MARC AUGER

VENUE CIVIC CENTRE, STOURPORT

DATE 02/03/2024

Part of the thrill of festivals is that anything can happen. So, when a fire alarm forces everyone at the Fusion Festival out into sub-zero conditions for 15 minutes during headliner Franck Carducci’s set on Saturday night, it’s all considered part of the fun.

This Stourport-based festival has carved out a successful niche for itself over five editions. Its spacious venue and relaxed vibe are hard to fault, as is the infrastructure that organisers Steve and Lou Gould have built around the event.

Some last-minute organisational issues – which can happen to any event like this –do impact what happens onstage, however. While a new audio company largely copes well with a demanding schedule, the onstage sound is variable, and with changeovers tight, the festival runs increasingly late on both days that Prog attends, with onstage monitoring also an issue in many bands’ sets. But with some exceptions, these are largely minor considerations, and the audience laps up a feast of proggy goodness.