Cre2c3ndo con report

[fleetfootmike]

Whew.

Actually, more ‘zzzzzzzz’. It’s Tuesday morning, and I am struggling to stay awake at my desk.

Anyway, so... Crescendo, aka UK Filk Con number 23. Usual venue :D

Guests, the lovely Heather Dale, her partner Ben Deschamps, our very own little_cinnamon , and as Footloose Filker, pinguintante .

We had H&B for much of the week before the con, during which Ben fell in love with my LAG Parlour acoustic and Gazuki, and decided to take them on tour with him. bedlamhouse  and ladyat joined us on Thursday, after an adventure with the US Snowpocalypse, as did bardling . Much Duck was eaten - I don't think our local Chinese was quite expecting 8 people to order the buffet PLUS a whole duck, but we did finish it. Maybe we should introduce them to tarkrai ...

So - Friday. H&B's bassist (MikeC) turned up with the Big Blue Van, and we loaded up and headed out in convoy. By all accounts we nearly lost our GoH's and Mike under an articulated lorry, but they and we did eventually make it. I was Duty Committee Member for Friday afternoon, mostly to catch the smattering of hotel booking goofs. Apologies to smallship1 , DJ, Roger, and Gerd - I'm pretty sure the minor glitches were entirely my fault, but fortunately resolved easily enough. 

On the subject of the hotel: we'd Had Words (in a polite kind of way) after last year, when the food prices and quality, and staffing levels, left more than a little to be desired. I'm happy to report that this year they were much, much better - as borne out by the fact that last year, Saturday dinner was a vast trackless waste with about a dozen folks in... this year, the lovely Beth from the hotel reported that we had 74 people through the restaurant on Saturday night, plus (at a rough guess) another 20 or more bar snacks. 

Friday night - Anne and James arrived JUST in time for the opening ceremony with the missing programme books. After that, we had concerts from bedlamhouse  and ladyat , pdcawley  and eintx , all of which I caught bits of. After that, I missed the themed circle with Heather in favour of helping seed the Silly themed circle, which sorely needed it, being me, pbristow  and realfranklin to start with. It picked up, and actually outlasted the other one, acquiring all kinds of fun folks by the time I went to bed.

Saturday daytime was a bit of a blur - I remember Heather and Ben's excellent first concert, which I watched part of then had to go wake Anne as per her request (being in bed with a headache). Watched their performance of "Joan" from the side of the stage. Missed just about every other programme item barring the bid session: this is actually pretty normal for me - I don't tend to attend many programme items at filk cons. Don't ask me why, I dunno - just restless, I guess.

Did catch most of the main concert - loved Jackie's "Don't Leave Me Alone" and the Crooklets' Dalek filk. I thought the auction/concert format worked - would be interested to know what others thought. bardling  made a stunning MC - loved the coat and hat.

And then? "From The Ashes". Contrary to some folks, no, not a celebration of England stuffing Australia, nor a Phoenix tribute band, but rather the genuine article.... We only had three rehearsals, two Sunday afternoons with the full band and one day with just oreouk  and demoneyes , but it's quite amazing how much you remember. High spot? Unquestionably stevieannie's storming vocal take on Heather's "Joan". 
After that? Chilled. Lots. Doing Phoenix really wipes you out.

Sunday? Erm.. it's a measure of how tired I am that I'm having to check the programme to make sure I know what happened. Ah, yes... that would be because I spent most of the morning hanging out by reception just to make sure that any issues with hotel checkout got sorted :D 

Post lunch we had little_cinnamon 's amazing "Full Moon On The Water", a full musical as her second GoH set. I was intrigued, as the co-author of "Before The Dawn" to see how it went, so I think it was probably the programme item I saw most of! In short? Brilliant. Great songs, amazing cast. I covet the lights rig as well!

After that, we had the Sams awards, and to my (and I think everyone else in the band's) complete surprise, we (Phoenix) won "Best At Con", apparently 'Just because they rock'. Which of course meant more work for the wonderful tech crew, headed by keristor  and ably assisted by deborah_c, hrrunka, vaurien  et al, to ready the stage for the Sam's concert.

But first, Heather and Ben's second concert - I caught most of this, and it was predictably fab - we did, as an audience, have a very good go at corpsing them, though. 

And then the Sams concert - other winners were smallship1 (Mina's Song), the Crooklets and Jackie, thus proving I can still spot a good song when I hear it :D We, obviously, did "Joan" again, cause it rocked, and then "Sam's Song" with smallship1. Closing ceremony, then shift all the Phoenix kit, and off to a very nice Nepalese meal with the guests. 

The dead dog circle was fun - I commend to you all pdcawley's excellent "Child Of The Library" - when he's recorded it, learn it, perform it, spread it. Please. 

Got to bed far too late.

Monday was most clearing up, and being nearly the last to leave (barring PeteT and Andreas, in fact) at around 2pm. 

And that was Crescendo. What else can I say but thank you to everyone for coming, keristor  and the rest of tech for making it all audible, the guests for being fab, and my co-conspirators, tig_b, rinioth  and bardling  for helping make it run smoothly.

See you all next year. When it's Not My Problem!

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Did you get a count for the Sunday meal in the restaurant? By the time we ate after teardown there was hardly anyone there, but I got the impression that several had booked to eat early. Also interested in how many ate there on Friday, I gather several did.

Yes, in spite of several panics (and being ded) I really enjoyed it.

Just remember to get your set request in early for next year *g*...