Croxfest With The Turner Brothers

7 days after Victorious and the band had an even more important gig, a hop, skip and jump from their front door and likely to be ram-packed with friends and family expecting a great show, and they definitely got it.

Croxfest is held on the green in Croxley Green, just down the round from the Turner Brothers house. It's an annual day-long free music festival, and it's pretty popular locally. I've never been before, even though it's only about 8 miles from my house, so I wasn't sure what to expect - I kind of envisioned a village fete-style set up, but boy was I wrong...

We started the day at the house, eating another beautiful spread by Mrs Turner and listening to some new T-Bro tracks in the garden...

This is one of my favourite photos that I have of the band from this summer - two original Turner Brothers and two new-generation Turners, and little ole me, determined to wedge myself into the photo!

We set off down the road to the green. It was filled with people and stalls, much more than I expected as well as a big stage and large backstage area. There were throngs of people with blankets, picnics, drinks and huge smiles, as well as the cheeky ones who had bought gazebos (I really must get one for future rainy events) We staked a spot in the packed crowd and got everything ready for the set...

I'm not sure who that grouchy looking fellow is there, but here's Tony T and Isaac sporting Turner Brother jackets and looking slick....

And here is a sneaky backstage photo of me, Patrick and Sim, the saxophonist who seems to be about to spill his coffee down me...

I was so excited to hear the set, the last big gig of the summer and with so many of the boys family supporting them, the atmosphere in the crowd was really fun. They stormed through the set with the whole crowd cheering and dancing, it was a pretty great end to the festival.

Thanks Jonny Atto for letting me use your fab shot of the boys closing the festival, along with the pyrotechnics and streamer cannons, so much fun to be in the crowd when that happened, with everyone reaching their arms up to grab some.

Every time I've gone with them this summer they have had a slightly different mix of instruments. They started with a trombone player, a sax and a trumpet at Hogsozzle and sounded incredible, and finished at Croxfest with two trumpets and the sax. I really love how much the brass section adds to the sound they have though, especially when you get a little wild sax solo at the end of a track. I think Sim is such a talented sax player, I'm secretly jealous. I used to play the saxophone, although obviously nowhere near to the same level. I kind of wish I had carried that on, maybe once I've mastered the keytar ;-)

The crowd absolutely loved the band, and there have been so many wonderful comments since the weekend. They even got gifted some personalised cups by a fan, how cool is that?

We finished the evening off with a beautiful curry and a houseful of fans, followers and family. It was really great to be a part of, I'm so excited to see where things go next for this band that welcome people into their lives and provide so much fun and party spirit everywhere they go.

This posts a bit gushy. It's only because that was the last festival of the summer and I feel a little sentimental about it, although it might be for the best since it's starting to take me three or four days to recover from these late nights with slightly too much wine...

Keep an eye on the Turner Brothers Facebook page for details of their next gig, or pop along and sign up to their mailing list at www.theturnerbrothers.co.uk.

Thank you to all the Croxfest crew for such a fabulous end to the summer festival season, especially the guys in charge of the great stage effects that really finished the evening with style and Mr & Mrs Turner for such lovely hospitality.Photo credits Johnny Atto, Isaac & Ian Frost.

I still have a write up of @wearethedash at The Monarch Camden coming this week, as well as a round up of the summer, but for now I'm off for a serious detox.

Katy xx