Royal Festival Hall Overture Weekend (and a movie) - updated with pictures

I cried my eyes out yesterday, all because of a movie (yes, I'm that kind of person, in case you haven't noticed). It was a movie I'd discovered before, but lost, because the online links didn't work after the first half of the movie. Then I found it again (thanks to TVLinks!) and loved it! The movie is Bjork's (of swan costume fame) only movie, or rather, musical - Dancer in the Dark - with songs written by her. Such a sad story, but I thoroughly recommend it.

More recommedations, courtesy of the Royal Festival Hall Overture Weekend last weekend:
Bellowhead is an 11-piece band which plays traditional English tunes with lively twists to it. Their range of instruments are amazing - violins (4!), oboe, bagpipes, cello, percussion (complete with frying-pan), banjo-guitar-and all similar instruments, accordions (at least 4 different types), tuba/euphonium/other great big brass instruments, trombone, saxophone (both alto and tenor), and trumpet. They had everyone up and tapping their feet - no dancing as the rooftop stage was crowded to the max!

Choir Invisible is a choir with a twist the pictures tell you why. Also, they don't learn from music, but by ear, and despite their atypical appearance they sing like a choir of angels! It was no wonder they were runner-up in the 2006 BBC Choir of the Year competition.

Those two and many snippets from other groups made my solo Sunday sojourn worthwhile. Even hearing Beethoven's Ode to Joy (the last movement of Symphony No. 9) being blasted outdoors was cool. Seeing dancers waltzing (and cha-chaing, and rhumba-ing, and quick-stepping) on the makeshift dancefloor outside the halls was fun too, but a tad disheartening, with my feet itching to remember the rhythms and steps but with no other feet to remember them with. (My feet got their exercise though, with a long walk from Vauxhall back.)

In contrast to my lone status on Sunday, my Saturday was spent very much surrounded by people - a crush of people, to be exact, in the remnants of a queue to attend the silent disco. J and I stood (and pushed, were pushed, violated, talked over, supported, treated like sardines, you get the picture) in the mass of party-goers for a whole half-hour before finding out our chances of going in were slim, and decided to quit the squash. It was definitely interesting, and probably a treat for J, as she wasn't so impressed by the "Singing River" performance (where they had a choir drifting down the river dialoguing with a choir on the hall balcony in what was a very African-esque composition) that I dragged her to before.

All in all, a fun festival, with great weather! Makes me wish I could go for the Rainforest World Music Festival back home... and checking their page, a lot of the performers from the earlier years whom I fell in love with are back: Huun Huur Tu/Malerija, Inka Marka, Shooglenifty, Black Umfolosi, Jerry Kamit and Aseana Percussion Unit. Maybe the next year...