The fabulous ‘Gig in the Barn'
| Author: Clara Lawrie | Published: 4th July 2007 23:02 |
This year (2007) the AboutMyArea team was lucky to get hold of tickets to the Gig in the Garden, which has now justifiably become legendary thanks to the parents and teachers of Dunster First School. After three years of glorious weather which made the Dunster village gardens the perfect setting for the event, this year the PTA were forced to give way to the rain and hold the show in the Tithe barn to prevent a mini-Glastonbury mud-fest situation.
The result of this change of venue unfortunately meant that less tickets could be sold, and although the barn was full to capacity the usual 500-strong audience was not possible this particular evening. However, 280 of us were treated to an amazing night with superb quality of entertainment from Joey the Lips band. (My personal favourite? The brass section, with their smooth choreographed moves and cool shades. Having said that, and despite the contradiction, it is impossible to single out any one section or artist, because they are 10 very talented musicians who work perfectly together to give both a visual and musical delight.)
Founder band member and manager, John George told AboutMyArea: "We all enjoyed playing in the barn and there was a great atmosphere even before we started. Dunster is one of our favourite gigs as we like playing outside but actually, playing in the barn this year was just as good if not better. The layout of the barn is well suited to music events, even for a band our size and the event is always well organized ."
From the school website : Expect the best in everything - then play your part in achieving it.
Asked for his comments of the night, Deputy Headteacher Marcus Capel told us: "This is a risky event to put on [especially in the Tithe Barn] as there is large financial commitment, but potentially an excellent fundraiser together with being a great night out, getting all friends, parents, staff and members of the school together. As such, the social mixing is just as important as the fundraising."
Mr Capel continued, "A huge thanks should go to the hard-working PTA. The tidying up the next day was a triumph of team work, everyone doing their part. Many thanks, also, to Chris and Julie Oliver and the Tithe Barn Committee, Chris in particular gave up a lot of time to help us arrange the barn and tidy up the next day." We understand that Mr Capel and Headmaster Pete Hoyland were also in the clean-up team on Sunday.
Profit from the gig will help fund an ambitious playground project, replacing the current ex-Butlins monorail with a playhouse, train, low-level adventure trail and outdoor stage.
Finally, we would like to end this article with a quote from the band:
"We certainly would love to come back next year ".
And so say all of us!
What do you think?
You will need to sign in to post a comment to this article. if you do not have an AboutMyArea account, you can join now for free.
