That Was The Week That Was
When you’ve sang in a couple of fields, some 400+ miles apart over the last week, it doesn’t sound particularly exciting! But when one of those fields is on The Cardross Estate in Stirlingshire, home to The Doune the Rabbit Hole Music Festival and the other is ‘the pitch’ inside The Principality Stadium in Cardiff, it begins to sound a bit more interesting!
The Morriston Orpheus Choir’s unexpected visit to Scotland arose from a contact from over 25 years ago and it was with a little apprehension that the group headed north on Friday 15 July. After a Saturday rest day at our base in Glasgow, allowing the opportunity to cheer on the Welsh rugby team out in South Africa, it was up to Stirlingshire on Sunday morning to the Cardross Estate and the Doune the Rabbit Hole music festival.
Described as Scotland’s ‘mini-Glastonbury’, the annual music and arts festival has been running since 2010 and growing every year. After two years of Covid related postponements the 2022 event was the biggest so far and over 10,000 people enjoyed over 150 Scottish and international acts over the four days.
The festival site has eight separate stages, and the Choir was delighted to find itself performing on the festival’s main stage to an appreciative audience who were sufficiently impressed to ‘demand’ two encores before letting the Choir leave the stage for some well-deserved refreshments! Social media has provided some very positive feedback from the festival goers, all of whom seemed to have enjoyed what was something a little different to the rock and pop groups which comprised most of the acts at Doune the Rabbit Hole.
Travelling back to South Wales on what was to become one of the hottest UK days on record there was much talk of a weekend which would live long in the memory of those who attended.
After a ‘recovery’ day on Tuesday, it was a slightly shorter journey to Cardiff on Wednesday for the first of three consecutive days performing as part of Cardiff University’s Graduation celebrations. With the graduation ceremonies from 2020 and 2021 postponed because of the Pandemic, special arrangements were made to host each of the three individual year groups in separate mass ceremonies at Welsh rugby’s national stadium. On Wednesday it was the turn of students from 2022 and together with friends and relatives some 20,000 people were in attendance to hear the Choir provide a traditional Welsh welcome. Slightly smaller but still significant numbers were present for the 2020 ceremony on Thursday and the 2021 ceremony on Friday.
As the students waved and cheered the Choir off stage on Friday it was again a time to reflect on an eventful eight days and the contrasting, but equally rewarding audiences encountered at the venues.
Yes, that certainly was a week that was!!
Article and photos courtesy of Alan Lewis. This article first featured on the Morriston Orpheus website on 24th July 2022
