As part of the annual Hailsham Festival (of Arts & Culture) we put on a special evening event at The Bluebell Kitchen in Arlington. This is our regular venue for our monthly Bluebell Roots and Philippa Vine who usually does the cooking for the event was very happy to supply a meal for this evening. We settled on a ticket price of £20, £15 of which would cover the food, and set up an Eventbrite event for bookings. We had some regular Bluebell roots attendees plus some new people who booked via the festival – a total of 17 in the audience, plus Philippa Michael and Marylin who prepared and served the meal, which was just right for the size of the venue considering we were planning audience involvement.
The evening was billed as original music with us talking about the stories behind the songs plus a chance for the audience to share their stories as inspiration for new songs. After an hour’s chat and performance we had a break for the meal – absolutely delicious 2 courses of locally sourced, home grown and home cooked produce – and handed around paper and pencils for people to make notes. We then pulled one note out at random and started to write a song. This suggestion was the return of the Chough to Kent, accompanied by quite detailed notes, so we asked for audience help with the lyrics and quickly wrote and tried out a chorus, the audience joining in. Lots of drink had been quaffed and everyone was enjoying talking and participating so it was tricky to do any more on the new song then – we saved it ’til later, continuing with just a few more of our existing set before the end of the evening.
This is a format we hope to repeat so will probably make sure we gather the audience notes earlier in the evening and have a couple of breaks so we can make a little more of the writing process.
We made the decision not to set up a PA but performed acoustically which was just right in the venue with that size audience. A little ‘mood’ lighting would have been a nice addition but as it was we felt like part of the audience which, again, suited that particular event.
Thanks to Jade Ballard for the photograph.
If anyone is interested in contacting Philippa about events at the Bluebell Farmhouse Kitchen, she is on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/philippavinecooking/
If you want to be involved in the Hailsham Festival, the website is https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/ and they have a contact form. It runs for 2 weeks in September, usually from the 2nd Saturday, covering 3 weekends. All events are usually self funded (ie book your own venue and sell your own tickets) but the festival committee do book some larger events which are generally held at Hailsham Pavilion.