Birchover Carnival Sat 18th July

Pub Car Park - check
Beer in plastic pint pots - check
Open-sided trailer - check
No. 172 Bus running right in front of the stage every hour - check?!!?!

You find us, Avid Reader, reflecting on yesterday's Birchover Carnival, a wonderful gig out in the Peak District.

We found ourselves on the back of a large open-sided trailer opposite the Red Lion pub, across from the pub car park, with the main road running right between the stage and the pub! - and the road wasn't closed! which made for fun later in the night.

So we got there about 2.30pm to find the weather behaving itself and a good number of locals (and their dogs) sat outside in the beer garden, sampling such delights as the hot pork cobs and real ale's such as Undertaker and taking in the breathtaking views the village has to offer.

We set it up (how many times did we go up and down the step ladder?) with smoke machine and lasers (more lasers than a Jean Michael Jarre concert) and awaited for the other acts to arrive, a boy/girl duo and local band "The Something?" from Matlock.

Luckily the weather held off for the most part (a little shower was all) and come 6.30pm the show got started with the duo who were warmly recieved by the ever growing audience, The Something took the stage from 7.30pm with their mix of original material and covers of classic indie tunes, the guys in the band have played this gig before so they really knew how to get the crowd going, even with a Michael Jackson cover.

Rio 5 took things up a gear when we climbed up at 9.15pm, the original idea being we would play for 45 mins, then the organisers would release some floating lanterns, then there were fireworks and then we would finish off with the 2nd set, as it was, the lanterns were released to the strains of "I Who Have Nothing" which made for an ethereal event.

The Fireworks were fantastic, a good 10 minute show then we opened the 2nd set with "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" from Pink Floyd to rousing applause which only had to be halted when the bus came through, really wierd to see people leaving a gig on a Hulley's bus and driving past the stage through the crowd and then we played through until 11.15pm finishing off the day with a cover of the Stereophonics anthem "Handbags & Gladrags"

And then the rain came, just a brief shower again but enough to calm everyone down and we packed it all down again. A thoroughly enjoyable day was had by all and rumour has it we'll be going back next year (which is always nice)

Videos of the day will be added to the website www.riofive.co.uk as soon as. If you've got any photos from the day, send them to photos@riofive.co.uk and we'll add them to the gallery.

Thats all for now!