Wimborne
The organisers of the committee of the prestigious Wimborne Folk Festival bring to you as a taster to the main event “The Buskers Bash”, an annual event giving local musicians the chance to win some cash and a chance to play at this yearís Wimborne Folk Festival. The busking programme runs from 11.30am – 5.00pm , with each busker having a 20 min performance time at six locations around town: The Square, Green Man, Oddfellow’s Arms, King Street Bridge, Library and Willow Walk.
The winners are determined by the general public, voting for the buskers by purchasing tokens available from Stewards at each busking location with 10 Tokens costing £1. The act with the most tokens at the end of the day will receive a prize of £100 and an invitation to be part of the Buskers Programme at Wimborne Minster Folk Festival in June, with the runner-up receiving a prize of £50.
Today’s contest is to be fought by ten very different artists/bands, all who bring something very different to the event. The weather of late can only be described as atrocious, but as the day dawned it was clear that we are in for one of the best days of the year so far with blues skies and warm spring sunshine. The ten acts all had a very busy day on their hands with six 20 minute sets in six different locations, all set to a tight time schedule. As well as the contestants the Buskers Bash team also laid on some additional entertainment in the form of the talented Polly Morris, fiddle player Steve Faulkner and some raucous Morris dancing from Anonymous Morris.
The stewards did a sterling job selling the tokens and the all-important programme telling you who is playing where. There are plenty of highlights including Klaus Shnopplejagen; a technically brilliant guitarist providing some beautifully executed instrumental work and Ekko Stark playing an unusual instrument called a Hand pan, an item that looks like a flying saucer and sounds absolutely divine. There are also some good cover acts; “The Men with No Name”, “Wenzi” and “Inner City Smugglers” who provided some spirited reworked covers. A young chap by the name of “Alex” delivered some lovely instrumental work from his acoustic guitar. Three young schoolgirls by the name of Jess, Lydia and Liv collectively known as “Solyd” impressed the audiences with a great version of The Eagles “Hotel California”.
The overall winners of the event were “Ellie Et Al”, a Father and Daughter duo who thoroughly impressed all who watched. Ellie sang and played saxophone while her Father played the acoustic guitar. The duo performed a collection of well-chosen covers and some originals including a beautiful tune called “Golden Days” (See Video Below). Their performance was seemingly well rehearsed and showed lots of adept musicianship. The runners up were duo “Inner City Smugglers” who earned £50 for their trouble. Once again the Wimborne Minster Folk Festival committee put on a fantastic event, be sure to check out the main event on 8th-10th June….. Details here.
Links
https://wimbornefolk.co.uk/BuskersBash.php
Words, Pictures and Video by Dave Chinery (Chinners).
