The Lyme Bay Keyboard Experience
What Is It All About?
John Jackerman
My wife Ann and I attended the first Lyme Bay festival and we have only missed one since. There are many reasons we keep going back and to highlight any one would not give a view of the festival as a whole, so what makes it such a great weekend?
It’s a long drive to Lyme Bay so it’s nice to be met with a smile, all the staff from the receptionists to the bar staff are friendly and want to help. Keys and directions to the chalet are efficiently delivered and you are soon heading for your nice warm accommodation.
You can normally park quite close to your chalet, even if you can’t park by your chalet you can drop of your bags then park close by.
Chalets are centrally heated with thermostatically controlled radiators in the main room and bathroom that you set to your preferred temperature. Beds are comfortable, wardrobes big enough, the rooms are clean and there are tea and coffee facilities and a TV.
After unpacking we usually head for the restaurant to book our table, you have the same table for the complete weekend and the same waiter or waitress attends you for every meal. The food is always excellent with a good choice at every meal. If you don’t fancy what is on the menu then there is an excellent cold buffet, although whoever decided to put the chips between the salad and the cold meat has destroyed many a good intention.
On to the main reason for going, the concerts. Each evening there is a concert featuring four or five fantastic musicians playing organ, keyboards or piano. Cled has a talent for spotting promising newcomers and many of today’s top names had their first festival experience at one of Cleds festivals. The proceedings are managed by Andy Oakley the best MC we have ever seen, a great singer and a fantastic comic.
The concert hall is set out in concert format with tables interspersed among the chairs giving you somewhere to stand your drink. You get a good view of the stage from just about everywhere, to ensure everyone can see what is happening video screens are arranged to the sides of the stage.
Cled always manages to get a nice mix of players and instruments and every evening is different.
During the day there are master classes and discussions in the Tavern Lounge, in the main hall there are informal concerts and in the afternoon an hour of dancing. In Drakes Coffee bar you find a range of new and second hand organs for sale, possibly a range of ladies clothes, jewellery and more often than not members of the Organfax team.
The restaurant, Main Hall, Drakes Coffee Bar and Tavern Lounge are all under one roof and on the same level, once you leave your chalet to go to breakfast there is no need to go outside again until it is time to go to bed. If you do want to go for a walk the sea is across the road then a very short walk up a side street, the town is about ten minutes walk and has a range of shops worth visiting.
To give an overview of what the facilities are like and what goes on is relatively easy, to try and convey the atmosphere generated by a large group of people with the same interest all having a great time is very difficult, and to try and explain the Keyklix Klan finale (That’s Richard Bower, Ian Griffin and Andy Oakley) is impossible, all I can do is say you get fantastic music from Keyklix, some of the funniest songs you have ever heard and stories that will have you crying with laughter.
Lyme Bay is more than great music, more than lots of fun and more than friendship of like minded people, it is what it says on the poster, it is the "Lyme Bay Keyboard Experience."
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