It's more than just music... isn't it?
As the sun set on Boia Festival 2024
The last in my current series of posts from the 2024 Boia Festival in St Davids, Pembrokeshire, though there may be more reflections in the futureā¦. You can find the full set of festival posts in the Boia section in this publication: https://ziggyslament.substack.com/s/boia
āAs the sun sets on Boia 24 letās all reflect on what was an epic weekend of incredible music, love and laughter. Thank you to every single one of you who, danced, sang, laughed, cried, swore (you know who you are), worked & performed. What an amazing little festival weāve got here and without all of you this wouldnāt happen. Our feet are tired but our hearts are full. Love, love, love. See you all next year.ā
Steve Prior, on Facebook as BoiaFestival, 28/10/24
1. Love, love loveā¦
Music can speak to us in so many different ways and leave us feeling euphoric, nostalgic, happy and sad - and lots of emotions in between. It also comes with a built in sense of love and community. It can help us grieve or come to terms with difficult times in our lives. We can lose ourselves in the wonderful noise of the dance floor or concert hall; touch something deep and quiet inside us when listening to an artist singing in a beautiful space - as if just for usā¦
The Boia Festival in the tiny City of St Davids is a festival based on love. Not in a creepy, vibey way, nor in a kind of ālove and lightā escapism, nor even with a Beatles All You Need Is Love sort of nostalgia. Boiaās love is a down to earth music thing in the middle of a city (albeit one in which only a few hundred people live!).
People walk up and down two streets of the place, between the two main venues, and in and out of the pubs, bars and cafes where many of the bands and musicians play short sets in between their main performances. At this yearās festival, one act (The Ocelots, harmonising Irish folk twins) estimated that theyād played seven times over the space of three days! Many musicians shared the stage with each other, providing backing rhythm sections, vocals and other forms of accompaniment. They also went out to support each other as audience members, and were often the most enthusiastic fans.
At the final gig of the weekend ā featuring Lanterns on the Lake ā there was a lovely fan-girl exchange between lead singer, Hazel Wilde and Scottish singer, Kathryn Joseph who was standing in the audience just a little way back from the stage. Kathryn, (a multiple Scottish music award winner) had performed three well-received sets over the course of the weekend ā the first at the Tabernacle on Friday, which I was privileged to attend. Both seemed overwhelmed to see each other. It was a kind of āyouāre brilliantā, āno, youāre brilliantā¦I saw you play in North Shields!ā sort of exchange that was so warm-hearted and heartfelt.
There was such love in that moment ā and in numerous other conversations and interactions between musicians and attendees of the festival over the weekend. Like punk band, Bodega stopping to congratulate the bunch of long haired kids at the front (maximum age, probably nine) on their hardcore dancing. Like Rozi Plain who, cleared the floor in front of the stage and got āPenny the gymnastā (aged around eight) to do a brief performance of her own, and eliciting a big cheer. Like the conversations that were taking place in every venue, as people worked down the streets between shows, and in the record shop (the wonderful Deadsea Records) across the road, where people browsed vinyl (and beer) on a sunny Saturday in October. I could go onā¦
The whole thing is curated with love too by Steve Prior and his team. itās the kind of love that cares about a craft, that knows that it matters who comes and plays, because they will āgetā this thing. The players and the punters all get it; we all understand that there is something special about music ā this music ā that comes from fields, oceans, cities and traditions all across the world and across multiple generations of, mainly, working-class people gathering themselves together to play, sing, dance and listen to folk, soul, jazz, rock, hip hop, or anything else we like to call it.
This year at the festival there were headline sets from bands from Liverpool, New York and Newcastle, and loads of other acts from the UKās Celtic fringes, Ireland and beyond. These are all people who spend their lives touring, writing, recording and performing ā for the love of it mainly ā because thereās not that many in this business who get rich and stay rich, despite what the media would like to tell us. Success is won dearly, and fame in the music business can turn out to be damaging, exploitative and traumatic. And yet, for those who tour around like the modern day troubadours they are ā landing at Boia this weekend and Other Voices in Cardigan the next ā itās being in love with music that drives them. In love, yes, with the compulsive beauty that comes from inside them as songwriters and musicians, but also for each othersā creations and creativity.
