Powerhire once again provide festival generator power for Fairport Convention’s sold out folk and rock music gig in the village of Cropredy!
60’s folk band, Fairport Convention, played its first concert in a church hall in May 1967. The youngsters ‘convened’ for rehearsals at a house named Fairport, the family home of rhythm guitarist Simon Nicol. Thus was born the name of a band.
After many years of success, musician changes and tragedies, the band decided to call it a day in 1979 playing their final outdoor concert in the Oxfordshire Village of Cropredy. The following year, the band staged a reunion concert in the same village of Cropredy and the famous festival was born.
Starting out with just a couple of thousand spectators, Fairport’s Cropredy Convention now attracts up to 20,000 people each year, including regulars BBC Radio Oxford and welcoming this year ITV, making it the largest annual festival of its kind in Britain.
Powerhire are lucky to have an engineer who has been providing generator power consultancy for the music extravaganza for 25 years. Through his many years of experience, he is aware of the festival’s generator power requirements and makes sure the necessary equipment is allocated in advance for the event at this busy time of year.
Generator power is required each year to provide power to the campsites, showering facilities, lighting, the main stage & arena, the first aid field hospital tent, merchandise stands and the usual food & beverage stalls across the site.
In recent years, the festival has seen a strong contingent of younger newcomers, due to its unique ‘family friendly’ atmosphere, with the regular faithful folk fans bringing their children and grandchildren who will keep this festival going for many years to come.
The amazing acts joining Fairport Convention, who were celebrating their golden anniversary and still play at the event every year, included Divine Comedy, Petula Clarke, Marillion and Richard Thompson to name but a few!
The 35 festival generators ranging from 19kVA to 300kVA along with 9 x 2000L and 3000L fuel tanks were loaded at our Dover depot, delivered and set up on site. To ensure a smooth set up, our installation engineers arrived on site with the festival generators, fuel tanks and associated equipment one week prior to the start of the event.
Our dedicated engineer arrived before the start of the festival and remained on site throughout to ensure that the festival went off without a hitch and the generators ran smoothly, which of course they did.
Following another three days of fantastic music it was time to pack up and close the main gate for another year! The organisers rated this festival as ‘one of the best we’ve had’. Until next year!
