Are you ready for a shindig full of fluffy antics? A sunny shindig? Or even a bigger and better shindig?

Those are the questions being posed by the organisers of the 2019 Great Manx Shindig, a three-day family festival featuring local and international music, arts, crafts, food and entertainment.

This year’s festival gets underway tomorrow (Friday) and runs until Sunday evening at Rosehill Farm, Santon, and, if nothing else, the organisers, Annabel and Stu Gentry, the husband-and-wife team behind the popular ’Flo the Coffee Van’, are praying for just one thing.

Sunshine.

Last year’s festival was beset by mist and a low-lying cloud that hung over the field, so to give the weekend a better chance of being held in good weather, Annabel and Stu made the decision to move the festival to midsummer.

’We are hoping for sunshine this year,’ said Annabel.

’Everything in our field has sunshine emblazoned all over it, like the wristbands, the shindig flags, everything.

We had a cute little cloud on our logo last year, so maybe that influenced the weather? We don’t know, but we’re taking no chances this year.

’Hopefully we have been thinking so much about sunshine, that the sun will actually come out and Mannanan’s cloak will stay away for the weekend.

’Last year we were just sat in the middle of a big cloud which made life a bit gloomy up here.

’We all had a great time, and it was a great success last year, we feel, but a bit of sunshine wouldn’t have gone amiss.’

A big focus has been made to build up the creative arts side of the festival, with many arts and crafts workshops taking place over the weekend.

Jenny James, from ’Reap What You Sew’ will be holding needlecraft and fabric workshops, and will be showing groups how to make pincushion toadstools, and Alice Rose Fayle will be making wearable art creations for the weekend.

Charlotte Traynor will hold an illustration workshop for kids to draw their own villains and superheroes, and there will be a return of a flowerpot bread-making course.

Basically, the workshops last year were great and really interesting, and we are adding to the ones we did last year,’ said Annabel.

’We will be having yoga in the mornings, and Heidi Baker, from the Flower Studio, will be doing flower art.

’We will also be having workshops to make these little guerilla ’bee-bombs’ out of wildflower seeds, so you can go and plant them all over the place and we’ll be making raw energy balls. Loads of interesting things like that.’

’We’re also going to have a new addition to our little festival village, which is a barbers shop and tattoo parlour.

’Fern and Adam Callister, who are doing the Mongol rally, will be making henna tattoos.

’They they will have their ’Furry Tiger’ car here on show, and everything they make will go to their various chosen charities.

The will also be a full line-up of local bands taking part throughout the weekend in the main tent.

Friday night will be headlined by the ska group Buncha Skankers, and will also feature Loos Crew, the Ballaghs and Lava.

Saturday will see the main act, the Yorkshire-based festival band Klonk! headline.

The mad-cap six-piece group of rabble-rousers play gypsy and funk-infused Klezmer music, and have a knack for turning any festival crowd into a foot-stomping, frenetic riot.

They will be joined on the Saturday line-up by Jeff Jepson, Poster Girl and the Fecktones.

Sunday will see Truman Falls, Mae Challis, Rhiannon Jade and the folk group Scran bring the festival to a close.

Despite the changes to the festival, Annabel said that the ethos will remain the same.

’We have always wanted this festival to be safe, enclosed, welcoming, fun and keeping within a lovely, whole-family-type vibe, she said.

’We want families to be able to enjoy the same things together, whether it is dancing to the bands, taking part in the workshops, making things together or just, fingers crossed, sitting in the sunshine

’But we are going to have a great time this year, I reckon.

’The 2019 Great Manx Shindig is now fully sold out, which is terrific, and we have a full, re-designed festival field which we hope will make everything fun and safe for people, and especially children, to come along and have a wonderful, fluffy time.

More details on the Great Manx Shindig can be found at thegreatmanxshindig.com

by Mike Wade

twitter:@iomnewspapers