Gig in the Garden

I am absolutely knackered but buzzing from todays' Gig in the Garden at Ford Park. The day started at 9 o'clock getting the stage up and setting up the PA and the back line. Lots of wires to plug in and make work, which went surprisingly smoothly. In the meantime the rest of the volunteers got out all the food and drink stalls, and dressed the site with flags and bunting.
Jean and a couple of younger volunteers dressed the stage with colourful bits of material which later strained under the gusts of wind, and eventually some had to be taken down.
I had a bit of struggle with the running order, but in the end I think I got it bang on. WE started at about half one with indie band Stellar Caprice, then came Isolhate. I was a bit nervous about a death metal band, but they're good and they went down really well, surprisingly. Crane do all instrumental stuff, a bit in the vain of yes, another hit with the crowd of about 300. The Mooncats brought the afternoon back down to earth with their take on Barrow life. Next up Bad transmission with singer James getting a happy birthday to you from the crowd and then went about wowing the audience witht their eight piece ska/reggae set. All a little worse for ware due to the fact they had been celebrating all afternoon. But their self effacing style drew loud applause and by now the crowd were ready to party. Enter Streams of whiskey, back from a three year stint at uni, to tear the place apart with a stream of break neck speed Irish tinged tunes. With the crowd in the palm of there hands, lots dancing with much abandon the Gig in the Garden now was well and truly alight. Without doubt one of the best gigs we've put on for many years, and although it often threatened rain it gave no more than a few spots.
This event is one of our best fund-raisers, and one that takes a lot of volunteers to put on and today they did an absolutely fantastic job.
The last band left the stage at 6-15 and by 7. 45 we had cleared the site and you wouldn't have known the event had taken place, all litter picked, all stuff cleared and locked away, and a fantastic day had by all.
We sat and had a fag by the pond, Jackie told us the only incident was a complaint from some couple who had been on hoad hill who had heard nothing but profanities all afternoon. Funny, no one here at the gig heard any such thing, Tom said that if they were listening they should have been asked to pay the five pound entry fee, we all agreed that would have been the correct response.