Swing Patrol @ Love Supreme 2016
(First 4 photos taken by me and I have no idea which professional photographer took the 5th - whoever you are thank you!)
A huge thank you to team Swing Patrol. Love Supreme 2015 was my first ever music festival (and ended up being the first of 5 for the year). It’s a great one to start with because it’s very chilled with a family friendly atmosphere and I just flipping love all types of Jazz! Many of our 2016 team were first time music festival attendees but everyone was on fine form from the very beginning. On Friday night we had a cheese and wine party - the best team building event! (I believe was captain Caitlin’s awesome idea). Everyone brought a different type of cheese from Wensleydale to baby bel…and yes some of us were a bit merry from the wine!
For Saturday and Sunday we got down to the seriously fun business which included a series of performances and “Lindy Bombs”. Just like last year, we had some great sessions in the kids area which included animal hand-to-hand lessons, social dancing, steal dances and routines including the shim sham + tranky doo. We also had some brilliant times at the main stage dancing to acts including Riot Jazz Brass Band, Burt Bacharach and Nick Hollywood.
Of course we had an amazing time swing dancing! However, we also had time to just relax and enjoy the festival. I think we could all agree that one of the highlights was watching Grace Jones’ wonderfully weird performance. This unbelievable 68 old lady isn’t just “May Day” (Bond villain from “A View to a Kill”) but one of the most energetic, creative and inspiring performers I’ve ever seen. How she can sing a whole song whilst hula hooping is beyond me! It certainly inspired some of the swing patrol gang. As I recall on the last night; some of us found a pineapple and did some weird ritual dance (and yes there is film footage somewhere). Furthermore, as shown in picture 3 we spent some time trying various crazy moves including aerials, triple swing outs and “the boat” - many thanks to Kester who came up with the idea!
I have to give a huge shout out to our remarkable captain Caitlin who led by example. For weeks she had been coming up with great ideas on our Facebook group, organised a get together a week before the festival as I mentioned above; came up with the cheese and wine party idea! Also; I have no idea how you found the energy to lead the swing patrol team during Love Supreme and then take part in the “rockakoke” finals on Monday evening (she kicked so much butt!)
So round 2 of Love Supreme Jazz Festival was just as good (possibly better) than last year. Swing dancing + jazz + awesome bunch of people is a combination that can never go wrong. I am seriously looking forward to round 3!