Picking Winners
2nd Oct 2012
Maybe it’s because I operate in a fairly small bubble of a world, but recently it seems like I’ve picked a couple of winners to be a part of my events. First off there was the track that we used for the 2012 ShAFF trailer. I’d been to a gig in town (something I don’t do often enough) and was impressed with the support band Hey Sholay. I listened to some of their tracks online and it dawned on me that one of them, Wishbone, would be a great track for the trailer. I asked and they said yes. It went viral and has so far had 125,000 hits! Hey Sholay in the meantime have hit the big time, winning competitions on BBC Radio stations and releasing their first album. Also at ShAFF earlier this year as part of the live music programme we had a local singer songwriter by the name of Lucy Spraggan. Lucy is great. I’d heard her before at a friend’s party. She is currently competing on Xfactor, and has had a song signed which made it to number two in the charts!
Moving away from music and back into my bubble it was pretty cool to see Gary Connery, a stuntman who earlier this year made the first jump out of a helicopter without a parachute (landing in a pile of cardboard boxes with the aid of a wingsuit!), who is headlining the Saturday night at the Buxton Adventure Festival on Oct 20th, jumping out of a helicopter dressed as none other than Her Royal Highness The Queen during the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. Sill in my world, author, climber and photographer Gordon Stainforth, who is also appearing at BAF in a few weeks time, has had his book, which will form the basis of his talk at BAF, shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Award and also the Banff Mountain Festival Book Competition. Also on the Banff list are books by Niall Grimes, regular contributor to ShAFF, and Phil Hayward, who appeared at ShAFF 2011 to present his epic solo canoe journey down the Congo.