Goostrey Rose Festival

Summer finally arrived on Saturday just in time for the Goostrey Rose Festival, which is like Glastonbury, but without the mud. The whole village seemed to be involved judging by the amount of bunting along the street leading us to the festival field with its marquee and maypole.

As it was such a glorious sunny evening we took time to enjoy some of the excellent food on offer – I skipped the hog roast and went straight for the pudding of chocolate gateau, strawberries and cream – before getting down to some serious dancing.

Goostrey is twinned with Elizabethfontein school in South Africa and had invited over a  group of children on an exchange trip to share in the festivities. I don't know what they thought of the ceili but they seemed to be having a good time and even managed to add a few moves of their own to the dancing. Sylvia's going to use them at our next gig – perhaps not.

It was a great night and a nice surprise to meet up again with Sarah and Martin. We played for Sarah's birthday dance last year, just up the road in Marthall.

Here's Sylvia's dances for your Moody Food Dance Card:

The Promenade
Nordal Rumba
Lake Arthur Stomp / Empty Bottle Stomp
Big Maggie's Set
The Flying Scot
The Oxo Reel
Goatland Square Eight
The Siege of Delhi / The Earl's Chair
Circle Hornpipe
The Snowball
Discouraging Waltz / Ragtime Annie
Old Swan Gallop
Circassian Circle
Southern Flavor

Marquee and maypole

Mmmmm – pudding!

The Old Brown Jug, Newcastle-under-Lyme

Another night of ceili chaos down at The Old Brown Jug, including a rather literal interpretation of the Flying Scot – he ended up in Arthur's drum kit.

The Holy Inadequate, Etruria

StringFing completed their June mini Etruscan tour with a gig at The Holy Inadequate. One of the most striking things about the pub (apart from the great beer and friendly staff, of course) is the huge mural painting. I thought that it looked familiar and that's because it's a copy of the album cover 'A Storyteller's Night' by Magnum.

We will be playing here regularly, so look out for dates on the StringFing facebook page.

Etruria Canal Festival

StringFing were back camping in a marquee at the Etruria Canal Festival again this year. Much better weather and a scorching sun meant that I was reluctantly persuaded to leave my woolly jumper at home.

During a break in playing I bumped into Mike Fisher who takes many of the photos at my Moody Food gigs and bought a mug with one of his canal pictures. It shows Cherry Eye Bridge on the Caldon canal and the horse Badger who used to haul a narrow boat on passenger trips from Froghall Wharf during the 1980s.