An overdose of Arts....

I don't get out that much these days so to have this overdose of the arts, which I've been experiencing this week, has made me feel completely revitalised. It's been inspirational. Only last night I attended three different events. I did feel a little rude walking in late to Tonbridge based celebrity sculptor Guy Portelli's talk and then having to leave early in order to get to the story telling event at the Rose and Crown but it was necessary if I was to cram as much arts in as I could this week. So Guy, if you're reading this, which you're probably not, then apologies and no offence.

The story telling event with Rob Parkinson and friends was another festival success. Rob combines a wonderful mix of old traditional folk tales with music played on some very quirky looking instruments which he's obviously collected on his travels around the globe. It's a real skill being able to hold an audience's attention for stories which are often ten minutes or more long and, if you don't tune in to what he's saying, then you miss the point of the story. Members of the audience were invited to stand up and tell their own stories and some of them were equally enthralling particularly the one about the three identical dolls which the King had to call in experts to tell apart. (I'll let you work out what happened or perhaps you could make up your own version of the tale!)

But, at the risk of being rude again I made my way out during the interval to get along to Bands at Big School just in time to see Bareface, who I'd wanted to see perform live after having heard them on a few occasions rehearsing near my shop (scroll down for earlier posts.) The contrast between them and the traditional story tellers couldn't have been more marked. Then followed Intra Verse, who were fabulous; and then Origami Dinosaur, who wore Jimmy Hendrix style top hats and played superb music somewhere between the Scissor Sisters and late 1960s folk rock. In fact they were so good and it was already past 11pm when they finished that we thought that they were the headline act but no more was still to come as David Bigden and Dirty Words took to the stage. They were a very slick band of highly competent musicians made up of music tutors mainly from West Kent College I understand. So perhaps it's not surprising that they were technically superb. Speaking personally though I much preferred some of the raw enthusiasm of the other bands than the slickness of the main act. It was great to get out and see so much culture in one evening and there's still more to come as the festival isn't over until Sunday night. I'll feel exhausted by then but it's great to have such an overdose of arts all in one week....