Howdy All!
Once again we enjoyed another fantastic Country & Western Festival, the holiday park was busier the first weekend, than at any other time of the year. The beautiful hot weather certainly helped put everyone in the right mood for partying.
The costumes and regalia this year were exceptional, the amazing effort the ladies & gentlemen put in to the outfits, accessories and hair styles never fail to astound us. Lots of children joined in again this year, and the new girls in reception were so impressed watching them all go by.
Entertainment at The Seagull, Scotty’s & The Staging Post was fantastic as always, the trilogies in particular were superb. The Ranchman’s Cookhouse on Northam farm was also a big success, providing excellent country entertainment along with delicious food & drinks.
A big thank you to the hosts Mal & Jan at the Seagull, and Rachel & Kevin at Scotty’s. Also thanks for all their hard work again this year to all the market traders in the Marquees outside the Seagull & in Scotty’s.
The charity car boot sale was very popular, and again it was the perfect weather for it. Thanks to Brian & Kim for making sure everyone was in the right place.
Our chosen charity this year was The Friends of Burnham War Memorial Hospital. The collection, the raffle, the auction and the car boot sale together raised an amazing total of £4428.00. Look on our Facebook page to see David presenting the cheque.
If you would like to come and join us for the Country & Western Festival next year, and see this spectacular event for yourself. We start taking bookings in January.
Final thought… “Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back”!
Dates for 2019: Thursday 26th September – Sunday 6th October
Report from Mal Owen D.J. regarding the 2018 Country & Western Festival:
SEAGULL.
This year’s Country & Western Festival could not have had a better line up, with artists to suit all tastes in Country, Western and Line Dance.
Jan hosted the line dance lessons each morning with guest teachers Rachael, Heather and Red.
Jan’s theme was ‘Dances from Yesteryear’ with no tags or restarts, which fits into any music of the right tempo. They were all very much enjoyed by the dancers.
Rachael had a bad fall on the first day, so was unable to teach until later in the week, but her dances were well received.
Heather is a rising star, who choreographs her own dances, she is a lovely teacher and we were lucky enough to have her on our team for the second year.
Red does a guest teach each year and always finds a good dance for us.
Heather’s husband, an amateur photographer, took many photos and shared them through Facebook.
Firstly, opening the Festival, we had ‘ Root’n Tooting ’, a three piece rockabilly trio, who played many old favourites and went down well with the capacity audience. They were followed by everyone’s favourite; Adam Carter as “Elvis”, who delighted the audience with his excellent award winning tribute act, and received many acclamations from enthusiastic fans. He went on to sign many photographs and have lots of photo calls with them. Elvis also performed a great set on Sunday out in the Staging Post.
On Friday afternoon, the ever popular Billy Curtis entertained us with an excellent Country mix of songs, suitable for the Country listeners and dancers.
In the evening the high energy country band ‘The Diablos’ took to the stage, and provided the festival goers with their particular brand of enjoyable favourites and self-penned songs.
Our new resident artist ‘Annalee West’ gave an enjoyable half hour performance and was featured for several evenings, although she suffered the dreaded ‘Brean throat’ for some of her spots, she did not let it detract from her performance.
Saturday Afternoon Steve Jay entertained the dancers and listeners with many favourite dances and songs which were enjoyed by all.
On Saturday night, a super evening was enjoyed with ‘Boxcar Kelly & The Railroaders’, a 6-piece band with a load of talent fronted by Kelly.
On Sunday afternoon, we were pleased to welcome ‘Calico’. Certainly the leading line dance duo in the UK, who played and sang a wide variety of popular Country and line dance songs, keeping the floor full all afternoon.
‘Texas Tornados’ featured in the evening, with a great mixture of good lively Country Music, comedy from Pete kept the audience well entertained.
Monday afternoon, the hugely popular ‘Trey Jackson’ played several good sets, keeping the dancers and listeners entertained.
