A two-day music festival planned for the Bank Holiday weekend was an ambitious plan, but the Pickering Arms Manager Helen Riley and PickFest festival organisers Nick Quirk and Clare Gunes pulled it off and thoroughly deserve the plaudits for its excellent organisation.
When I interviewed the team pre-festival there was an air of nervous excitement but it goes to show what hard work can do and there was plenty of it! From 10 am on Saturday the heavens opened and it continued until 12:30 pm when thankfully, and as if on cue it stopped – was this a sign? It certainly was for this day as it turned out to be a cracker.
The free, mini-festival took place in the pub car park which became the site for the music stage, some marquees for shelter, the pub’s own wood-fired pizza and BBQ tent, Val’s Ice cream van and a children’s craft tent provided by ‘Bubbles and Brushes’. This was all cleverly linked to the pub by an external bar and additional covered seating and appeared very welcoming.
Readers should remember that the festival took place in the tiny village centre of Thelwall and Manager Helen remained very sympathetic to the feelings of the locals by keeping volumes down, as well as calling band curfew at 9 pm latest. This didn’t detract from some very fine performances from the musical acts that Nick Quirk had recruited though.
Many acts played material of their own with some covers and although there isn’t enough room in this brief article to detail each performance, readers can see who played on the picture of the line-up boards. You can also be assured that approx 250 revellers each day ranging from cute dancing babies, starstruck teenage fans of the band ‘Muddy Elephant’ and the fantastic ‘jivers’ thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Sunday was pretty much the same although a few bands failed to attend and organiser Nick did very well to bridge the gap before the band he manages – ‘Sister Envy’ closed the festival at 7.50 pm with a professional performance worthy of their recent signing to Nick’s ‘Yr Wyddfa Records’ label who was also the festival sponsor.
Author’s personal verdict? – “I loved this intimate, friendly festival and as a musician myself I observed some fine performances from the young to the more experienced. The weekend at the Pickering Arms was very well organised by all the team and it’s another event to add to the growing list of Warrington music festivals, I hope it’s on next year.”
Muddy Elephant
Manager Helen Riley
Festival organiser Nick Quirk
