Saturday we all rocked up to Deer Shed Festival, my 3rd
time at the family-friendly festival. Actually,
‘family-friendly’ doesn’t do it justice.
Unlike other festivals, who have little separate areas for the kids
while the parents can go off and watch the other acts, Deer Shed totally
embracing children. Thousands of them. After a few hours you’re almost dizzy with
the constant chattering, running and joy from the children and young
people. You can hear me chat to Megan,
Creative Director of the Festival on the Say Owt podcast: https://soundcloud.com/sayowtpodcast/say-owt-podcast-19-megan-evans/sets
I say we, because it was the first time we’d gone as Say
Owt, and a crew. Myself, Dave Jarman,
Chris Singleton, Stu Freestone, Jenni Pascoe and Ralph Dartford spent the day soaking up the
atmosphere of the mighty festival, watching some acts, bands, even chatting to
some of the attendees and writing some brand new poems especially for the
event. We then pitted ourselves in a
slam, with some help from special guest Dom Berry. As expected with a spot of new poems, an audience
mostly comprised of under 10s and a little bit of improvised freestyling there
was a ramshackle element. I’d like to
think we did a good fun hour of entertainment among many other acts and
artists, if there was a wild chaotic element running throughout.
I didn’t want to just take a simple slam where we bring poems specifically for children. I did
one of my ‘normal’ poems for adults, as did Stu freestone and Ralph
Dartford. The show before us did pretty
simple poetry, aimed directly at children.
Clearly the kids enjoyed it, but I think we did the stronger show. Not that it’s a competition (although we did run a slam competition) but rather than considering the ‘expectations’ around
performing to young people, we just went for an entertaining showcase which I
think paid off. Thanks to Deer Shed and
my fellow poets, hope we can return next year for more madcappery!
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