And those of us who are ājustā listeners ā who buy and play music and attend festivals like Boia, rather than play at them ā are driven by love too. For me, itās a love thatās been with me since I was a tiny child, then a teenager finding music that blew me away and made me want to be in a band; then an adult for whom one the most important things has been discovering the soundtrack to my life; to the person I am today (someone my eight year old granddaugher refers to as an āolder personā) at 66, still finding new music to love and listen to, some of it in the last few years discovered at the Boia Gigs and Festivals that Steve Prior and his team so lovingly curate.
And there is so much out there in the vast ecologies of music that are our human birthright, and which provide us with something unique and wonderful even as we try to live in this troubled and breaking world. Even as the world breaks apart, there will someone with a guitar, composing an elegy or song of hope to capture our emotion and offer it us backā¦ with love.
2. BIG MUSIC, itās notā¦
Boia is unique and special. And itās also not. There are numerous small community-based music gatherings and festivals around the UK and beyond. I know of some and have been to a few. So, Boia is not unique in that it aims to channel the love of music ā and what comes through that love when its played live ā but there are not that many places where everyone is there for the joy of hearing and playing original live music, and sharing the excitement and love.
BIG MUSIC in concert arenas and large festivals has become the dominating economy. This does bring music - often excellent music - to large groups of people, and offers a communal experience that can be life-changing (one way or another!). Yet, these events are commercial entities first and foremost. Yes, theyāre a way for big artists (or once big artists) to reach the fans who want to see them, but ultimately itās capitalism at work here. The Big Sell is the thing.
Iām not naive, Boia sells its tickets and the artists come and sell their āmerchā ā though many of them say that word with a degree of irony; they know theyāre not really here to sell, but to play. Still, ticket sales pay the artists and the artists need to get paid, otherwiseā¦ well it just wouldnāt be fair, would it?
Itās already ānot fairā, of course. We live in a culture that rewards the creation of wealth (and pays its ādirectorsā and āmanagersā very well) but what this economy actually ācreatesā might not always seem much of real value. When politicians talk about ātalentā, they mean financial, commercial, political and entrepreneurial talent. We must pay ātalentā, they say, or we will lose these very clever people (who create, direct and manage little but wealth and power). And yes, I know that, in our interconnected world, the way in which wealth is created is inextricably tangled up with everything else and, no, hedge fund managers arenāt all inherently bad people! There might even have been one or two at Boia this year!
The point is that the talent that really takes the breath away is seen in artists, musicians and writers ā creators, not of wealth, but of beauty. Other cultures in history have understood this and some still do. Our culture ā moulded by capitalism ā doesnāt seem to care about losing this talent; it sees cultural value only in the packaging of art. Creating a āmarketā for it. Selling commercial franchises and sponsorship at large festivals. Making it pay. But paying who? Very rarely the artists themselves, unless they get lucky and are able to take commercial control over their own workā¦ and often thatās just another version of the same Big Selling game.
Yet we all know that great, original music would still exist if it wasn't āpackagedā. The love would still be there, people would still gather to be moved to tears and laughter in concert halls, around campfires, and in front of makeshift stages in pubs to sing, listen and dance. People would still experiment with new sounds and technologies and create new forms of wonderful noise. Punk, or its equivalent in whatever era, would still come along and break moulds, and balladeers and troubadours would still tell us the stories of our age ā dark stories of death, bright stories of love and all those in between. Imagine just a little more and artists would get well paid, and may even be recognised as the real ātalentā ā the stars of the show in a very tangible sense ā though I suspect that most would still rather compose, write and play, regardless.
