A festival reminiscent of 1980s Glasto with a country wedding feel
James Brown enjoys an eclectic mix of speakers and performers at the Laugharne Weekend festival
Among the many reasons Dylan Thomas gave for people moving to the tiny Carmarthenshire estuary town of Laugharne, a few remained obscure. Some residents, he believed, had no idea why they had come at all. He described them as “slowly, dopily, wandering up and down the street like Welsh opium eaters, half asleep in a heavy bewildered haze”.
Had the poet been alive today he would have seen a different tribe of people marching back and forth along the higgledy-piggledy high street between the Millennium Hall, the church and the pubs, where an impressive array of comedians, artists, authors and musicians were recently in conversation at the Laugharne Weekend festival.
Among those celebrating the 15th occurrence of this under-the-radar arts and literary event were Charlotte Church, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert of New Order, Will Sergeant of Echo & The Bunnymen, the artist Jeremy Deller, film-maker Don Letts, comedians Alexei Sayle and Stewart Lee, Martin Carthy of Fairport Convention, and many more.
The festival has something of a large country wedding about it. Every day you pass or bump into the same people you’ve met earlier and quickly find yourself on nodding and chatting terms. There’s no division between the audience and performer.
There is also no real suggestion that the event takes place in the social media age, no banners with sponsors’ logos, no hashtags, no video cameras creating content. It’s very much like 1980s Glastonbury. Outside the church, James Batcup of the Cover To Cover bookshop in the Mumbles sells 500 new books over the weekend alongside renowned rare books dealer Jeff Towns selling second-hand editions.
At events, you never know who you are going to see paired up. Nick Reynolds is a sculptor and member of the Alabama 3 pop group, most famous
Even the dead draw an audience here. Dylan Thomas would have liked that
for their Sopranos theme song, but he is also the son of the Great Train Robber Bruce Reynolds, which makes him the ideal man to interview leading British crime journalist Duncan Campbell, who is happy to stop and chat on his way to see Martin Carthy of Fairport Convention. It is Duncan’s wife who adds a sprinkling of extra excitement to the event though. Here she is with no airs or graces: Julie Christie, Oscar-winning star of Dr Zhivago and Don’t Look Now, a true Hollywood legend, who is happy to have her photograph taken or sign an autograph.
Dylan Thomas loved how different Laugharne was to anywhere else and first-hand experience suggests it remains so. After a long and fascinating night in the New Three Mariners Inn with Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant and beer expert and author Pete Brown, I found myself still chatting to the social historian Travis Elborough – there to discuss his new book about spectacles – outside the town graveyard at 1.30am, when there was an almighty clatter and a man drunkenly forward-rolled out of the hedge. Dusting himself down, he looked at us and said: “My mate’s dead up there.” As we were pondering whether he meant his friend was alcoholically comatose he climbed into a waiting taxi, rolled down the window and explained: “Yeah he’s been there for years but I like to go and see him every now and then.” Even the dead draw audiences in Laugharne and Dylan Thomas would have liked that.