Beoga, Club Tent war, Bassekov Kouyate

While I keep spotting Kate Rusby out of the corner of my eye and muse whether buying a mandolin is really a good idea, the music just keeps coming at Cambridge. In the Club Tent, the smallest of the three stages (but most intimate) we had Irish folkers Beoga, an enthusiastic band who really shone.

Their performance was notable, however, for a decisive skirmish in the eternal war of Sitters vs Standers at Cambridge.
There are those who take Cambridge sitting down, in folding chairs and on blankets, with kids running about and a copy of the Times or Guardian draped across their lap. Then there are those who insist on standing, nodding their heads to the music with a pint of warm ale held aloft. These two groups do not get on. Outside the Club Tent, during Beoga's performance, it began to rain, drenching the Standers, who naturally demanded that the Sitters get up and bunch together to let them in. Their cries went unheeded until bodhranist Eamon Murray suggested that this was a good course of action, and so the crowd rose to their feet and surged forward. Got people out of the rain, perhaps, but it didn't exactly give us at the back a better view.

On the Main Stage, then, it was Mali's Bassekov Kouyate and his group playing the ngoni, a lute-like instrument which he pounded out some impressive solos on. He apologised for his bad English, but charmed us with his music anyway. Cambridge usually has one or two representatives of African music every year, and they rarely disappoint.