Les nuits frappées de BruniquelThis is the second year in a row that we have been to Bruniquel to see the marathon Les nuits frappées,where teams of drummers or "batucadas" are invited by the local drumming club, SambaFunk Factory of Montauban, to take part in a festival of drumming that commences at 7pm and continues until the small hours of the night. It is a riot of colourful costumes, characters and some truly ear shattering, foot-stamping music that has you prancing around like a dervish - and that's before we hit the beer tent.
This year's line up come from afar a field as Barcelona and it is really great to see what rhythms are possible from just drums and other percussive sources. This year one of the bands were even using a megaphone. Outstanding.
The evening got off to a great start in the grounds of Bruniquel Château. The drummers were playing to a backdrop of distant lightening and we thought "good, its not heading this way". Oh, we were so wrong. Thor had woken up, the lightening got brighter, the sky thundered as if in response to the drummers below. Suddenly, just as the band had finished, the rain came down. We hurried to our bike,donned waterproofs, gloves and helmets and scooted off into the night. It was raining so hard you could hardly see the road ahead. There were great puddles and streaming water everywhere with tremendous noise from the sky and a brilliant light show to boot. I do not think I have ever ridden in anything like it. All in all an unforgettable experience.
Nev
Val says 3 more photos of this evening in "photos"
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