Former Radio 1 controller and Radio 4 presenter Matthew Bannister setting off from Wickham Festival on Friday, August 4 and will be walking 180 milles in two weeks to FolkEast Festival in Suffolk as part of Folk on Foot's biggest walk yet and raising money for Help Musicians charity.
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00:00 Hello, I'm Matthew Bannister of the Folk on Foot podcast and I'm just about to set off on an epic 180 mile walk to Folk East in Suffolk.
00:08 So tell me why you're doing the challenge?
00:10 I'm doing it to raise money for a charity called Help Musicians, which is an amazing charity that looks after musicians when they get into financial difficulties
00:18 or they have mental health problems or they might have physical problems like hearing loss or vocal cord loss and things like that which can threaten their careers.
00:27 We hear a lot about multi-millionaire musicians but most musicians in this country are struggling to make a living,
00:33 finding it difficult to come back from the pandemic and they're living hand to mouth and so it's great to have this charity which provides a safety net and helps them build sustainable careers.
00:44 I understand you were introduced on stage last night with a show of hands?
00:47 Yes, it was amazing. What a great crowd here at Wycombe Festival and Steve Knightley and I have known each other for many years
00:54 and he's coming along on the walk because every night on the walk I'm going to be meeting a musician in a pub, which sounds like hard work doesn't it?
01:02 But I'm going to meet a musician in a pub every night to kind of raise morale, put some more energy back into my legs and hopefully raise some money too.
01:10 And it was lovely last night because Steve allowed me to come on stage and the crowd were amazing.
01:15 They donated £455.55 to the cause just by putting money in the buckets so it's just great to have that support to set us off.
01:27 Brilliant and was Wycombe Festival always going to be the starting point?
01:30 Yes, I always wanted to start at Wycombe because it's such a lovely festival. I've been here before and there's such a great atmosphere.
01:36 And then Folk East is another festival that I really, really love and it's two weeks apart so it kind of works.
01:42 It means that we can do about 12 to 14 miles a day and hopefully get there in time to experience the festival at the other end.
01:49 Have you got any hesitations for the challenge?
01:52 Well I'm obviously a bit nervous about it because I've never walked 180 miles in two weeks before.
01:57 But I have done some quite long walks and I've been training on the South Downs going up and down so my legs are in good shape.
02:03 And if people want to follow me by the way you can do it at our website which is www.folkonfoot.com/bigwalk
02:09 and there's a map of the route, a list of the musicians who are coming and you can follow my progress there or on social media @folkonfoot.
02:16 Fabulous and where's the next stop?
02:21 The next stop is West Neon at the Thomas Lord pub where we're going to be joined by two members of a band called The Wilderness Yet.
02:27 Rowan Piggott and Rosie Hodgson are going to sing some songs for us this evening.
02:31 So it's quite a short leg this first one it's only about 10 miles but tomorrow it gets really going when we do 14 miles to Alton in Hampshire.
02:40 And that's where Steve Knightley and Johnny Kelsey are going to come and join me at the Swan Hotel.
02:45 Brilliant, I wish you the best of luck.
02:46 Thank you very much indeed.
02:48 And we're outside the Wycombe Festival and amazingly the sun has broken through the clouds
02:53 and I've been joined by this great bunch of people who are attending the festival here.
02:57 There's a load of mud that they've come through to get here to send us off on the walk
03:02 and this is the beginning of our 180 mile walk to Folk East and boy are we excited!
03:09 Oh yes we are!
03:11 We are excited!
03:13 And in a moment I'm going to put one foot in front of another and it sounds like quite an easy thing to do
03:19 but I think I'm going to be doing it for two weeks so it's going to be quite a challenge.
03:24 Let us begin this epic Folk On 4 big walk 2023 with a count.
03:30 Are you ready?
03:32 Yes!
03:34 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!
03:40 *Sounds of the festival*