We were pleased to welcome back ‘Texas gun’ on Monday evening. Their brand of good music delights everyone listening, and George Payling’s dry Scottish humour goes down exceptionally well. This year, George also received a CCN award for ‘services to industry’.
John Permenter and his fiddle, provided an enjoyable afternoon of music, John played an interesting mix of great Country, which was perfect for both dancing and listening.
Tuesday evening, we welcomed ‘Pedro’ for a short set, as he had been holding the fort over the weekend at ‘The Ranchers Cookhouse’ (our new venue at Northam Farm). Pedro, always a popular entertainer, continued his residency for a few evenings and received a positive reception from our audiences.
‘Ray Peters and the Smokey Turtle Band’ delivered a superb evening of more traditional songs for the listeners and freestyle dancers.
Wednesday morning, a long queue formed outside before opening time, to see and to join in with Mr. Line dance himself; Paul Bailey. He provided an excellent performance, keeping the floor full all afternoon.
At very short notice CCN Award winners Jonny & Lynette, along with members of their family as ‘The Rocky Road Ramblers’ came and played at The Seagull. They performed outstanding sets, giving an exceptionally entertaining evening.
Thursday, we were entertained by the singing drummer Glynn and his excellent guitarist partner, performing as ‘Longshot’.
In the evening, we welcomed the fabulous ‘Indians’, Ireland’s top Country showband, playing to a capacity audience.
A new artist at the Seagull nominated for newcomer act of the year; ‘Darcy’ entertained the dancers on Friday, playing wonderful danceable Country songs, he has a superb Country voice and was well received.
A band always popular at The Seagull, ‘Ridgeway Country’ came to play on Friday evening and as always, gave fantastic sets of music for everyone to enjoy.
Saturday afternoon, we were entertained by one of Britain’s top Country soloists; Dave Sheriff, who gained the CCN Award this year for best songwriter. Dave combined many popular dance tracks with some new self-penned material, which was much appreciated.
Unfortunately, Chris Mezza was taken ill, so could not appear on our finale night, his place was taken by Carl Shay,a super singer who stepped in at the last moment.
CCN Newcomer Act of the year; Award winning Country Band ‘Badlands’ completed our Seagull Festival line up, and finished the evening with a marvellous set of lively Country music.
Trilogies were performed on Tuesday through to Saturday, and thanks go to Big John, Mike Long, Steve Comley and Broken Arrow for their organisation.
Scotty’s
Rachael & Kevin hosted an excellent line up of artists. Opening night saw the return of ‘The Smokey Mountain Boys’. Donna Wilde has a great rapport with the audience and as usual went down very well.
Warren De Witt is a lovely person and a great showman, certainly greatly enjoyed by the audience. Dave Bryan did a great job, he received a standing ovation from his audience, playing many songs that had not been heard for some time.
Trey Jackson had the audience eating out of his hand, with witty comments and super singing.
Darren Jones replaced Jonny & Lynette on Wednesday, a lovely singer with a great voice who was very well received.
CCN Female vocalist of the year Kezia Gill came to the venue on Thursday and played to a full house and sang some self-penned songs that went down extremely well, a rare treat.
Souls & Stone completed the Scotty’s line up for 2018, their performance was somewhat marred by some members of the audience who were extremely loud during the performance and when asked to keep it down by the compere she was verbally abused. This is not good for a Country audience and we apologise to the listeners and the artists who came to the venue this evening.
The Staging Post.
Artists appearing were, Blood Brothers, Ben Thompson, Tom Collins, No Regrets, Annalee West, Mike Kelly, Cliff Weston, Dave Montana, who also appeared at The Ranchers Cookhouse, and Johnny Holland. All artists were well received and enjoyed by the audience, including many westerners who came to enjoy a wide variety of Country Music.
Dates for 2019: Thursday 26th September – Sunday 6th October
Report prepared by Mal Owen D.J.
