Meanwhile, somewhere in a field ...

It was a Hay Festival, but not as we know it! Well, at least there were hay bales at the Linton Summer Sessions, yesterday. This late summer festival is a spin off from the highly successful Linton Festival that is held in June, each year. The Linton Festival was started in 2001 when six of us decided that it would be more cost effective to get 'The Producers', Blues Band of the Year at the time, to come to Linton rather than hire a coach to take a group of customers of the Alma Inn to see the band in Dorset. We formed a committee and set about booking a few more bands, building a stage and laying on guest ales.

That first year was 'interesting': The canopy above the stage was held in place by a Heath Robinson frame, constructed from copper pipe. The wind blew and the pipe bent causing the canopy to hover above the heads of the performers like an avenging angel! In those pre-Health and Safety days, no-one had spotted that the outfall from the pub's septic tank landed just in front of the stage, prompting one performer to comment that it was not the first time he had been in the *effluent*! It gave a new meaning to the term, 'Mosh Pit', as dancers slipped and slid into one another, with the result that by the end of the night they resembled participants in a mud wrestling tournament. The only stage lighting was provided by a string of outdoor fairy lights and we had a couple of small amplifiers, so weak that were you were forced to stand in the effluvium to have any chance of hearing the music! Lessons were learned and the event has gone from strength to strength, raising in the region of £100,000 for local charities.

As I signed books in my gazebo, I remembered those early days with great fondness, or could it be the case that memory dims pain?

Well, we all have to start somewhere!