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Grange Farm, HuntingdonWatson and Nabil Abdulrashid were two standups who managed to thrive on a first night where the rain was less forgiving than the hecklers
Another al fresco comedy gala, another downpour. It must have seemed a smashing idea when the organisers of Cambridge’s annual comedy festival, faced with continuing Covid restrictions, recast the event as “the UK’s first ever all-comedy three-day festival with camping”. It didn’t feel quite such a brainwave at 9pm on opening night, when Mark Watson was struggling to make himself heard above the monsoon. “I’ve been heckled in many ways over the years,” he protested. “But this rain is really loud.”
Perhaps the skies brightened over the weekend; I hope so. But on Friday, it was hard to keep the spirits usoggy. That was no fault of the site. Grange Farm, erstwhile home of the Secret Garden Party, is quite the idyll, with woods, obliging hillocks like nature’s dress circles, and even a freshwater swimming lake. As I arrived, Angela Barnes was telling the Main Stage audience how common she was, deploying the same “you can tell you’re working-class when … ” setups that Kelly Convey used later in the evening on the same crowd. Continue reading...