SESGF South of England Steel Guitar Festival

[ronkew]

Held at Long Ashton Community Centre, Bristol BS41 9DP to be held on Sat/Sun 11th/12th June 2016
For full details of this event, what it's all about, costs etc. please go to http://www.chanos-isgf.org/SESGF/

[David Hartley]

Who is going?

[Basil Henriques]

Good question Dave !

[rogerp1]

Looks like Ken's going

[Ken Byng]

Actually - Ken went.

[Donny Johnston]

How did it go Ken ?

[Ken Byng]

Quite honestly there could have been more bums on seats. The week-end from my perspective was very enjoyable and well organised on the 2 days concerned. What could have been improved was a better campaign to promote the weekend in good time. I got an email just a month ahead of the weekend. I am going to work with the organisers to be more strategic in the coming year with their promotional efforts and get the additional bodies that they need both on stage and in the audience. I have already got players who were completely unaware of last weekend's event committed to next year's show. I'm determined to see the event become a must-see festival for both players and fans. Who knows - if it can be built up to a decent level we could even get players from Europe or even the States to attend. Nothing is impossible.

I will be going to the NESGF in August, the sister show of the SESGF. It is apparent that the NESGF organisers are far more switched on with its ability of self promotion. The number of players who have committed to August's show is pretty impressive already. It's always difficult to get players to attend these shows if they are gigging musicians who make a living from playing.

[Basil Henriques]

If we had been given publicity material we could have put it in our magazine, that would have been circulated amongst players on the continent.
As for the NESGF, all of our little group of friends go there anyway and we do advertise that in our magazine even though we NEVER get publicity material from the organiser..
Digby seems to leave us out of all that kind of information.
Pat, myself, Rod & Rosemary King and Mike & Lin Eacock are making a three day break of the weekend in Thornton Watlass.

[Ken Byng]

I attended the monthly meeting at Thornton Watlass on April 24th. Unfortunately there were just 4 of us at the Buck Inn, but it was a lovely weekend that allowed me to catch up with Tony Davis and his wife, as I hadn't seen them for nearly 40 years.

In terms of attendance, commitment and interest level, the Scots are way ahead of us in England. I'm not sure how the Northern Ireland meets go these days, but Donny has got the Gartcosh meetings down to a fine art. I imagine that he has had to build things up from scratch, but the enthusiasm that I have seen when I have gone to Gartcosh on a couple of occasions has been incredible. Great atmosphere and lots of encouragement for the less experienced players. Not much apathy up there for sure.

These regular meetings across the UK are golden opportunities for the steel guitar to flourish and attract new players.