Music fans soak up the best of Guernsey
IT HAS been a tough year, but the words on so many people’s lips at the Vale Earth Fair was often the same – we are so lucky.
This year’s event was one of the largest music festivals in Europe, with a sell-out 3,000 people through the castle gates to soak up the atmosphere.
It was live-streamed around the world, attracted interest from Radio One, and was the perfect antidote to the struggles that have been experienced so far.
The contrast with what is happening elsewhere in the live events industry could not be more marked.
Event organisers and performers are struggling, and they are trying anything to kickstart things.
Only a fortnight ago in Newcastle, the ‘future’ of socially distanced events was unveiled.
Groups of five people on raised metal platforms, pre-ordered drinks, enforced distancing, facemasks, cars parked two metres apart on arrival.
It is a long way from what any music fan or musician would want.
The sun shone down on Vale Castle on Sunday, where local performers filled the bill, proving that not only is there a massive appetite for live music, it is one that can be easily filled from the array of talent within these shores.
An opportunity was presented in adversity and grabbed with open arms.
The audience was jubilant, happy to be able to join and dance together again free of any restrictions or concerns.
Two years ago, the heavens opened and the Earth Fair was a washout, as was the organisation’s finances as a result.
This latest success, with bars being drunk dry, was just reward for the hundreds of volunteer hours that go into every event come rain or shine.
And it all starts to bring the curtain down on a summer of entertainment that has been so much more enjoyable because it was so hard to imagine any of it happening even a few months ago.
From Balcony Gigs to Castle Nights, through the Vintage Agricultural show, other major one-off gatherings and with the Rocquaine Regatta still to come, 2020’s events calendar has been a blinder.