Trowbridge Village Pump 2008

I was expecting maybe a village festival in sleepy Farleigh Hungerfod? No way! "The Pump" is a huge festival - not quite as big as Shrewsbury but getting there.
The festival kicked off with "Brits Night" - one act from Wales (Allan Yn Y Fan) one from Eire (Cara Dillon), one from Scotland (Battlefield Band)and one from England (Oysterband). In practise of course, each band had a mixture of Brits in it, and some of the Irish artists none too happy about being "Brits" for the night!! We arrived half way through Cara Dillon who gave her usual faultless performance. Was disappointed with the Battlefield Band who had changed their line up and didn't seem to rock as much as when I'd seen them before at South Hill Park. Oysterband were fab as usual, but seemed to suffer from poor sound quality. Trouble was, we had to leave half-an-hour into their act, as we both had to work the next day. Disappointment was to follow on Friday as two acts I really wanted to see (Ben Paley's and Michael McGoldrick's) were on in the afternoon. A bit more consideration for us working people next time Trowbridge!!
Arrived in time for festival food and '6 Day Riot' who were OK but not my kind of music, and the lead singer's voice somehow got on my nerves (too harsh?).
Show of Hands gave the performance of the festival, with the main tent overspilling with (I'd guess) over 2000 people all of whom that were able were standing up and clapping at the end!! 'Roots' is without a doubt the most popular protest song that Steve Knightley has written, and seems to strike a chord with country folk wherever he goes. Phil introduced Little Feat with breathless enthusiasm, but they were SO disappointing! Maybe sound was a problem again, but in my opinion, only the lead guitarist was noteworthy in any way. Sadly we couldn't stay for Peatbog Faeries, both being knackered from staying up late for the Oysterband.
Saturday had some great acts on, including Richard Digance, Devon Sproule, Richard Thompson (Patrick wasn't impressed but I think he's brilliant), Vin Garbutt (relatively sober), Jackie Leven, the Demon Barber Roadshow (excellent new songs, and great clog/rapper/Cotswold morris dancing).
Sunday was somewhat uninspiring, so we spent most of the day doing things around the house.However we did pop across to Farleigh Hungerford to see Hard Travelers and Hotel Palindrone from Austria. Hard Travelers were somewhat uncoordinated, it being only their fourth gig together (why then were they given the main stage?) but have the makings of a good band - Woody Guthrie goes rock!!
The funloving guys from Hotel Palindrone noticed some French dancing experts in the audience (the same ladies who had taught us a few dances at Cyser's gig in Bath), so they endeavoured to play mazurkas, schottisches or tunes suitable for other French dances. Albin even jumped off the stage to teach us an Austrian dance! However there wasn't a huge audience as most people had gone to see Don McLean in the main tent. Wouldn't it have been funny if Steve Knightley had been invited on stage to join in with "American Pie" - he'd never live it down, given the opening verse of 'Roots'!
A good end to a superb festival, can't believe I've never been tempted to go before!