The last day - what a day! The team arrived at the sports club at 9am to put up fencing, gazebos, rig up a PA, rig up lights. The party is always outside and it takes a team of about 8 people a full day to set the event up. All was going fine. At around 5.30, I started to do a soundcheck with "Recollection", the support band (The main band were late). As we started a couple of drops of rain fell. Paul Amsterdam, another organiser announced "This should blow over" - famous last words. The heavens opened, thunder, lightning, hailstones. It wasn't just wet, it was a monsoon! A quick executive decision was made, we'd shift the show indoors. Due to fire regulations, this meant that the event was sold out. Many people, including friends of the band had been told that there were tickets available (in anticipation of an outside event). Many people were disappointedly turned away. A few were rather rude to Maureen, social sec at the sports club. I know it's disappointing for people, but you cannot flout the fire regulations.
Mind you, I was oblivious to this. I was too busy trying to protect my sound system from the rain. Paul rigged up the house PA (a small vocals setup) whilst I broke down our big pa system. When eventually all of the main band arrived, they were rather put out at the arrangements. Being a 10 piece band, they were expecting a full sound system. Not only that but many of their friends were coming and they didn't have tickets.
Anyway we set up as best we could. The support band, "Recollection" kicked off the show. Despite all of the problems, they were superb. By the time they got to "Pretty Woman" the crowd were on their feet boogieing. Sean, the lead singer is a superb vocalist. The set was very well received.
Next up, the Bizarros. As expected, this was a challenge. The house PA wasn't suitable for such a band, we'd not had a soundcheck and they were not happy. After 3 numbers, we stopped. We had to, to get a quick mic check. We'd laid them out in a certain fashion & they'd been moved. Anyway, having gotten on top of the sound, we managed to improve it by the end of the first set. A quick break. I took it as an excuse to start smoking again. A couple of ciggies and a breath of fresh air did the trick. The second set was good. Everyone went home happy (except me).
Sorry for the rain, Rog (like it was my doing!). It went on and on and it hadn't occurred to me that you might be under it with all your equipment. It's just one of those things; it sounds like the festival went well otherwise. I would have liked to come to some of it but too much work... next year!
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