[Glice]

I'm going to a folk festival in a few weeks - weekend in a field, three pubs, some tents with half-stages in, lots of real ale and cider, youngest by 20-odd years. It'll be the third year in a row, and it's always a fucking brilliant weekend. Last year I had 4 geriatric Yorkshirians singing Carter family songs to me less than two foot away. Utterly gorgeous.

I'm also off to the the fiddlers festival in county Donegal, which is always an intense 7 days of mostly Donegal fiddling (which, so far as I can make out, is quite a difficult style), though there was some Cajun and Klezmer stuff last year. It's a proper shambles of a festival, no stages, just pubs and sessions.

I'm tempted by a Sevdah festival in Bosnia, but as the dates get closer, it's looking less likely. There's a load of festivals all over the show that I always fail to get to. I'll probably nip into a few Westcountry 'field + bands + rough cider + bad organisation' type festivals as well, but that's always more ad-hoc.

Oh, and the proms, I think that counts. It looks like I won't make it to more than 2 shows for financial reasons, but I'm really quite excited by the prospect of some Schnittke.