Garden Party #1

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The first official Garden Party at my new residence took place on Sunday 2007-09-23 from 2pm until evening. The weather mostly smiled on us, apart from some light rain, so the bowls were out in force. Proceedings still went ahead under the gazebo, Fabrizia's Turkish bell tent, Marcus's tepee and in the house. There were many musical performances from:

David Oakley-Hill singing ecologically-aware comic songs with guitar
Malcolm Smith & The Emissaries singing "Canopus" for voices and percussion
Secret Bass drumming group accompanied by some of the Vitae Drummers
Justine Hart singing traditional folksongs and her own sublime music with guitar
Roberto Filoseta (piano) and Marcus Hostettler (congas) playing hot salsa music accompanied by many percussionists, which got the entire kitchen dancing
Ruth Ford singing her soulful songs with guitar and percussion
Dafna Dori and singers from her workshop
Fabrizia Verrecchia performing Bharatanatyam classical Indian dance

Acts that I forgot about (!) or there wasn't time for:

Beat Camp drumming groups playing Kimbele and Soboninkun
"Ashley's Song" for voice and piano by Malcolm Smith
Piano music by Malcolm Smith (at night)

As in all good benevolent cultures, there was no charge for the event, but you were strongly encouraged to throw money at any musicians you enjoy, preferably notes and definitely no £2 coins between the eyes! You were not allowed to remove money from the pockets of musicians you disliked :-)

The theme of this party was Freedom, to celebrate my release from day-job prison. Fancy dress was optional, and you were urged to just feel Free. Steve took some pictures and brought a barbecue to cook vegetarian food, and I prepared some SuperFood^TM; everyone else brought a veritable feast of other good grub to share.

Tragically, a song that Ruth and I played (involving gongs!) invoked the storm god Thor who unleashed a massive gale overnight which wrecked the gazebo and pulled down the bell tent!

More events shall follow, although on a less extravagant (more doable) scale, focusing on just one or two performances and leaving me time to chat and for jam sessions. As it was, the day for me was a 14-hour marathon of setting up equipment and performing in seven of the groups!