KT @ Musicport

Growing up with both parents and an aunt in the traditional music scene, I've been around folk and world music ever since I was a tiny pram-bound little KT. I've been to more folk festivals than I can count, and while I drifted out of it as a teenager a bit, now I'm older I realise I really do still love some of it. Other parts, namely the bits that involve excessive amounts of morris dancing, bohdrans or taking yourself too seriously I'm less of a fan of, but there's a huge amount of trad and world music that I adore.

And with that in mind, the more I think about it, the more insane it is that I never went to Musicport before.

If you don't know the festival, it's a weekend long celebration of world and trad music that used to take place in Whitby but this year took over Bridlington Spa. The atmosphere was great, really friendly and up for anything, and some of the music was top notch. Artists from all over the world, with music ranging from straight up traditional, through jazz and dance of all kinds from tribal to tango to techno. I paid my way by running a small workshop on the basics of manga drawing, which was a lot of fun and I'd love to do again some time. (Perhaps with more than an hour to do it in next time, although some of us relocated to the bar afterwards for more doodling.) I had been a little concerned it was a little unusual to run at a music festival, but there was a decent turnout and it was great to see people of all ages having a crack at drawing. I helped out with the artists' green room as well, and then spent the rest of the time hanging backstage or being out there enjoying the music.

Suffice to say, I'm more than geared up to go again. In the mean time, I'll leave you with some of the photographs I took while I was there.