I went back to camp at Shrewkfest.

I enjoyed it more than last year because I'd prepared a bit better. I took the listed times for the various acts and workshops, and assembled them into a programme grid, then thought about what I wanted to watch or attend. I also realised that since I particularly wanted to be there for the starting and ending events, it made more sense to book extra time off work, arrive the night before and leave the morning after the festival proper.

I said last year that I'm not really interested in seeing covers bands; I might want to do that sort of playing but not to watch it. So I went for things which seemed less likely to be that, and more likely to involve original songs or participation; and I allowed myself to be inspired by Tabitha Wild's lament in "Not a Man": "It's not about how talented you are, but if you have a penis and you play guitar, you can be a festival star". So when things were in the balance, I favoured the female-led act. I also booked lots of workshops, which tended to be an hour or so's presentation with participatory elements.

But first I had to get there, after work on Thursday this time, arriving early enough to get a spot reasonably close to the stages. I got the tent set up and staked down in nine minutes flat (they have really got better since I was little).

Here is Earl's Hill, with Pontesbury Hill to the left, catching the evening light.

Rather than just boil water and put it on noodles, as before, I had brought some interesting tins and stirred the contents over heat. Yeah, not much sophistication, but after several weeks, months, whatever it's been since we had pleasant temperatures, it was lovely to look at the forecast (18-21°C over the weekend) and be able to contemplate hot food with anything but revulsion. (All right, I should have brought something warmer than shorts and short-sleeved shirts.)

(Yes, there was a fire watch in place, but my tiny stove was on two levels of trivets, on a fireproof sheet, and inside a wind screen, a better one than last year's improvised job. And of course I was watching it, with a big bottle of water to hand, until it was cold again.)

And I was wandering around the campsite following the sound of people playing and got invited to join a general natter and strum with some of the Luminaries of the Scene.

Friday

As always, any attempt to sleep late was foiled by sheep and sunlight.

Each day started with a UkeTok session. This is an online ukulele club, with software that makes it possible to have multiple display devices showing animated chord sheets in a synchronised way. The only problem, for me at least, is that they tend to have enough amplification of the backing track to drown out even my own playing, never mind what other people are doing. I got round this by being well to the back, and bringing my Ashbury resonator (designed to be audible over the band in the days before electric amplification).

On to the official opening, which was more or less playing together through the festival songbook. Much improved when the power failed and the backing tracks went away. (But clearly my opinion is not universal.) For this, and all the play-alongs except UkeTok's, I used the Boox eInk tablet clamped to my music stand; it did a great job all weekend, and allowed me to carry more songbooks than would otherwise have been feasible.

After a break for lunch, my first workshop, Marc Gallagher's introduction to fingerpicking. This didn't go terribly well; I think he was more tired and had less patience than he thought he had, and while obviously blah unprofessional and so on I can understand how one can get into a state like that. Interesting even so.

The end of Ukulele Saz's set on the main stage. (I'd have loved to hear more of this, but the intersection of schedules didn't allow.)

As last year there were various tents with vendors—a little more music-related this time, with a luthier firm showing up as well as the more usual suspects.

Over to the paddock stage (smaller, more out of the way, and less prone to people at the back of the audience nattering away over the act) for Pink Champagne (good playing, but the ladies didn't really have the voices for the songs they were doing) and High and Mighty (another play-along, and great fun).

Finally my first Ukulele Saz workshop, Learning Triangle. This is a development that seems simple but I hadn't met: after having broken down a song onto the singing, the chords, and the strumming, and learned each individually, one practices each possible pair of things and gets that down before putting all three together. Perhaps obvious, but I hadn't thought of it, and it worked well.

I didn't use the food trucks as much this time (the vendor of the Breakfast Box was absent) but I did have some Very Loaded Chips.

Saturday

began with another UkeTok session, this one all-1960s (this year's vague festival theme was the Summer of Love).

After that, the Ukaladies, part of the regular group Ukulele Fusion but with, sigh, an electric bass player added. (Look, the uke is not a six-string guitar, don't try to play it like one or make a band in which it has to play that role, let it sound like what it is. Says largely ignorant Roger; some people can clearly make it work.)

After that, over the paddock stage for the 2Ukes jam session. Some of the songs were getting quite familiar by this point; I'd never knowingly heard "Human" (The Killers, 2008) or "Dakota" (Stereophonics, 2005) before this weekend but ended up playing both of them multiple times.

Then Tabitha Wild, who was on the main stage last year but I was able to enjoy her set better over here without the chatter. (And, in the spirit of trying not to contribute more waste to the world, all her t-shirts are individually made from junk-shop garments; there is no other quite like the one I bought.)

After a pause, back to the main stage for Fragile Lucy, and my goodness she was good; high energy high tempo chuck strumming, original songs, solid voice and stage presence. Top performance of the ones I saw.

Then a slow wind down for the evening (I'd been tired before coming here thanks to the server failure I blogged about recently) while listening in to some of the louder acts back on the stage.

Sunday

More UkeTok, this one all-request; I had to duck out early, but this was just after they'd played the request I'd put in ("Sunny Afternoon"), so that worked well.

Then a straight run of five workshops. (Do not do this. Yes, you can get to the loo in the 15 minute breaks between them, but your brain will become full.)

First, Alex Beds' "Baby Steps for Fingerstyle Ukulele". Like Marc Gallagher's workshop on Friday, this was more "learn to play this specific pattern for this specific song" than "learn to build patterns", but that's probably a reasonable starting point, and intersecting what was in this and what was in that other workshop, I think I'm starting to get an idea of what's wanted.

Second, Matthew Quilliam's "Triplet-Tastic", learning the mechanical process of the triplet and fan strums. (He was very obviously teaching far below his own playing level, but still having fun with it.)

Third, Marc Gallagher again, Songwriting Basics. Which was all fine, but was pretty basic.

Fourth, Sputnik Weazel's DIY Ukulele Songwriting Workshop, similarly not much to do with the ukulele specifically but a good solid run through, among other things, some standard chord sequences and the ways in which one might use them.

Fifth and last, Ukulele Saz again, this time starting with a basic song (a G D C G progression, or if you're one of the cool kids I V IV I). That with a set strum is clearly pretty boring. So the second style was a simple fingerpick, the third strumming up the fretboard, and the fourth fingerpicking up the fretboard. Then we split into groups based on what we felt most confident doing, and played with Saz conducting (except don't call it that that's Real Music that is) to switch different voices in and out. Great fun in itself, but it also brought my run of workshops to an end with a real feeling of achievement. (Of all the workshop presenters I saw, Saz is the one who left me feeling I'd look further into her teaching resources.)

And the final thing was playing more of the festival songbook in front of the main stage.

Well, almost the final thing. People had been leaving all through Sunday, as I did last year, and as the evening drew in I was chatting with some of my camping neighbours when I was lured away by the sounds of what turned out to be the Hebden Bridge ukulele group; so I sat in with them and some other late stayers, then had one last hot meal and went to bed.

A trip to the loo by the light of the moon.

And then on Monday morning I packed everything up and drove home, as the car's thermometer gradually crept back up from 19 to 29…