Eighth Year at Buxton Fringe 7 July 2018

9.10. Plenty of time to give out the remaining twenty flyers. As I stroll down the hill another car full of our members passes me. Later I see them and one or two others, including Jeff, sitting outside a café. Sitting outside a café in Buxton at 9.20? That's a new one. It's going to be a lovely day.

"Would you like to come to our concert?" I say to Jeff.

"Oh, yes please."

He immediately hands the flyer on to a passer-by. I give him a small fistful to pass on to others.

The last half dozen go into a vintage furniture and coffee shop. "Just the sort of thing our customers like," says the assistant.

Outside one hotel is a sculpture entitled "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". A lady is staring at it. "We sing that one too," I say as I hand her a flyer. I spot her in our audience in our second concert.  So, these flyers work.

It's is quite touching that in several venues where I've dropped off leaflets on my two previous visits to Buxton they've clearly photocopied a few more. Everyone in this delightful town is so supportive of the Fringe Festival.  

We worry a little about the football. I even spot one St Mary's regular at the United Reformed Church. Oh dear. We needn't have worried. At both concerts there were just a few people fifteen minutes before the start. When we appeared at 11.00 at the United Reformed Church and 3.00 at St Mary's the audatoria were both two thirds full – slightly over, perhaps, with just a few more at St Mary's.  Ah! Football – you won't stop us.

Our reviewer picked out that we enjoy singing. Yes, we most certainly do. And it was fun. Read the full review here. It was good to sing some old favourites with which we are confident and we also enjoyed airing Sway and The Blessing.

Of course, there is the usual group photo, this time accompanied by a cat. Do you spot him?  

We are awash with tea and cake. Gallons of tea. There must be, because we use almost a gallon of milk. Such a variety of cake. Some good baking and excellent choices in shopping. This allows us plenty of time to chat to our audiences.

As I go back to my car, I spot the group that followed us at the United Reformed Church.

"How did it go?" I ask. They had performed a short murder mystery play.

"Quite well," they say.  "We had a decent audience in the end."  

I suppose we did cater for people who don't like football.

Yes, another superb day at Buxton. Thank you to Mary at the United Reformed Church and Eric and Eric at St Mary's who made us so welcome and helped our events to run smoothly.   

                  

               

Buxton Fringe 15 July 2017

Yes we're here again. It's a little cool first thing and the jingle-jangle of the Morris dancers as we eat breakfast and later lunch remind us that both the main festival and the fringe keep on growing. Now several members are staying overnight in order to enjoy other performances.  

"Oh yes, Buxton is busy in July," one of the residents claims. We learn that people are coming from all over. Earlier in the month a couple of us came and distributed leaflets. All the local businesses are so friendly and helpful. They're all willing to take a few flyers. It was a good day to be there, in fact. We were able to see some of the well dressings and the pump room was open. Bonuses for sure! 

The day warms up, so do our voices and so do our lovely audiences. You can read a full review here. Do take a look. You'll need to scroll down but the other reviews are interesting, too. We feel privileged to be reviewed by Keith Savage who is the chair of the Fringe Festival. It's very clear that he knows what we're all about. All of the Fringe's reviewers are friendly, generous and constructive in their reviews anyway and we've met many of them over the years. 

We get those double basses tuned for I Say a Little Prayer, Amanda sings the solo in Somewhere Out There beautifully, and Fix You, One Day Like This and In Remembrance are each responsible for a few tears. 

"Which is your favourite?" asks one lady. 

"Difficult to say. I think I tend to like them all once I know them and can really perform them. Which did you enjoy the most?"

"Also difficult to say. I enjoyed them all. Even when we had to sing."  

   

Ah. There you are, you see.

      

The United Reformed Church and St Mary's in Buxton now feel like home. Our audiences are a mixture of old friends and new faces.

And what of the cake?

"Who made the white rocky road?"

"You should try the chocolate one – it's triple chocolate."

"Boiled fruit cake? Boiled fruit cake? How does that work? My, it works." 

At least two members admit to eating a lot of cake and yet there is plenty for all of our guests. There is definitely something about A Cappella and cake. Which is probably why we do it, after all.      

Buxton again – 16 July 2016

It was lovely to be again in this pleasant historic town in the High Peak. The people in Buxton really do get behind both the main festival and the fringe. Ten days before our concerts (United Reformed Church at 11.00 a.m. and St Mary’s at 3.00 p.m.) two of us popped over to the town and distributed leaflets.

Theresa had the crafty idea of handing over the bigger posters with the blu-tak already attached.

“Could we put up one of our posters?” she asked in one of the shops we visited.

“Well, you can give it to me and I’ll put it up,” said the shopkeeper a little sternly. The sternness disappeared after he had quickly read through the details. His eyes lit up. “Oh yes. I heard you sing last year at St Mary’s.”

“Come again this year,” we both said.

He grinned. “I’ll try to get there.”  

No-one said no.  Every shop and café or other sort of business took one of our posters or a bunch of flyers. We even put one through the door of a music shop that was closed.  We scribbled a friendly note on the back. We were pleased at lunchtime on Saturday to see that they were displaying it.   

We don’t know of course who came because they saw a flyer. We have a vague idea who were family members and friends. There were certainly strangers in both venues though some familiar faces too. We took about £400 on the doors and sold twenty tickets electronically. The United Reformed Church only had seven spare seats. If people hadn’t been sitting in the lounge area at the back the main area would have been full. The main part of St Mary’s was full and a dozen or so people had to sit in the aisles. We made gallons of tea and we and our audiences consumed pounds of cake.

“Do they come for the music or the cake?” I asked another tenor.

“Both I should think,” he replied.   

Who are all these people, we wondered. It’s always a little nerve-racking, not knowing whether or not you’ll get a decent audience. We got two delightful audiences, in fact.  

“The acoustic is different here,” Jeff warned us as we started our warm-up at St Mary’s. “Feel it now.”

At both places we sang a variety of new material and well-established repertoire. I noted some enthusiastic applause for both Royals and One Day Like This. Several people closed their eyes as they listened to the lullabies and the silly love songs. There were tears from a few as we sang In Remembrance. We finished with Kiss the Girl and Build me Up Buttercup each time. I thought we gave these two a lot of energy.

And what did our audience think? Well, it says in the Guest Book “A Cappella and Cake – What a lot of fun! Hugely enjoyable.” Perhaps my fellow tenor was right then.

We were helped enormously by Mary from the United Reformed Church and Eric and Eric from St Mary’s. Yes, the people of Buxton really do get behind this vibrant festival. We love being part of it.    

And here's what the Buxton Fringe reviewer, Carol Bowns said.