On Saturday I took advantage of the volunteer offer for tickets to Nile Rodger's inaugural FOLD Festival at Fulham Palace. This was quite a coup for the Palace. For those of you who haven't heard of the legendary musician/producer and his band Chic, you've undoubtedly heard his music. He's worked with a stellar cast of artists such as Luther Vandross and Mick Jagger. He's written songs like Le Freak, Good Times, We Are Family, and produced album's for artists like Duran Duran and David Bowie. One of his three sets of the evening was a tribute to Bowie. Rodgers sang Let's Dance, and we did.
The Palace Green made for one of the most intimate festival experiences I've ever had. With such a bucolic setting, the general mood of the evening among the audience was laid back. Staff were friendly and professional. I was initially worried by the festival being cashless. I'm a self-confessed luddite. Guests had to pre-load a card with cash to pay for drinks and food. However after briefly queuing to put money on the card, I found it made the rest of the evening run much smoother. Queues for food and drinks was made much quicker. At the end of the evening it took barely a minute to have my remaining money returned.
Headlining the night was the artist Beck purveyor of folk funk Americana. You can tell I'm struggling to pigeon hole him as a performer. His music can be quite melancholy and whimsical. However he was determined to make the evening as upbeat as possible. Out went songs from his heart breaking (and my favourite album) Sea Change and the night was instead rounded off with hits like Loser and S*x Laws.
We had so much fun that we sincerely hope there are many more concerts at the Palace. If you saw any of the acts at FOLD 2016 please feel free to comment below.
Steve Lee