Soul Shakers and Body Movers
After going through the bag check at Festival Square I was shown to a beanbag just before
Thabo's set (accompanied on piano by his creative partner Aron Kyne) and I had no idea I was in for such a soulful and
powerful performance. Thabo’s voice is ridiculously soulful and the words he
sings are incredibly meaningful. Mother
Nature was the subject of the songs of his set; which included the songs Shallow
Water (a song that struck a chord deep in my soul), Your Mama, Better, Run
& Tell (a song about fame and celebrity culture), Blue Murder and ended
with Ya Ya Ya (with the audience joining
in).
Each song took on a different aspect of our
relationship with nature and watching Aron get so lost in the music while
Thabo poured his soul into his words was quite hypnotic. I was torn between
wanting to dance and cry and in the end settled with dancing and singing along.
I’ve never heard an artist take on the voice of Mother Nature in song and
deliver it without losing her compassionate, disappointed, and angry tone. Thabo has an amazing vocal range as well, from impassioned shouts, to high octaves,
to gentle pleading whispers. The entire performance was spellbinding.
I had to leave to run an errand but when I
returned to join the queue to get into Festival Square, I was joined by a stunning and tall woman named Alison and her two sons, Gabriel and Jacob. As with
every time I meet strangers, they just randomly start telling me things. It turns out
that, like me, Alison is on her own incredible journey to finding herself and
putting herself first. Whenever someone tells me something like it makes me
feel so excited for them, I get what I like to call joy bubbles, feelings of
excitement and quiet joy that are somehow so full of emotion that they explode.
The knowledge that someone is on their way to reaching their full potential always
makes me happy for some unfathomable reason. This person will try, fail and
eventually triumph and it’s going to be epic and even while typing this I can
feel my brain light up as the e-dolphins (endorphins) swim around inside my skull.
Sharing my story, Alison called me brave
for moving across the country to be independent. She’s not the first person to
say that to me. I don’t think I’m brave. I have too many dreams and goals and
Manchester was the only place I felt I could make them a reality and make
mistakes in relative safety. As a person who loves music, art, culture and
history Manchester is filled to the brim with all of it, plus it’s diverse and
more affordable than London. It has all of the amenities of a busy city without
most of the hindrances that usually accompany one.
I ended up joining Alison and her sons at a
table and the first set we saw was multi-instrumentalist Trees.R.Good, whose
music is a blend of atmospheric melodies that reminded me slightly of a mixture
between The Specials, Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld but funkier and the fact
that I can’t accurately describe Trees.R.Good’s music just goes to show how
unique it is. Nature is an integral part of their music and so with each song you could clearly hear the heartbeat of Mother Nature, the rushing lifeblood of sounds that swirled around were like riding the waves of an emotional rapid. It occurred to me that parts of the soundscapes they used were
actually quite relaxing, while others made sitting still impossible.
KING (accompanied on guitar by musician Greg) was the next performer and her voice was quite breathy and refreshing. After listening to her set I went off for a while to get some quiet time to myself (I’m still not used to being at a table with more than one person) before Fabaret took centre stage.
Until moving to the UK all of my
interactions with members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community had been online
(and have changed my life in more ways than I can say), so getting to
experience it all in real life is brand new to me. As someone who’s still
figuring out where she sits under the alphabet umbrella (either Ace, Pan or simply side-lined as a pandacorn) I’ve always felt welcome
even though I don’t have a label (sometimes I used to constantly question it,
now it’s not something I really think about). For now I’m proud to call myself
an ally. When I had newly arrived in Manchester I found myself completely lost
and somehow ended up on Canal Street,
and when I saw the Welcome To Manchester’s Gay Village sign all of the fear,
hopelessness and anxiety I had completely disappeared. I remember thinking
three things: Yay! I’ve found my people,
Everything’s going to be okay and I’m
home (something I thought when the plane touched the ground of Manchester
International Airport). So yes, the community is really near and dear to my
heart.
As a
fan of Channel Four’s Drag SOS I fell in love with The Family Gorgeous and
Cheddar and refused to contain my excitement during the performance.
The rest of the evening comprised of DJ
sets and after dancing until 1:40am I decided to head home before it kicked
off. No one was dancing at their tables by this point (despite being warned
twice to do so, there were even volunteers walking around with official MIF
signs telling people to dance at their tables – the fact that these were pre-
made goes to show you how much faith the organizers have regarding people and a
stage of live music) and had pretty much swarmed around the stage where our
table was. Besides I was supposed to take it easy (I have a health issue I’m
currently working on resolving but my GP told me I needed to not move around
too much) but play me music that I can feel vibrating through my chest cavity
and there’s no way I’m staying seated, plus this would be my last night at
Festival Square so I wanted to make it count. Everyone around me had been
drinking (I don’t drink alcohol) and I didn’t want to stay past a point where
my body wouldn’t be able to get me safely home because I’ve become embroiled in
some form of drama that stressed me out to a point of triggering my pain.
I’d had a day of listening and I wanted to
go home happy so I went and thanked one of the bartenders, James,(for keeping
people happy during the festival) then
one of the security guards, Jack (for keeping everyone safe). I’d first met Jack
when he was working at Sea Change. I’ve always known life is short so whenever
I get the chance to thank someone for turning up and doing a job that needs to
be done I always take it.
Speaking to James I noticed that even at 1:45am
and tired he had a beautiful smile and he really loves his job as well, but I
find it odd he rarely gets a thank you for doing it. Jack was perched on the
edge of one of the flower planters (curated by volunteers from the Wythenshawe
Horticultural Society) which was actually just barely holding up his thoroughly
exhausted form. I’m only just realizing now that when I ask people how they’re
doing they always answer me honestly, and don’t just give me the typically
British bullshit answer of “not too bad” when they actually feel like complete crap. I gave him a socially distanced
hug of positive energy and told that I hoped he was able to get plenty of rest
at some point, after he told me he hoped I got home safely (so had James) I
then made my final trip of the morning
to my bus stop.
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