Glastonbury Abbey - a Night at the Abbey - Friday 9th September 2011

Hundreds of people gathered at the Glastonbury Abbey on Friday Abbey for the second Night at the Abbey.  

The event came about due to local demand following the success of a similar event last year that took place in the evening following the Tour of Britain bike race and allowed people to wander freely around the ruins as the sun set while listening to the various local artists who were treating us to music and poetry in 6 separate venues around the Abbey grounds between 6pm and 10pm.  

Although the weather looked a little dicey earlier in the day, by evening the threat of rain had dissipated and the evening was warm and balmy, meaning that several people brought picnics, while many others tucked into hotdogs, cakes etc. while they meandered round listening to the artists.  A bar on site also provided mulled and cold award winning Abbey cider as well as various other hot and cold drinks and snacks.  

While adults enjoyed sitting around listening to the music on offer, it seemed that many of the children were just as content to make spooky shadow shapes on the walls of the ruins, but for everyone it was a rare opportunity to soak up the late evening atmosphere of the Abbey Ruins.

While there was too much going on for me to see everything, with stages set up in a Marquee, the Edgar Chapel, the Lady Chapel, the Abbot's kitchen, The St Patrick's Chapel and the Bardic Tent, highlights of the evening were the pop stylings of Shake the Tree, young keyboardist Chloe Warren (who even threw in a Florence and the Machine cover), The Kathy Judge Band and singer guitarist Steve Henderson, while Sharon Honeywell and Brad Lister's bluesy folky numbers, (including a great Portishead cover) in the Abbot's Kitchen were absolutely fantastic.  Unfortunately The Stylites who I was looking forward to seeing pulled out at the last moment due to illness.

The staff and performers all gave their time for free and the (very reasonable in my opinion) £3.00 admission fee went towards paying for the main cost of the evening, the  lights and illuminations.

Here's hoping for a third event in 2012.