Seth Lakeman helps launch 36th Trowbridge Village Pump Festival (From This Is Wiltshire)

Seth Lakeman helps launch 36th Trowbridge Village Pump Festival

11:06am Friday 24th July 2009 in

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The 36th annual Trowbridge Village Pump Festival kicked off last night with the rain holding off for music lovers.

More than 8,000 people are expected to descend on Stowford Manor Farm near Wingfield over the four days to hear the likes of Seth Lakeman, who performed last night, Alabama 3, Saw Doctors, Loudon Wainwright III and Baaba Maal.

Guitarist Luka Bloom got last night's line-up underway on the 6x Main Stage, followed by Seth Lakeman and Edward II.

Tonight will see the 3 Daft Monkeys kick off the action on the 6X Main Stage, with Keith Donnelly, Adrian Edmondson and Bad Shepards and Alabama 3 also due to perform.

This year is the first festival that former organiser Alan Briars, who died of cancer in December 2007, has not been invovled in and his wife Christine, who is also one of the organisers, said it has been hard at times.

“It’s been a bit of a shame sometimes because I keep thinking ‘I’d quite like to ask Alan about that’,” she said.

But over the past few months, as well as being part of the festival team, she has been categorising his extensive record collection in preparation for auctioning them off in September to raise funds for Dorothy House Hospice Care, where Mr Briars died.

“Alan was a collecter for decades of roots and folk music, he had quite a substantial collection,” she said.

“Some of them artists sent him, others people donated. We’ve catalogued 450 CDs and more vinyl, but we’re not selling it because some are for promomotional purposes only.

“They will be sold on an eBay auction for the highest donation for Dorothy House in September.”

She said it was an eclectic range of traditional folk like Albion Band and Old Battlefield Band to international and contemporary music.