On the border between England and Wales, in the quaint town of Hay on Wye, each year they hold a unique festival – How The Light Gets In. "There is a crack in everything...that's how the light gets in", goes the Leonard Cohen song from which the festival gets its name. And How The Light Gets In brings its own special form of magic to everyone. There is no other place on the planet where you can party and dance late into the night, fill your days with the world's leading thinkers, and discover the most cutting-edge ideas. The festival is billed at the world's largest Philosophy and Music Festival and we took PolyRhythm and the team to entertain there for the weekend with the magic we bring and our junk instruments for all and any to try. How The Light Gets In is not just another festival. There's something special in the air. It's alive with ideas and conversations. How The Light Gets In is not just another festival. There's something special in the air. It's an amazing place of wonder and creating a space where everyone's imagination can flourish and PolyRhythm was quite at home there as we enticed people in to pick up and play, to join in a jam or just to while away time and listen to others. We spent 4 days there with our team, 4 great days where we discovered developed and delivered. I`m not quite sure who got most out of this event, the participants or us and i think it was us and especially the youth with us. It gave chance for people of all ages to play together and for 8 hours a day, they played and then played some more. We had performers who took stage the night before, headlining the festival, come to join in with us the next day and as they said, for the vibe we gave off, it`s something they wanted to be part of, it was friendly fun and free. For us, it was organic. We generally turn up, set up and wait for people to pick up. Once the music starts off, it generally doesn’t stop for the weekend and so often far beyond through future offers of collaboration, followers on Facebook and visits to where we are next or to our base back in Cornwall. We really didn’t quite know what to expect at this festival, we had read about it, researched it and had a minds vision of it but until we are there, until the people join in, it's just a vision of our imagination. What we realised there was quite different, there were more adult participants than children and the adults wanted to play just as much and this was great to see as so often, they are more reserved and its children to dive straight in but to see the joy it delivered to an older audience was magic. The smiles we helped create and the memories made simply through music, a bit of funk or soul on rainy Sunday morning or the soundbites from Saturday, each day was magic. It really is something we want to return to as although we were there to work, the work was more pleasure with friendships made and the inspiration gained through a few beats of a song. For us, its our second year of festivals with PolyRhythm and it helped open up our eyes and thoughts to what could be. We want to go back but we also want much much more. The experience it gave our young people with us and the ideas that stemmed from that need to be explored more. The Solar power units that provided power to our amps and some of the junk instruments have so much more potential and again, should go bigger and should be explored more. Conversations came easy at How The Lights Get In and i think it may be because they have open minds and can understand the changes we want to see as they also want those changes. They understand the way we work and the overall idea of a share library of musical instruments; the likes they have never seen before and realise they want one in their town because they are simply magic. My favourite quote of the weekend was from a new friend called John who stated that the last time he was in Cornwall he was there for the eclipse and spent a long weekend with Jimmy Pursey and a few bottles of Cidre. I knew from that point, I was in the right place with the right people. We hope we are back there next year as we really did enjoy it. Philosophy and Music may not be everyone's cup of tea buts its ours and we loved it and we thank you for letting us be there for the weekend. John – Team PolyRhyhtm
1 Comment
David Carney
27/6/2022 08:51:50
Thanks Nav Navs for the referral
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