Growing Well harvest celebrations

We had a jolly time on Friday helping the good folk at Growing Well celebrate their harvest. The volunteers, staff and supporters of Growing Well were joined by the Amblesingers, Pandora's Handbag and ourselves for an evening of shared singing and food. All three singing groups have members that work with Growing Well and it was a pleasure to be part of recognising the difference that they have made to the lives of many.

Growing Well based at Low Sizergh Farm, near Levens provides local people with mental health problems with an effective, supportive and inclusive farm-based community. It supports people to improve their mental wellbeing by involving them in a range of activities within a organic growing business. Produce is sold in the Low Sizergh Farm shop and is distributed to supporters via the Cropshare scheme. To find out more...

Party time

We have had a great time over the last few weeks entertaining the guests and ourselves at two of our members birthday celebrations.

First it was Paula's birthday and then yesterday we sang at Paul's surprise birthday party at the wonderful Yan centre in Griesdale Forest.

It was an opportunity to try out two new songs.

Malaika arr Rebecca Gross


Wild Mountain Thyme arr Helen Yeomans


Hope you like them, we do. They are both set to be regulars in our repertoire.

Great Day! at Kendal Food Festival...

My day at Kendal Food Festival by Jane Watson.

…So the weekend started out a tad disappointing,  as I was one of the thousands who ended up sharing that trending hashtag: #nokatebushtickets on Twitter.  It soon improved, as I joined my fellow  Fellside Singers as one of the ‘turns’ for Kendal Food Festival - billed as ‘Taste the best of the North Country’ : - and it had stopped raining.  What’s not to like?  We Fellside Singers like a bit of a ‘sing’ outside - flash-mob type approach, and we gathered, menacingly, dressed in black and purple, (more mooch than mob, it has to be said) in the Market Square,  for a 25 minute set on the unsuspecting food-lovers of Kendal.   The unpredictability of singing outside gets your heart racing a bit - lippy kids start dancing and pulling faces at you, shoppers can barge right in front of you; totally ignoring your director; everyone’s chatting and shouting, trying to put us off, or make someone laugh by a cheeky dance in front of us; and on the last number I looked behind me and had a bloke stood right up close and personal on my right shoulder, staring and listening intently.   Little bit scary has to be said....But the show must go on.   We bowed to the crowd, and even got a nice applause and a few cheers after ‘Shosholoza’ one of our South African numbers.

So we all went our separate ways into the Food festival - still buzzing at bit, adrenaline flowing, working our way up and down the stalls.   What a Great Day (also one of our songs…ahem)  The Cumbrian Whisky samples went down rather well, soothing the throat and calming the nerves;  the coffee and cake swiftly followed -  a welcome sugar and caffeine boost. Off then for an excuse for more food and drink - tastings, temptations, music and entertainment followed, from traditional pie-stall with exquisitely hand-made offerings; to spicy scented curries wafting through the air, to offerings from the pungent cheese stalls, with oils, vinegars and pickles to mix and match.  We sat down for a breather in the fair-trade fresh coffee stall,  making free coffees for donations to water charities and chatted to Richard - our fantastic town crier who’d been bringing the Festival to life by announcing all sorts of activity going on up and down the high street.  We watched a bit of drama at the Birdcage; bought far too much bread from all the excellent artisan bread stalls (what's that about Wool is my Bread?  both are definitely a habit-forming weakness for me..…) we had a lovely pleasure of bumping into old friends we hadn’t seen for ages, whilst we checked out the livestock - a great reminder of all the farming heritage we are so lucky to enjoy in this part of the world - assorted sheep, lambs and cattle and chicks and a few friendly dogs.  We watched a comedy routine who turned out to be local chefs but were more like a Peter Kay double act; and then wandered off happily in the sunshine along the river down to K Village to pick up the car, with bags full of all sorts of goodies.  

As we drove back home I put the radio on and Kate Bush was singing…then struck the next brainwave, maybe the Brewery or Rheged would live-stream one of her concerts - second best thing to being there and we don’t even have to go out of Cumbria ?!!  Either that or we Fellside Singers could have a go at Wuthering Heights?   Now,  that would call for a bit of a gargle with the whisky....

Festival of Food

We had a great morning entertaining the crowds at the Kendal Festival of Food.

We sang a set of eight songs to an appreciative audience in the middle of the festival in Kendal's Market Square.

Check out our finale performance of Shosholoza.

Food Festival Update

We have a time, date and place!

We will be singing at 11am on Saturday 29th March in Kendal Market Square.

Hope to see you there.