Friday 31st July until Sunday 2nd August 2009 @ The Harbourside, Bristol
Featuring Performances From: VV Brown, Candi Staton

Much talk of the credit crunch dogged the preparation of this year’s Harbour Festival with sponsorship options becoming limited as companies tighten their belts. For a while the people of Bristol held their breath waiting to see if the event would be scaled down to a recession sized Harbourside special and that the biggest non-ticket festival in Europe, the crown they took from Ashton Court Festival, would be awarded to another event, held by another city; heaven forbid Bristol should loose that accolade!

Panic over! A few partners signed up and were desperate to charge forwards; Bristol Harbour Festival 2009 was on, bigger and better than ever! More directional, more integrated and more inspiring. The sun gods smiled upon us, despite the MET Office’s woeful forecast, sealing the fate of this year’s event as a rousing success.

2009’s event added more programmes to the offering, a few new fringe venues and an extensive range of music never seen before on the Harbouside. To say I was impressed by this year’s programme would be a phenomenal understatement; I was entirely bowled over by the incredible success story Bristol Harbour Festival. The organisers must have been working against and around the clock, against a tight budget and against the odds and they’ve come up trumps!

This year’s event saw a killer line-up: VV Brown was incredible; a tremendous vocalist, winning smile and incredible gravity defying hair. Candi Staton stormed the stage, back to her folky soul roots and I personally loved it. The best thing about the Harbour Festival is the sheer number of Bristol bands playing at the event; a huge success in programming, a huge success in organisation. With seven performance stages and three fringe stages, this event is the biggest of its kind in the city.

The Harbour Festival shows other events just how it’s done! A fabulous event bringing together history, music, dance, culture, music, great food, bunting and of course boats, lots and lots of boats. Proudly showcasing a huge number of local bands, local dance acts and local people, this really is a celebration of all things Bristol and the people of Bristol turned out in force to help celebrate our city and everything that makes it great. This weekend is truly one which awakens the city from slumber and shouts very proudly…I am a Bristolian, gert lush!!!

www.bristolharbourfestival.co.uk

Faye Westrop
Photos by Ian Bradely - www.ianbradleyphotography.com