Leamington Food & Drink Festival 2025

Photo: Andy Holdcroft

Pleased as I was to report the great news from Kenilworth Old Town Festival & from the much improved Leamington Ecofest regarding facilities for performers, I was perhaps tempting fate and was brought down to earth with a bump by the Leamington Food & Drink Festival over the weekend: especially as the issues were the same as the previous two years and no learning from the problems, complaints & feedback has been taken onboard. I'll not weary you nor me with repeating the litany of unacceptable conditions but performers & audiences do deserve better: especially at an event with so much potential & whose music was well organised in the past. An accurate list of what artists needed to bring and the provision of a sound engineer are surely not beyond their powers?

Despite this, I have good things to report: some accolades coming from people rising to the occasion.

At last, Reign The Girl Band (augmented live on this occasion by Luke Weaver of Mintakaa on cajon) appear in the magazine. Sorry it's taken so long: they've been on my radar for a while & I'm pleased to say that reviews of releases are on the horizon too.

Once Joe McAvoy-Boss had heroically leapt out of the audience, taken over the soundboard & made their performance audible, you got to hear the exquisite guitar playing & vocals: I can hardly wait to hear them in an intimate setting wherein I imagine their magic is more potent still.

One consequence of all the palaver was the debut of the duo Boy Juice (you may recognise the members from the photo). I'd not expected this and given the circumstances, it may well be a unique performance: glad to have witnessed a bit of unique history & a fine performance despite the constraints.

These were on Saturday. One Sunday, once again a volunteer sound engineer came to the rescue so the Man Made Moon set was beautifully clear and a flawless set with all their nuances, power and emotional range was possible: just as it should be.

I loved these three performances but it could have all been so much easier…..