were there, but they'd already cycled over and struck camp in a different lane. 

After getting the basics done, we headed off to the Arena to see the Zawose Queens, because the young people's friends from Glasgow (they all live in Glasgow, despite references to Lancashire) had arrived, and their father is a music promoter, and he got them there. The band is part of an African family.  (As soon as I can get my programme out of the tent, I'll write more coherently, but my sister K is still snoring in it, I'm on a campsite in Wales, and it's not yet 7 am).

K and I went to the live podcast of Utter Bollox in the World of Words tent, which is being curated by Byline Times this year. We did not approve of the audience's choice of questions to the panel. To be fair, I hardly understood them! K thought they were more suitable for Jeremy Vine. 

WOMAD is famous for its hand made flags (above) and it's choice of food stalls. K had Indonesian curry, and I had chicken masala fries. At some point we met up with K and M. My favourite part of the evening was going to the Siam tent to see John Metcalfe, an English composer and violist (he plays the viola) and his string sextet of talented young musicians, who played his entire album live. The music is inspired by his love of trees, and features birdsong, and a human voice in one place. The music just swept over me. 

Tiredness also crept over me, and at midnight we returned to K's palatial tent and fell soundly asleep. At WOMAD, you can usually hear the doof-doof of the bass from at least three stages until 2 am, but I find it strangely comforting and not disturbing in the least.