In the morning, after another good night’s sleep in the caravan, we drove up for a flying visit to some friends living nearby. A quick downpour of rain but then the sun came out as we headed back to Fishguard to set up for the Open Mic we were scheduled to run at The Yacht Club. There had been an issue with one event scheduled for the Yacht Club having to be moved at the last minute because the venue dropped out and we got the impression that the venue were having us there under sufferance. In fact when we arrived it looked like we weren’t expected at all – nobody was running the bar, they were all working in the adjacent cafe but said to go in and ask if anybody wanted to order anything from the bar. We set up the PA – managed to park almost outside in the harbour wall – and had an audience of 6 including 2 guys we’d got chatting to at the campsite. They played a couple of numbers but then had to dash off to another festival event. Joanna and Johnny from the Impromptunes came along and between us we filled the time, taking it in turns (none of us bothering with the PA expect us for the first number). A family group came in and were celebrating a 70th birthday. The birthday boy and his granddaughter got up to sing a quick silly song about camembert. They stayed until the end and the granddaughter (Daisy / Phoebe) borrowed Jim’s guitar to sing a song at the end which was lovely.
I quickly wrote an “Open Mic HERE’ sign on an A3 board I’d brought along for the sign up list, but there really weren’t many people wandering past to entice in. A handful of people came and went, but there didn’t seem to be people around wanting to perform – they all save it for the sessions in the pubs. But we had fun with Jo and Johnny and agreed to meet up later that evening for a jam. We went back into Ffwrn and watched part of a set by Metsaema, sitting on the floor as it was so crowded. popped along to the session in theOak but couldn’t get near the music so sat and had another chat with the french guy we’d met on Friday. We finally caught up with Jo and Johnny at the Fishguard Arms, a tiny pub in the High Street, with just two small rooms and 5 people in the bar. It was a brilliant end to the night, we played silly and rude songs until late and everyone sang along, a couple more having come in but that’s all there was room for!
All in all it was a brilliant Fishguard festival for us and we’d definitely like to come back again next year. We’ll have to find out who the new contact is though as Judy has retired. The journey home took us 11 hours including stops as we went back the scenic route through the Brecon Beacons and Black Hills National Parks and mainly kept to A roads rather than motorways. Also, many of the villages (all?) in Wales have a 20mph speed limit, which is not a problem with a caravan.
