Rock 'n Rain on The Parade, but a great day out at the Family Festival

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‘Plenty of rain but great music’ would be a very short summary description of the ‘Family Festival’ held yesterday (Saturday 8 July) in The Parade, Marlborough. The weather didn’t hold off, not continuous rain but the clouds didn’t properly wave goodbye and let a bit of blue sky in until well into headliners’ ‘The Zoots’ set after 8:30 in the evening.

Organised by The Parade Cinema team, and sponsored by Marlborough’s McFarlane Property estate agents, The Parade thronged to an excellent line-up of (local) bands from lunchtime onwards, when Mayor Nick Fogg declared the Festival open, until about 10pm when The Zoots finished their enthusiastically received set.

Lots of food and drink choices and, thanks to The Parade Cinema foresight from some while back, a large area in front of the Cinema where people could sit, socialise, eat and drink and listen to the music from the bands on the stage in what would normally be The Parade car park, but all kept dry under the Marquee that covers the entire area. Yes, it was pretty packed throughout the day even though many, who were less concerned about getting wet stayed out in The Parade watching the bands close up.

Opening the day was one of Marlborough’s young and emerging talents, Ann Liu Cannon. Back performing in Marlborough for the Family Festival, becoming established on a far wider stage and describing herself as a ‘singer-songwriter, dabbling in folk & soul with her voice and words’, her opening set captivated the audience.

Ann Liu Cannon, a hard act to follow but next up was another local (Devizes) Indie-Pop band – ‘Nothing Rhymes with Orange‘ – also emerging to a far wider audience and being picked up by the BBC local network with their new single ‘Monday’ being played on Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bristol stations as part of ‘BBC Introducing’. Next up were Swindon-based ‘Hip Route‘, then followed by Marlborough’s well known and extremely popular ‘Vooz‘, led by Lee Mathews.

‘Crystal Tides‘ followed ‘Vooz’, then the Festival headliners ‘The Zoots‘, another very busy local band closed the day, and thankfully the weather relented for most of their set, so that The Parade filled with a dry audience….