Just below the surface of a system that has created the monsters of climate crisis, venture capital and dynamic pricing on gig tickets, lies the possibility of living in relationship and community in our villages, towns, cities and cultures. We do this already, actually. We practice kindnesses on a daily basis. We (most of us) deal fairly with one another. We look after those less privileged than we are (or we aspire to), and we love beauty and the creators of beauty, whether it be in the form of music or another form of art, poetry, film or storytelling. We value gifts and exchanges. We live small ā even when our communities are in the heart of big cities or conurbations ā and we recognise love when we see it.
What makes Boia special, in part, is that Steve Prior and those around him are committed to values such as these, and try to put them into practice in this small corner of Wales. No one gets things totally right, so there are going to be glitches and mistakes along the way (though this yearās Boia went pretty well, I think!), but when something goes a bit awry, nothing big goes terribly wrong. Thereās ambition and big plans, of course, but realism and living within means is important, and dealing with people (artists, promotors, agents, partners etc.) who āgetā it (whatever āitā might be) is an imperative.
It is this kind of āsmall is beautifulā, community based approach that can make quiet change in hearts, minds and communities. Boia doesnāt ever aim to change to world, but it makes change all the same. Which is to say that, under the brash, bright, showbiz clouds of BIG MUSIC, the ānew musicā is already happening, quietly, beautifully, sometimes very noisily, quite drunkenly and with a bit of swearing at times, in places like St Davids most weeks of the yearā¦
3. Itās more than just music, isnāt it?
Part of what I love about Boia as a festival, and the gigs that Steve puts on at other times through the year (see my piece on John Blek in September for example), is the emphasis on the music ā and original music at that (it would be easy to go for tribute bands to attract punters to hear versions of their favourite songs and musical eras. Thatās a subject for a post of its own, I think, in the future!).
The question asked at the top of this piece was: āItās more than just music, isnāt it?ā Of course, music is at the heart of Boia, but, as Iāve also acknowledged, thereās community, values, friendship and love there too. So this isnāt really an either/or, more an acknowledgement that a music festival like Boia has the potential for something more contextual, relational and collaborative. Of the big festivals, Glastonbury would be the most obvious example of this. There, all kinds of art, politics, community (plus mud and camping) are all in the mix. Itās still commercial, and very obviously part of BIG MUSIC, but it also has ideals and tries to give people a great time without diluting the music offering. On the contrary, it consciously and deliberately promotes new and original music.
Boia has the potential for something like this ā appropriately at a much smaller and sustainable scale. It has already been building the community bit with Boia Trail pub and cafe venues featuring many of the main festival artists ā as well as others ā playing short sets free of charge and, this year, the Thursday local bands night, featuring students and graduates from the the Pembrokeshire College Music Production course (which was excellent by the way, see my post HERE).
In addition, the 2024 festival also included an Arts Trail ā which was admittedly small with just two installations at the Seion Chapel in New Street, up the road from the City Hall. However, they provided a different experience of how music, art and activism can be curated, and perhaps gave a pointer for the future. This interested me, in particular, because of the work I do with Unpsychology Magazine, a publication that aims to do a similar thing: curating multimedia collaborations, often including music ā that respond to themes of place and ecology, as well as big issues such as the climate emergency and social equity.
The two exhibits in this yearās festival were intriguing. The first was a collaboration between local painter, Tony Kitchell and sound artist, Richard James (previously with Welsh legends, Gorkyās Zygotic Mynci). Tony has a studio (Studio 6, see above) in St Davids, but he has also had a creative relationship with the festival since 2022. Simply put, he goes to some of the gigs and paints the bands and artists. His work is impressionistic and colourful, and makes a change from the usual gig photos! I watched him paint from across the room as I watched Chloe Foy play her lovely set at the Tabernacle, and you can find his painting of her and strings accompanist, Charlie Schnurrā£ā£ ā together with others from the festival HERE on his website.
