A week in Glasgow

I have just got back after a brilliant week volunteering in Glasgow at the “Celtic Connections” festival.  Celtic Connections is the largest winter music festival in the world, with 1500 artists from all over the world delivering 300 performances over 18 days.

The first thing I should say is what a wonderful city Glasgow turned out to be – nothing like I imagined at all.  The city is easy to walk round, beautifully maintained, spectacular architecture and friendly people.  My only complaint would be about the totally chaotic bus system.  This is definitely a place I want to go back to.

My job at the festival was to look after a group of artists from their arrival in Glasgow until they were collected to go back to the airport or station.  I organised meal vouchers, checked hotel and transport details, made sure they got to the soundchecks and performances on time, arranged passes and guest tickets and so on.

My first group was an electronc Tango band from Argentina, great fun musically, and the leader Miguel became a good friend over the time he was in Glasgow – I’m sure we’ll stay in touch.

At the same time I looked after local artists The Heathers and Justin Currie (something of a star in Glasgow – ex pop band Del Amitri). They were on tour so only around for one night.

Then came a big group of about 15 people from Sligo in Ireland, three bands and a number of special guests from the Sligo Music festival.  They became good friends too and I’m hoping to go over to Sligo later in the year.
Finally my brush with one of the true stars of country music – Rosanne Cash (Johnny Cash’s daughter).  She is a massive star in the USA and I was concerned that she might be something of a diva.  In fact she and her husband/guitarist John Leventhal were two of the nicest people I met over the week.

The week was certainly hard work.  Most days involved going into the office at 10.00 to make up passes and sort out timings, and then being with the artists or on call until their gigs finished at 11.00, and sometimes taking them on to the late night sessions afterwards.  The festival is totally reliant on dozens of volunteers and a small team of about six who organise them all.  Everyone works long hours and moans about the artists and the public – but everyone enjoys every minute!

In between the work I managed to catch parts of some great concerts – American Gospel superstar Mavis Staples; Scotland’s Eddie Reader, Dougie Maclean and Michael Marra; Ireland’s Sharon Shannon; England’s Coope Boyes & Simpson and others.

Overall this was a wonderful week – I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity.  I heard some great music; made a lot of new friends and found a fantastic new city.