To set the scene - the Agiotfest has been held in Agios Ioannis for several years now. The brainchild of Paul McGovern and others, the festival has grown and is now a 2 evening event bringing British, Greek and other European musicians together. This year's event had Joe Brown - not forgetting the Bruvvers - as headline act, with a variety of homegrown and international musicians supporting. The outdoor stage was set up in a field (or possibly a large garden?) to the side of a house on the outskirts of the village, and there were plenty of refreshments available for those who chose not to bring an evening picnic with them.
Now, last year I had been lucky enough to get an invitation to the pre-festival reception. Held at a very nice restaurant just outside Ag. Ioannis, it welcomed the performers, sponsors and media to the event. I went under the media umbrella, being on the Nisea Magazine team.
It was a great evening and I was very pleased to meet one of my musical heroes, Dave Pegg, long time bassist with the legendary Jethro Tull amongst others. By the time he and I got to speak together it was very late and we had both availed ourselves of a not inconsiderable amount of the free-flowing wine that accompanied the buffet. When I revisited the notes I had made of the interview the following afternoon (having spend the morning nursing a hangover) I was slightly concerned to realise that the bits that were legible probably weren't publishable!!
Remembering that Dave was performing as a part of the Dylan Project, interpreting the music of Bob Dylan, my favourite line had been:
Me: So, Dave, why Bob Dylan?
Dave: Because Bob is Dog.... I mean God...
Bless him!
Anyway, I digress. This year Nisea Magazine is resting, and so my entry to the festival was via the Corfu Donkey Rescue, a charity that I help out from time to time. The CDR, as well as various other charities, were invited to have a stall at the festival to promote their good work, and I had agreed to man the stand on the second evening. I concede, I wasn't that excited with the prospect. I'm fairly broad minded in my musical tastes, but being honest Joe Brown doesn't come to close to the top of my 'got to see' list, and I hadn't heard of any of the other acts. However, Niamh was eager to come along too, not having been to a music festival before, and I was gee'd by her own enthusiasm.
Contrary to my concerns, the evening was well presented and the music excellent. Joe is a commensurate performer who knows how to please the crowd and I admit I found myself singing along, whilst all the other musicians most certainly deserved their professional status. For me though the biggest stars of the evening were three young men and an equally young lady who collectively called themselves 4Square. Not one of them over about 20 years of age, they were nothing short of magnificent! With their own brand of folk music they played with the panache of performers with many more years of experience than their own and kept the crowd enthralled. If you don't believe me please take a look for yourself (link under 'some other good stuff').
Towards the end of the evening Niamh and I were beginning to put away the CDR stall when a small elbow nudged me. "Mum, look, it's those boys that played earlier..."
Sure enough a few metres away were 4Square, chatting with some of the festival goers.
"Come on", I said, grabbing Niamh's hand, "lets go and say hello".
Two little cheeks went bright red, her left foot scuffed against the right, and a chin buried itself deep into a neck whilst a little voice went nooooooo, I can'tttttttt"
After a couple of minutes of cajoling I realised I was onto a lost cause. My daughter was having her first experience of hero worship, so it was a case of leaving it to mum!
I sauntered over and solicited 4 autographs for one young lady who spent the next few minutes trying to look as though she really didn't care who mum was talking to, but spent the next 3 days showing all and sundry the autographs and pointing out that they put kisses on them, just for me!
Paul and the team, thank you for putting on some great entertainment. Nicola, Jim, James and Dan, thank you for your brilliant music and for making (at least) one young lady's week!
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