Steve Earle  http://www.steveearle.net may be the only world class alt.country singer/songwriter to call himself a Marxist. His two albums since the 9/11 atrocity -- 'Jerusalem'  http://steveearle.net/discography/jerusalem.php and 'The Revolution Starts... NOW'  http://steveearle.net/discography/revolution.php -- certainly contain blistering artistic and witty polemics against US imperialism. He's playing three UK dates this year: the Wychwood Festival  http://www.wychwoodfestival.com/artists_steveearl.php , a London gig at the Royal Festival Hall with Patti Smith (as part of her Meltdown Festival) on Sunday 19 June 2005, 7:30pm  http://www.hayward.org.uk/main/events/94433.html (when I'm co-teaching video activism in Bristol), and the Glastonbury Festival (sold out), interviews:  http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/news/index.asp?id=208 and  http://www.johnharris.me.uk/arch/interview/ . So I just had to catch him at the very first Wychwood Festival.

Two years in the organising -- by local people with a love of world music -- the whole event was a great success as far as I could tell. Mostly resembling recent WOMAD festivals in Reading, but on a smaller scale, the family-friendly atmosphere brought in everyone from 0 to 90, with a mean of maybe 35. The musical cast list was certainly extremely internationalist -- for details see  http://www.wychwoodfestival.com/whatson_artists.php . And the program included lots of hands-on DIY cultural activities, from slam poetry to African drumming via music production and belly dancing:  http://www.wychwoodfestival.com/whatson_workshops_saturday.php .

For me, the great pleasure of festivals is getting exposed to new and exciting experiences, from a hands-on workshop to bands I've never heard of. This day's big find was musical -- a Finnish band called Värttinä  http://www.varttina.com . With 10 albums and a 22 year world-touring history, it may be better late than never, but the large audience seemed as thrilled by their performance as I was. Fronted by three animated, tuneful and beautiful women, ably supported by six male musicians, they kind of resemble The Coors with five extra bloke in looks, or Abba in performance, but with a much more rootsy and authentic take on Scandinavian music. I ended up with 32 photos of 'em (not all shown here) which I hope to maybe swap for one or more of their albums.

Politically, the stalls on show were relentlessly reformist, from Bristol Stop the War, to Oxfam, via Greenpeace. But I didn't really expect anything very revolutionary, deep in the heartland of Tory rural Gloucestershire. And the most surprising delight was purely aesthetic -- magnificent, huge and surreal kites, dancing in the stiff breeze. An octopus being eyed-up by a gecko, a female scuba diver being pursued by two clown fish, a giant centipede and a multicoloured ray -- Magritte would have loved it, quit painting and taken up kite design!

If you appreciate musical culture from the world over, a laid back atmosphere and plenty to engage the senses and the mind, I recommend the Wychwood Festival. Here's hoping the organisers also rated it a sufficiently great success to make it a regular event.

In International Solidarity,

Tim D Jones

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