WHAT’S THE SECRET TO A GREAT FESTIVAL? ITS AUDIENCE - OPENING DAY, MARCH 17 - 8.35AM
Fun, eager, refreshing and heartening - Oxford, take a bow!
Festival openings always create a frisson.
In a just over an hour this festival officially kicks off. But as much as the events themselves are fun, so too are their audiences. Typically lively and quizzical, they are best of all, deliciously eager.
Indeed, I’ve often found myself as entranced by those sitting around me, armed with their pens and one well-thumbed notebooks (moleskin for the worthy, wordy events and something from Rymans for the lighter talks) as I am by the speakers themselves.
In fact, a typical day’s reflection will, for me, focus as much on the company of those queueing alongside me as the wisdom and wit of the authors I’ve come to see.
And in Oxford audiences are unique and heartening; like catching the last bus home from Magdalen Street and discovering that the boisterous soundtrack which typically accompanies any Friday night out is more attributable to those over 60 than the usual suspects.
Conspicuously cool...