Love, Poetry and Revolution - The Idler Festival (Friday 7th July to Sunday 9th July 2023)

Owing to my attendance at the above festival at Fenton House in Hampstead (teeth obligatory) this post has all been written after the event and covers the entire three days. As my fingers tap the keys, it's now Monday, I am in Liverpool and the is persistently coming down. Let me take you back...

An altogether different Friday. I'm on leave. I'm packing to go to London this afternoon and then to Liverpool via home on Sunday.  I'm planning to leave at around a quarter to two for the station with a view to checking in to our accommodation in Belsize Park before meeting Q, who's travelling down by train from the 'pool.

I could go into lots of detail about my journey, but it's pretty mundane and without incident, apart from the penguins.

...and so it is that I find myself sitting opposite Belsize Park tube in the sunshiiine, when I spot Q across the road having emerged from the netherworld that is the Northern Line ('Mind The Gap'! anyone seen the British horror film 'Death Line'?)

A brief walk to our 'boutique' studio flat (it was pretty good and incredibly handy, but 'boutique'??? Not quite what I imagine when I read that word), a quick change of clothes then one stop up the line to Hampstead and a brief walk to Fenton House.

(Writing this after the event, will probably mean that you'll only get the highlights)

Highlights of Friday were meeting up with the Idler drinks gang that I've only on Zoom, until now; Louis Eliot's solo performance in the Orchard and Adam Buxton reading probable excerpts from his next book.  Servalan - hilarious stuff.

Louis Eliot turns out to be the guy from the band Rialto and plays an acoustic version of their hit.  Nice guy. I chatted with him afterwards for a bit and discovered that Rialto are touring again in November.  The festival is such a chilled place, I even ended up having my photo taken with him.

Great evening, but Q and I were so knackered we didn't stick around for the pub afterwards.

Late start to Saturday after a heat-disturbed sleep (and a fan built from old aeroplane parts, or so it sounded), eating brunch in Belsize Park and then heading off to the festival.

Yesterday was hot, today the heavens are bursting and thus the rain came down upon us, or at least it would have if we'd not found shelter in the Orchard. 

Despite the early rain, it was a great day. We had a variety of conversations with strangers during the rainiest moments as we were thrown together by the need to avoid being drenched. The rain eased off for a while and we managed to catch the end Georgia Mann's conversation about music on Radio 3 (not just classical) in the big tent (the festival's equivalent of Glasto's pyramid stage).

A couple of great talks in the afternoon, especially Anil Seth (neuroscientist) on consciousness were followed by two equally brilliant, but completely different guests:  Sindhu Vee and Arthur Jeffes.

Sindhu Vee is a stand-up comedian who has also appeared in the film of the musical 'Mathilda'.  She began with an incredibly funny ten-minute stand-up set with an excellent segment on w*nking, which had the audience rolling about.  Arthur Jeffes (of Penguin Café fame) played several piano pieces to the accompaniment of a backing built from sounds of the universe. 

From Fenton House to the William IV pub in Hampstead, for food and drink in the garden (with rain) at the festival after party.  Great fun and fish and chips!

The third and final day of the festival arrives and we begin by travelling to Hampstead on the tube, where we had breakfast at the Boulangerie Bon Matin in Flask Walk. A conversation was struck with some South Africans and a couple who were planning a trip to Cornwall. Turned out that the woman was from Brisbane (small world) which led to the broadening of the conversation. 

We have to travel back to Liverpool tonight (Q is working on Monday), so we only managed to see two of the day's guests: a comedian called Ben Pope and the actress and comedian Sally Phillips.  Ben performed an excerpt from his new act, which was wedding-themed and a very funny way to start a Sunday. Sally performed humorous monologues in character, beginning with a Bette Midler sketch and ending with an alcoholic nun.

After Sally's set, we said our goodbyes and headed back to the studio apartment before leaving for home. Once I'd picked up my stuff for the week, I began the drive to Liverpool.

The Idler Festival was excellent. It was as chilled as I'd hoped, very friendly, great to meet people I'd hitherto only met online and had much more to offer that I didn't have time to experience. I think we'll be back again next year and will ensure we're there the whole weekend.  I've only scratched the surface of the weekend, picking out highlights, and, in the words of Todd, 'There's always more'.

We got back to the 'pool around half-nine after a reasonable journey which managed to miss the madness of the post-Silverstone traffic.

Rialto / 'Monday Morning 5:19' / 'Rialto'

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