The Mill Hill Music Festival Day 5 - Rog's festival diary

So today is the half way point in the festival. I suppose that technically, the mid point will be around 815pm during the interval at the performance of HMS Pinafore, by The Charles Court Opera.

So what have we learned so far? Every event has been well attended. Mill Hill has a large base of  music lovers, who are happy to turn out for our events. We've learned that people get excited by the Festival and put events in their diaries more or less as soon as they hear about them. We've learned that people love the eclectic mix of events we put on. We've learned that Mill Hill has some amazing venues for live music. There are a few other things we've learned. People seem to be drinking less. Every time we've staged an event featuring the BBC Elstree Concert band, the shows have sold out, but this time we sold more bottled water than wine for the first time ever! Also for the first time, people turned up without cash, wanting to pay for a drink by card. As the festival is run by volunteers every two years, getting a card payment option for events would simply be impractical. Fortunately, the individual in question was able to borrow a fiver from a friend, for a glass of wine and a bottle of water. 

So on to yesterdays activity. We had the amazing Stewart Curtis with K Groove at The Mill Hill Synagogue. It was a well attended event, in an amazing setting. The hall is a great venue, with much thought put into the acoustics and the comfort of people attending events. The synagogue were extremely helpful as the event was for the community, with the security charges waived and members of the team volunteering. This made a huge difference to the finances. As the festival is run on a not for profit basis, this allowed the prices to be kept reasonable.

For me the festival day started at 2pm. We arrived at the studio to collect the staging, lights and PA system. I had some other work to do at the studio, so having loaded the van up, I eventually departed at 4pm. Gerry, Steve and Dan had started on setting up the stage and lights. By 5pm, the PA was set up and ready for the band. By 6.15, they were assembled and did a leisurely sound check. Stewarts band are very professional and easy going and it is always a pleasure to work with them. 

Here are a couple of tweets that you can get a flavour of what we enjoyed.

Live! Stewart Curtis with K Groove live at The Mill Hill Music Festival right now pic.twitter.com/pV7kM0gAyZ

— Mill Hill Music Fest (@millhillfest) June 17, 2019

Some great K Grooves going down with Stewart Curtis tonight at the @millhillfest - PA by us pic.twitter.com/NUlTDibxoB

— MillHillMusicComplex (@MillHillMusicCo) June 17, 2019

It was as smooth as cream! No tantrums and tiara's there! I know several of the band from the studios and it was great to be paying them for a change!

At 7pm, the crowds came in and were treated to around two and a half hours of excellent music. At the end. all of our team of volunteers pitched in, breaking things down etc. By 10.45, the PA system was all back at the studio and I was tucking into a tasty chicken shish kebab from Cobans. As I hadn't eaten since lunchtime, that was most welcome.

Today we have the Charles Court Opera. For me this is a light day. No PA systems to be lugged, no stages to be moved. The company have their own riggers. The event is almost sold out and it will be a full house, I think there are maybe ten tickets left, so if you want to get one, get down to Mill Hill Wines ASAP or turn up as early as possible.

And that's that for today.