Friday 8 November 2013 - Benalla Festival, Benalla (#78)

For the third year running, Pans on Fire played at the Benalla Festival. This year, they were part of a multicultural theme of "We are One", and played as a warm-up act for the main performer in Nicky Bomba & Bustamento, along with groups from Africa, South America and the South Pacific.

Threatening weather meant a last-minute switch to the main stage in the park, and this had the advantage that we were miked-up instead of playing acoustic. It was great for the band to be able to hear what everyone else was playing, through the fallback speakers.

Since Lennox Jordan, the regular pan player for Bustamento, was still away in Oman teaching the Sultan's Steelband a few numbers, Rita Seethaler got a call-up on the night to play with Bustamento.

Despite not having played (or even heard) many of the numbers beforehand, she did a great job when called upon to play a couple of impromptu solos.