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The Busketeers light up the stage at a mud-soaked Bearded Theory Festival!


The day starts at 8am... we all have a bit of a groan due to the wedding gig the night before, early starts aren't for The Busketeers!


Alas, we set off and headed to Derby for Bearded Theory 2024! The line-up was pretty good which included some legends such as Jane's Addiction and some of our favourites such as Future Islands!


It was about a 4.5-hour drive that stretched into 5.5 hours with traffic and breaks, but we finally made it with just under 30 minutes to spare—only to be greeted by a sea of mud.

Mud. Dirt. Sludge. Everywhere. We had no wellies, and Ken was stuck in his Converse. But we had a job to do and couldn’t let our four fans down, so we jumped into action.


After grabbing our wristbands, we cautiously drove through the muddy field, the tires sloshing with each turn. We asked for directions from a few festival-goers since we had no idea where we were going. Eventually, we arrived at the back of the main stage, needing to pass through to reach the Maui Waui stage.


Our timing was terrible. As we approached a security guard, we were told we couldn't access the area for 20 minutes—and we were on in 20 minutes!


Olly reversed and parked, and we hurriedly grabbed our instruments and gear, slogging through the thick sludge to our stage. We set up in record time, completed our sound checks, and had one minute to spare. They called us pros, though we didn’t quite agree. But we nailed it and had a good laugh.


Then things took a turn for the worse.


Olly performed an amazing set with some new original material and then Matt gets on... breaks a string after 45 seconds. Usully when this happens, we just grab our spare acoustic guitar, but we had one car, and took minimal gear with us. So we had to improvise and quick! Matt finished the song and Luke took the acoustic fix the string, meanwhile...


Ken jumped on and performed a song we didn't think we would be playing on this day... Killing In The Name by Rage Against The Machine, however it went down well and we got into it!


Once the acoustic is passed back to Matt, he notices quickly the string hasn't been replaced and Luke looking sad, said he couldn't find the pin so... we carried on and cried a little inside.


The crowd still enjoyed it, we put on a great show and did what we could! Our time was short at the festival but it will be a memory for all of us for a very long time!


After the performance, we took a breather and had backstage grub, which was lovely including fresh flowers! Abosulte luxury! (see Gentlemens Dub Club in the background on the image above)


Once we had some scran and drinks we went out into the wild where Ken and Matt had to buy some wellies, this did mean the boys had 2 bags with their muddy boots in and it looked like they had done something in their pants. Shortly after this, we watched a few artists and then headed home!


Also we got to chill out with some dogs... this ones called Gimli!



Until next time, thanks for the support

The Busketeers!


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