Conjured once again from beneath our secret hedgerow home, deep in the mystic hills, we present the new, better, wilder, Raconteurs’ Delight. Our diverse troop returns offering all the fun of the fayre – poets, storytellers, theatre and circus, the chance to dance and sing, drum and play, all washed down with magic recipes and potions squeezed from the ancient hedgerow’s bounty.
That’s Raconteurs’ Delight - nestling unobtrusively in the heart of the festival, surrounded by food stalls. A recycled Green Gathering institution reused, replanted but definitely not reduced… Raconteurs’ is all about the magic of performance, the magic of the venue - a chance to Reconnect through words, stories and music to the earth and to experience the wonder.
To encourage your wellbeing and recuperation, and to ensure your security we encourage you to check your insecurities at the door, with the help of The Insecurity Guards or take your cure from The Elemental Health Service. Please understand this is for your own good. We ask you to comply with their requests or instructions - to ensure a safe and healthy environment within the venue.
Roll-up. roll-up…there is so much going on. So many eclectic treats waiting to be discovered.
Pete The Temp returns (voted most popular spoken word artist last year). With his anarchic deeply emotional performance.
Zena Edwards is a multi award winning spoken word poet of African Caribbean British heritage with over 30 years on stage working with famous musicians or exploring ecopoetics – a captivating voice and presence.
Louise the Poet returns offering two spoken word shows: Bird St.- a massive celebration of ten years of performance poetry bangers. Featuring working class heroes, young mothers and the early rave scene. The Pleasure Dome – take your little feelings-junkie-self on a dash through the house of fun- explored through lyric poetry and dystopian prose poetry. Here are the Romantic Poets. Here are some bands from the 1980’s. Here is a bathroom. Here is a place where the super-rich get to use your organs instead of their own. Obvs. Think escapism, MILFs guilt and drinking songs.
And on Sunday night Bassie Gracie takes over the tent to deliver her Speakeasy with a loose collection of ten of her closest collaborators. Bassie Gracie is a punk performance poet known for her musings as a musician, feel good feminism and general silliness. Frequently found shoeless on the Monday of a music festival telling a 70 year old geezer ‘punk was better in my day’. Her show combines jokes, anecdotes and rhyming couplets, intended to inspire, amuse and excite.
Xanthe Gresham-Knight has captivated audiences all over the world. She presents “Morgan Le Fay - Witch not Bitch of Camelot. Come and hear her speak Truth to Power through the language of the Flower.”
Kestrel Morton presents The Mountain and The Sun – “M49/M4 motorway junction - Midday. A paranoid, stoned and sunburnt hitchhiker stands beneath a sign, Welcome to England. In the woods behind them is a cave. Inside the cave is a labyrinth. Inside the labyrinth - a world. In the world – a mountain. Upon the mountain – a story of a three-faced god and a golden feather, a spiritual con-man, two sheep thieves and a hooligan with a change of heart, all watched over by old Granny Chaos…
We delve into comedy with renowned stand-up and MC Windsor, and comic irreverent poetry from our resident hosts: Jonny Fluffypunk and Clare Ferguson-Walker and Great Aunt Tranni who we are told is not amused.
Luke Bailey returns with Flying High, his pole vault show that was a massive hit last year on Thursday night. And the more thoughtful and emotionally compelling Come Fly With Fred that explores a day in London through the eyes of a homeless man.
Steve Kaos with his ever popular multi-disciplinary circus performances.
And on Sunday before the speakeasy we have a single longer performance from Mal Webb and Kylie Morrigan bringing their usual mix of particularly original songs: looping, beatboxing and multi-instrumental intricate & pretty nuts arrangements.
And this is all just scratching the surface. The workshops are once again in full swing and open to all abilities with Worms Theatre Company, using clowning and play to examine systems of power. With an introductory performance on Thursday evening – system change begins with how we tell our stories - join us in imagining new worlds through participatory theatre. There is Flamenco, Dhol Drumming, Mindful Juggling, The Green Gathering Choir, voice exploration with Bethan Lloyd, and this year Ukejam bring their Ukulele madness to the tent.
Raconteurs’ Delight – the everything venue. A place to participate, think, laugh, cry, dance and sing.We invite you to step inside our hedgerow hideaway, feel wonder as stories and images explode in your mind. And at the end of the weekend, take a little of our hedgerow magic away in your heart to hold with you until we all meet again next year.
