I thought August was going to be quiet…
We’ve not had quite as hectic a week as last week, but the bank holiday hasn’t helped our schedule here at the Gazette, and as I write this, the printers are breathing down my neck to send the final pages.
And I’m not sure quite why I was thinking August would be a quieter month, when I knew I’d be reaching the business end of preparations for the Hull Folk and Maritime Festival (which will take place on September 10).
I must have had a bang to the head and decided I didn’t have enough on my plate when I agreed to join the trustees of Folk in Hull, the festival’s organising charity, a couple of years ago. But we’ve been beavering away at the planning of the event for what seems like an eternity, and now, as I write this, there’s just over a week to go.
You may have read about the Riding the Stang “folk opera” production that’s coming to St Augustine’s Church in Hedon this Saturday – well, if you miss that, you can catch it at Social, in Humber Street, during the folk festival. And after it’s all been and done, you’ll find me in the pub, or in bed, or in bed with a beer, or something.
I’ll make sure there’s a bit of a preview in next week’s paper of the festival, as we need all the publicity we can get. I know it’s in Hull, but a fair few of the organisers and performers are from our region, and I figure that people do tend to actually leave the Holderness area to discover new things now and then. I mean, it’s not like the Victorian times any more, when some people never even went to the big towns during their lifetime, never mind “that London”.
Folk in Hull is a small – very small – close-knit charity, and we’ve had all manner of setbacks in the past few years, like a lot of charities have, from Covid cancellations to lack of funding.
We were also devastated by the loss of Dan Thomas, an incredible young man from Thorngumbald who was a crucial member of our team. We’re naming our Minerva stage after him, and it would be great to see you there.
