But let’s start at the second beginning of Valley Folk Festival, the utterly sublime boutique offering set in the middle of the Purbeck hills, Friday lunchtime. The first act in the Long Barn, never my favourite place, was billed as Paul and Sheila Burke, the festival’s patriarch and matriarch – but it was much more than that with the likes of son Bob, daughter Cath, grandsons Connor, Basil and Ernie and son-in-law Philip Kingsbury all playing for this family band. Paul and Sheila, now in or approaching their eighties, have even made their first CD and played some of the tunes from it in this graveyard slot noon performance – jolly good fun it was too and they even had time to slot it the Leonard Cohen cover Dance Me To The End Of Love.
Lovely stuff. And that was just the start of proceedings at the site, as usual at Purbeck Valley Farm off the A351 between Corfe Castle and Harman’s Cross - with views across Corfe Castle, Swanage Railway’s heritage steam trains running alongside the site and the beautiful Jurassic Coast just around the corner. And, while festival should very much not be weather reports, it doesn't half make a difference when there are three days of sunshine and the ‘keep rehydrating’ message had to be repeated.
Afternoon shows included Purbeck Rising veteran Den Miller’s quirky songs and Bridport’s Stompin’ Dave offering Americana, blues and flatfoot dancing, while one-man band Rory McLeod, suffering from vocal problems, carried on regar.