This exhibition entitled Modrwy Dimwit1 (Diamond Ring) comprised the stunning artwork above hanging above the clock in the Seion Chapel in St Davids, and Richard Jamesā surround sound compositions, which filled the Chapel space with strange and beautiful music from electronica, voice and harp ā featuring the artist AccĆ¼ (Angharad Van Rijswijk, who played her own mesmeric set at the Tabernacle on Saturday), together with the voice of 15 year old Lili Williams taking about the climate emergency and what it means for the future. I visited on the Saturday morning of the festival, and it was a moving and immersive experience. Alone in the chapel listening to the music, and staring at Tonyās artwork, it felt profound, and a fitting opening to my day.
You can find and download the music from Richard Jamesā Bandcamp page:
The second installation was in the neighbouring Seion Chapel Vestry. This one was also pretty special. A film entitled There is really here, which is part of a project, The Utopian Impulse, by West Wales artist Ben Lloyd. The project was supported by the Arts Council of Wales, and is on tour over the next few months.
According to the blurb:
The exhibition features a short film āThere is really hereā, a sci-fi art film devised and directed by Ben Llwyd and produced and directed by Kay Czuba, explores utopian themes through a narrative inspired by the novel "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Shot on the summer solstice, the film stars Mabli JĆŖn Eustace, features a voiceover by Jerome Flynn, and has been described as, āentrancing and thought-provoking.ā
I loved this piece, and got lost in its colours, sounds and images. I hope Ben will release the film at some stage, because Iād love to see it again soon!
So, in answer to my own question, NO, the Festival is not just about the music, but a whole experience of community, art and relationship. It was an important weekend for me, in a number of ways, and being at Boia was a genuine inspiration for me ā as well as being a place of solace and healing following the death of my Dad the month before. I really canāt wait for next yearā¦!
Notes
These are the notes for the Modrwy Diemwnt show from the handout picked up at the Seion Chapel, St Davids during Boia Festival 2024:
Modrwy Diemwnt - sonic and visual art installation (main chapel) Fri 25-Thu 13 October, 10am-6pm.
Sound artist, Richard James, and painter, Tony Kitchell, are collaborating to create a sound and visual art installation with the shared themes of community, environment and climate change. Richard has created a series of immersive 5.1 surround sound and music pieces which flow into one another to complement Tony Kitchell's artwork, Modrwy Diemwnt, within their shared and collaborative overarching themes of nature, environment, and climate.
Included in Richard's compositions are natural sounds recorded in the environment in Pembrokeshire, including the musical characteristics of local Preseli blue stones at Carn Menyn (famous for being part of Stone Henge in Wiltshire). A section of the recording also includes the voice of fifteen year old Lili Williams, relaying her thoughts on climate change and the climate emergency, looking ahead to the future, and recorded conversations with her friends and contemporaries. The artist AccĆ¼ also contributes harp and vocal to some of the pieces.
The compositions are inspired by the landscapes of west Wales, the urgency for action on the climate emergency, and ancient pagan relationships to nature, highlighting the need for a reawakening and new appreciation of aĀ symbiotic and respectful relationship with the natural world, in the transition to cleaner energy production, which is less destructive to the natural environment than the extraction and burning of fossil fuels.
A stereo mix of the music produced for the surround sound installation will be available to download from the Evolution Of Beauty Bandcamp page (see below) from the opening day of the festival, with a suggested donation to a climate and/or social justice charity.
Tony's work, co-created with local school children, will include a large visual art piece suspended from the ceiling, inspired by the visual experience of a total eclipse of the Sun, often referred to as diamond ring, modwy diement in Welsh, due to the black disc of the Moon being ringed by the Sun's thin firey corona against the darkness of space. Tony will be using charcoal made from bushes which caught fire on the cliffs near St. Davids in the heat wave of 2022 (caused by climate change). He will also utilise recycled materials in its construction.
Tony Kitchell - https://www.studiostdavids.com
Richard James Evolution Of Beauty bandcamp - https://evolutionofbeauty.bandcamp.com
Richard James/Evolution Of Beauty linktree account - https://linktr.ee/HotelETAI