Thursday 25 June 2015

New experiences and places #22: Performing at a Festival

On Saturday I performed as part of Toque Tambor at Rhythms of the World. Toque Tambor is the Brazilian carnival drumming band which I am a part of. I did a blog post before Christmas when I took part in a parade. Rhythms of the World is Hitchin’s music festival which takes place in the grounds of Hitchin Priory, which is where I used to work.


I first heard about Toque Tambor when I saw them perform a few years ago. Our set was an hour long, and we’d been having weekly 3 hour rehearsals for about a month which was hard work.
On the day itself we had a 2 hour rehearsal in the morning and then we performed in the early evening. I played the tamborim and there were other groups from Bristol and other parts of the country joining us, so there were about 6-7 tamborim players, as well as our own director on stage with us, which was a great help.


Great photography skills Fran!

Before our set, a band called CC Smugglers did a set and me and my friend Penny went to watch them stage side (really surprised security didn’t turn us away.) The lead singer was in my maths class at school coincidently.


I haven’t performed on a stage since I was 18, so a long time! I’m not sure how many people we performed for, but we were on the main stage. My friend Coops and his girlfriend Fran watched me as Rhythms is where they first met. And my dad Bobby also came to watch me, which was a nice surprise. It was if I was 5 again in school assembly and seeing your parents in the audience and did a little wave.



I really enjoyed performing and when you see the crowd dancing along then that made it even better.

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