Imagine if a travelling Carnival crashed headlong into a hedgerow and what emerged was something completely different or weird…Foraging deep in this Carnival Hedge we have returned with a magical venue and a troop thick with diverse and eclectic acts - poets, storytellers, DJs and circus, all shaken in a cocktail with punks, environmentalists, the bounty of the hedgerow, dance, drumming, weirdness and song. That’s Raconteurs’ Delight - nestling unobtrusively in the heart of the festival, surrounded by food stalls. A recycled Green Gathering institution reused, replanted but definitely not reduced…
Raconteurs’ is all about the magic of performance, the magic of the venue - a chance to Reconnect through words, stories and music to the earth and to experience the wonder.
There’s something for everyone from dance, drumming, beatboxing and singing workshops in the morning to bedtime tales for grown-ups last thing every night.
Raconteurs’ is here to help with your Recuperation from modern life. We aim to free you up to enjoy your visit with us to the fullest. To encourage your wellbeing and ensure your security we encourage you to check your insecurities at the door, with the help of The Insecurity Guards, who will also hold a ritual bonfire of insecurities on Sunday afternoon. Please understand this is for your own health and safety. We ask you to comply with their requests or instructions.
Roll-up, roll-up…
There are so many highlights to look forward to – on Thursday we open with Tip of The Pops Solar Powered Disco, spinning disco classics to get you in the festival mood. Thursday night is our opening party. A fast paced revue of acts from across the weekend doing taster sessions or impactful shorter performances – including a chance to sing along with the Green Gathering festival choir, watch Luke Bailey’s pole vault show - Flying High, be blown away by Toria Garbutt’s high impact poetry, Mal Webb and Kylie Morrigan’s vocal adventures and a quick punk blast from Efa Supertramp with the evening rounded off by the Magpie Storytellers with bedtime stories nothing like the ones we were told as kids.
From Friday, each morning is given over to participation - a chance to get involved. The Green Gathering Festival choir from 11 each morning will build towards a Sunday evening show where all abilities and ages are welcome to take to the stage. We will have Dhol and Djembe drumming workshops delivered by experts who have trained in India and Africa, we will have Flamenco, Beatboxing and SKArobics to kick away the blues.
Coming together to participate, as performer, workshop attendee or audience member we want everyone to engage, be involved, join the movement - to listen to the words, to think about the changes we need, to Rise Up.
Each afternoon there is a show:
On Friday it’s a double header with Luke Bailey back again for his captivating “Come Fly With Fred” – tracing a day he spent with Fred a homeless man in London, then on to “Notey and Noisy” - Mal Webb and Kylie Morrigan deliver this 90 minute show, where the two of them play 7 characters in the style of a radio play. Imagine a mongrel mix of the Goons, Victor Borge, Jacob Collier and Julius Sumner Miller. A show for nerds of all ages
On Saturday: The Winds of The West start us off with an interactive storytelling journey with harp and song, taking a traditional story and transforming it into a storytelling experience. They are followed by “Tales From the Magpie's Nest”, The Magpie Storytellers in collaboration with Mal Webb and Kylie Morrigan: Let your mind take flight in an auditory and imaginative feast for the senses.The Magpie Storytellers spread their wings for an afternoon to share with you their shiniest stories - glittering gems that have lit up dark nights, curious fragments of flotsam and jetsam to make your thoughts sparkle, and gloriously silly bits of nonsense, lovingly polished to a shine.
The Sunday Afternoon Show, after a mad session of SKArobics with Ninja Hooves, is all about participation with the Poetry Slam giving poets a chance to take the stage and the Green Gathering Festival Choir performance. The show skanks to a close with Tip of The Pops rebel music soundsystem.
Every evening from 5.30 to 7.30 we have a children’s party, backed up with music, but showcasing Steve Kaos’ circus, Rainbow Gecko and their bubble madness, Magpie Storytellers with Myths, Legends and Folklore for all the family, Pete The Poo Emjoi Man returns with his irreverent antics and on Saturday afternoon Big Fish LIttle Fish bring a Family Rave.
Come, feel Release from the society we have escaped to under our hedgerow – experience the antidote to climate grief. Let it go - dance like no one’s watching, watch like no one’s dancing, whatever works for you.
All of that, and we haven’t even discussed the evening shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
On Friday it’s Gathering Voices - a spoken word night bringing many of the poets and spoken word artists together in a mad gushing of words and ideas. The night is hosted by Clare Ferguson-Walker aided by Troubadour in Residence Efa Supertramp. Poets include the amazing Louise the Poet, Soairse Anton and Bearded Tit, mixed with a sprinkling of tales from the Magpie Storytellers.
Top of the bill for the night is Dizraeli – Rapper, producer, firestarter, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist-raconteur…Dizraeli is a genre of his own. He is also a serial poetry slam winner not afraid to take on challenging and interesting subjects from politics to grief, to the nasty bits of masculinity.
Saturday’s evening show has Mal Webb and Kylie morrigan, Pete The Temp and his anarchic spoken word, Richbutnotfamous exploring silence, Vicki Burke mixing song and harp and stories. Headlining the evening is a poet often referred to as “one of our greatest living poets” - Salena Godden – whose Saturday evening performances are never to be missed. This is all hosted by the inimitable, unforgettable Jonny Fluffypunk.
We wrap things up on Sunday night with Daron Carey, last year’s Poetry Slam winner followed by comedy and songs from Kitty Stewart. Louise The Poet will bring Welcome to The Pleasuredome – A surreal dance-poetry performance about drinking, dancing and the horror of mothering teens, which includes the nipple tassel poem. (No actual nipple tassels used in the making of this performance.) As we build towards our finale The Fossilheads deliver their Climate Crisis Cabaret – a folky/ theatrical/ musical/ comical/ operatical female duo on a musical mission to encourage climate action with their unique show that puts the "oooh" in "existential doom"! Toria Garbutt and Jonny Fluffypunk return to hit hard, bring hope and laughter through the final hours before Society of Imaginary Friends close the show with their cinematic Rock Opera with songs rooted in their commitment to making this planet a better place environmentally and emotionally.
And maybe, just maybe, as the amplifiers are turned off we can come together to sing one last song as we wend our way back to a welcoming fire, back under the hedge we crawled from, or back to the campsite to sleep with our dreams full of stories, words and hope.
All weekend The Hedgerow Bar will be providing delicious cocktails mixing good quality spirits with natural elixirs and potions foraged from ancient hedgerows.
Raconteurs’ Delight – the everything venue. A place to participate, think, laugh, cry, dance and sing.
