An extremely sunny day out at the festival of peas, officially, the Leamington Peace Festival but I like to call it the festival of peas owing to all of the food vans being veggie. I'm very fond of this local, free festival and have been going for several years. I like the hippie stalls, the linen and hemp dressed crowds, and the reggae and folk music. Nick came this time, with H, Nina and her friend A. We all went off in different directions and had a good time. I resisted buying a felt hat shaped like an upturned poppy even though at the time, it seemed like the perfect garment.
The best thing, a wonderful surprise, was that I got to see Attila the Stockbroker http://www.attilathestockbroker.com/ I've been hearing about his work for years and years. He's a Billy Bragg contemporary, clash influenced punk poet, now in his fifties. Whilst I had heard of his work, I hadn't seen recent pictures. Earlier in the day, I had been sitting on the lawn near to a middle aged man who was wearing an interesting t-shirt which had a picture of a 20's style spiv with the legend 'war is money'. He had the look of someone I would like to chat to, but I didn't because, of course, I never talk to strangers. It turned out to have been Attila himself, and his set was compelling. He had loads of up to date new thoughts as well as crowd pleasing oldies. It was impressive that a largeish crowd gradually grew around him. It can't have been an easy audience. All day long, people sit on the grass around the bandstand and chat and picnic with half an ear listening to the acts. He got a good bit of hush, and good applause. It was a joy to me that the kids, and even Nick, who was sitting in the shade with his back to the performance, enjoyed it too.
I messed the day up in the end. Got myself horribly sunburnt, went home and to bed feeling rubbish. Atilla was worth it though.
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