BIG TENT FESTIVAL 2009

29 Jul 2009 in Festival, Music

Falkland, Fife, 25-26 July 2009

Sorren MacLean

Sorren MacLean

ORIGINALLY conceived in response to the G8 summit at Gleneagles in 2005, the Big Tent Festival has since grown into a sizeable fixture on Scotland’s summer calendar, this year welcoming nearly 10,000 day and weekend visitors through the gates, despite the rain rendering conditions decidedly boggy on the Sunday.

Thankfully, it’s now dropped its erstwhile “Festival of Stewardship” strapline for the decidedly catchier “Scotland’s Largest Eco Festival”, offering an adroitly diverse music programme, over two stages, alongside talks and discussions on green themes both local and global.

There were also displays and presentations by numerous community eco-initiatives from around the country, including delegations from Eigg, Knoydart and Tarbet, plus the chance to sample several spas’ worth of complementary therapies.

A veritable cornucopia of children’s entertainment was again one of the festival’s strongest selling points, along with a mouth-watering array of local, organic and fair-trade food, all framed by a picturesque setting beside the historic conservation village of Falkland.

While it’s somewhat ironic that the phrase “big tent”, in its modern sense of broad political or ideological inclusiveness, was originally coined by the US Republican party during the late 1980s, there’s no disputing that the event admirably lives up to its premise – not least by keeping its ticket prices among the lowest on the circuit.

While it’s not a music festival per se, the calibre of the musical line-up is certainly the main attraction for many if not most visitors, enabling other agendas to be communicated more or less osmotically. The main international act this year was the Creole Choir of Cuba, fresh from performing at WOMAD in Wiltshire, a 14-strong a capella troupe whose gorgeously layered harmonies and hypnotic rhythms highlighted a much more overtly African lineage than the more familiar salsa-based sounds of their homeland.

The rest of the bill was predominantly Scottish in origin, thereby cutting down on the carbon footprint with no sacrifice of eclecticism or quality. Both characteristics were abundantly exemplified over the weekend by the alternative string quartet Mr McFall’s Chamber

They reprised their arrangements of music by the late great multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Martyn Bennett, expanding them into some heavily groove-driven territory of which the man himself would surely have approved. They were back on Sunday with the marvellous Michael Marra as special guest, adding lush string accompaniment to his uniquely gravel-voiced lyricism and wit, in amongst the blended quirkiness and finesse of their own instrumental repertoire.

Following them onto the main stage on Sunday was young Sorren MacLean from Mull, effectively revving up the early evening crowd as the rain-clouds finally retreated. With an excellent new bassist and drummer in tow, his winningly hooky, upbeat, punchy roots-pop and vibrantly assured vocals soon had a throng of dancers disregarding the mud, even if his usual bravura guitar solos were hampered by a broken pinkie.

Highlights over at the smaller Shindig Stage included powerhouse harmony trio The Bevvy Sisters – Heather Macleod, Kaela Rowan and Lindsay Black – returning to the scene of their debut gig a year ago, and memorably affirming their swift evolution in that time.

Backed by three “Bevvy Brothers” on guitar, double bass and drums, they delivered a captivating set that ranged from gospel to ragtime, contemporary Americana to classy original songwriting, all sumptuously arrayed by their exquisite vocal interplay.

Black also performed at the helm of her own band, Pollen – with Macleod and Rowan on backing vocals – serving up a strong line in thoughtfully literate, stirringly melodic balladry.

Further arresting contrasts came from the Joe Acheson Quartet, who built a series of moody, magnificent soundscapes variously featuring violin, piano, cello, bass, drums, electronic beats and atmospheric samples, splicing bold jazzy riffs with trip-hop melancholia in splendidly unclassifiable style, and more than justifying the buzz they’ve been generating of late.

Even with a few members missing, the massed instrumental ranks of The Treacherous Orchestra took Saturday’s penultimate main-stage slot comprehensively by storm, steering their audaciously high-wire course between wildness and ensemble discipline with brilliant panache.

Their resplendently grand-scale, multi-layered sound was also enhanced by judicious attention to presentation and showmanship, boding well for their upcoming showcase appearances at Cambridge Folk Festival and Belladrum. It boded less well for putative Saturday headliners Attic Lights, whose hotly tipped brand of indie pop sounded positively pedestrian by comparison.

There was of course no such problem with Sunday night’s closing act, Shooglenifty, whose 90-minute set inexorably cranked up the excitement to its customary rave-like intensity, mixing up yet-again reinvented old favourites – going all the way back to their 1994 debut release Venus in Tweeds – with new material from their forthcoming double album, due out in October.

Joyously sweet trad-based melodies were birled about as ever, with everything from booty-shaking disco/funk to down’n’dirty grunge-style attack, rounding off another exceedingly fine weekend in scenic Fife.

© Sue Wilson, 2009

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