I’m sat typing this on a wet Monday night, glad to report that the rain mainly stayed off us at last weekend’s MAD about Waddesdon.

2,500 performers gathered for a two day festival of Music, Art, Dance and Drama in the beautiful groups of Waddesdon Manor and I was lucky enough to be the compere on the Pavilion Stage, whilst X Factor warm up man Andy Collins did the business across the Dome and Orbit stages.

And I must admit I’d forgotten how amazing it feels to be stood there with a microphone and crowd in front of you, as I introduced 30 acts across the two days.

So many talented performers, and pleasingly most of them from Buckinghamshire, it’ll be interesting to see whether any end up being big stars in years to come.

Although of course, that’s not what it’s all about really, it’s just getting everyone to express themselves through creative arts. When I was at school I didn’t have the confidence to do these sorts of things, I’ve made up for it since of course, but in my opinion having the chance to express yourself through the arts is just as important as the more academic side of a child’s education.

What impressed me the most was the amount of time and preparation all of these groups had put in, be they after school classes, drama schools or anything else I’ve forgotten and it was lovely looking out from the stage at all the proud parents cheering their children on.

Fingers crossed I’ll be involved next year as well, there have already been a few conservations to that order, so watch this space.

After a weekend of doing my best to fill the gaps between performances, I was happy to hand across the entertainment baton to my best mate Neil Quigley who has been involved in the comedy course that’s been run out of the Tringe Festival this year.

For a reletively small fee he’s got an eight week education from professional comics on how to do stand up, and Sunday night was the culmination of this as he got to perform at four pubs across Tring in front of a paying audience, whilst being mentored by four professional comedians.

It was great to be there in the audience, and the lad didn’t disappoint, firing off some half decent gags, despite problems with the radio mic. It was also weird to see him swear, as he doesn’t much in so called real life, but fair play to him for giving it a go, something I fully intend to do myself next year.

For now though, and my family will be pleased to hear this, I’m actually going to take a break from any crazy performing nonsense for a while.

I can’t guarantee that that ‘while’ will be for too long, but fingers crossed the sun will come out and I can enjoy a relaxing period and a few social occasions.

Having said that, chances are when I next blog I’ll have signed up for something else! You’ll just have to keep reading to find out won’t you!!

Catch you soon, thanks for reading,

Andy

Twitter @andyholmesmedia
YouTube www.youtube.co.uk/buckinghamshirecc