Pakefield Keyboard Festival UK. Report April 2007

Manufactures Attending. BOEM. CASIO. HAMMOND. KETRON. KORG. LOWERY. ORLA. ROLAND. SUZUKI. THOMAS. WERSI. YAMAHA.

The festival takes place on a Pontines Holiday Camp on the East Coast. Suffolk.UK. (The Beach if you feel like a walk is near-by). Providing seven night�s accommodation plus 3 full meals a day. Chalets are basic, but all have on suite facilities, TV and tea & coffee making utensils. Approx 1000 people attend the Festival.
After a self service breakfast the daily routine is very free and easy, we have the choice of manufactures demonstrations and product tutorials, plus a number of music theory and playing tips from various professional players. Also Dealers in attendance are doing daily demonstrations plus there is a good selection of used equipment for sale.
Evening concerts every night 7pm till 10.30pm�then it�s over to the bar for late night jam sessions till the early hours.
The weather all week was first class bright sun with a coastal breeze.

Not an in-depth report, just a brief overview of products.

BOEM. Robert Bartha & Dirkjan Ranzijn.
Both of these excellent players provided a dynamic performance and it was nice to see Boem back in the UK.

HAMMOND. Michael Falkenstein from Holland playing the new HammondZone. Hammond with built-in Ketron module.

KETRON. These were not independently showing this time�.possibly new models in the pipe line Audya etc::

KORG. John Pacey the Korg demonstrator played continually through out each day and you can stand with him to watch his playing up close. The new PA800 was being used mostly by John. It always amazes me how these demonstrators can play all day without any music. This new Pa800 has a number of improved features over the higher model PA1X and I would (personal) say its voice quality is equal with E80 & T2 even at this low price.

LOWERY. The lowery stand as usual looked like a fair ground with all the flashing lights with nice organ flute sounds.

ORLA. Paul Carmen & Pat Wise. I did not go on this stand because last time they tried to nail my shoes to the floor so you can�t escape�unless you buy one...Ha!!!

ROLAND. (Organ Power) Tim Flint, Chris Powell & David Thomas on Roland Organs.
All great players and nice to speak to.

WERSI. Jurgen Tickey. Brett Wales. Brett is well known here, but Tickey was a new pleasant experience for me. Excellent arrangements and expression in his playing. I suggested Wersi bring him again next time.


YAMAHA. James Sergeant & Richard Bower as usual the Yamaha team were full of enthusiasm demonstration T2 + Lower keyboard (Organ style) Their playing and product tutorials are first class. New S-500 demonstrated, but no sign yet of S-700 & 900

So after full meals a day for seven days, its back to walking our beach every morning to lose a few pounds in weight.

Thank you, Graham.

I believe that Jurgen Tickey used to play for Bohm prior to Wersi.

Michael Falkenstein hails from Germany.

Taike