Hedge Fest

10/10/2024

World mental health day - look after yourself. Self care, do what you need to do to feel well. Take care of yourself and make you number 1.

04/10/2024

Well folks apologies this took me a while to sort out.
A close family member recently going in to hospital, work commitments, broken phones, broken printers, myself being ill and exhausted - you name it. It was all going on and it’s been a mad stressy 4 weeks!
However finally here we are.
Delighted to have raised for Lymphoma Action a total of …drum roll……£1225.31 ! 🤘🤘🌟🎉✨⚡️(£120 contributed previously on the just giving page from non attendees).

Thank you all once again to all the bands Be Like Pablo Electric Redemption The Idiotix The Fragz The Endless North Cow Catcher Volupta UNF T x D x B x.
Eat Audio Sound & Lighting Hire, the photographers GMC Photography and L.A Photography, food van Little Kitchen outside catering, The Willliamson Hall, all the raffle donators, all the volunteers and Elgin driving school Rock Sound Driver Training who sponsored the event and last but certainly not least all of you guys the festival revellers!! ❤️ Thank you so so so much.🙏

I hope Gary (Hedge) would be proud of what we have all achieved in his memory and hopefully this contribution will help more people in the future with Lymphoma Cancer to be aware of it, diagnosed early, not face it alone and hopefully saved lives. Fiona x

23/09/2024

Oops accidentally deleted first post so here it is again.
Thanks again to all the kind raffle donators from individuals and companies. Nichola Maasdorp No4 Clinic, Mike Brands at Arch Rivals, Studio55, Walkers Shortbread,, Legends Of Rock, Krusher Joule, Stonedead Festival, HRH X (Ibiza), La Studio Beauty and Hair, Asda, Tesco, Laichmoray Hotel, Gordon & MacPhail Whisky, R.G MacDonald Butcher, Needle Little Love, Rock Sound Driver Training, Margaret Longmore Ingram, Craig Taylor, Marshall, Anndra Friseal.
Official letters and emails of thanks heading out this week ❤️

14/09/2024

If anyone needs a rock music fix tonight… You can go and Rock in the Foch!

14/09/2024

Where has the week gone eh!
Big shout out and thanks to Be Like Pablo who donated their profit from their merch to us.
I’ve not had a day to myself yet due to one thing or another !
However the full amount raised coming soon. Keep your eyes peeled!
Photo courtesy of Heather Durkin

12/09/2024

12/09/2024

.idiotix

12/09/2024

11/09/2024

Thanks so much GMC Photography

11/09/2024

Thanks so much L.A Photography

11/09/2024

So I haven’t been quick to post anything about Hedge Fest Elgin For a few days (aside from not having a working phone and losing my first draft ) I needed some time to let out pent up emotions, to chill and reflect after weeks of sleepless nights. It’s a very heartfelt post and Im not ashamed to post it.

Did it go the way I envisioned in my head and heart not quite.
Did I get to give Gary my tribute - sadly no.
Did I or Gary’s sister Morag get to see or even hear Marshall’s speech for Gary – during the Be Like Pablo set- no sadly not.

Thank you though bro for popping on the jacket he gave you especially in the heat - you must of been roasting and thank you for saying what you did. Such a nice thing to do. - The jacket had a little emblem of the punk baby logo Gary had designed and given this jacket to him when he had asked him to join his punk band Final Insult. I did get to see a photo of Marshall wearing this and am hoping there might be a video floating around?

Did I get to see the bands perform – not much but I expected that when we were essentially only a two person team. Did I get much info out there about lymphoma cancer – sort of but again not quite as much as I had hoped too.

This is completely from a personal perspective from the event planning side where I dropped the reigns due to ill health and timing logistics with running my own busy business. I retreated through sadness, tiredness and other issues.

The raffle didn’t go quite as planned. On reflection I should have done a silent one/ more time was required. The speech-at the beginning I’m no public speaker and that was cringey. I hadn’t prepared. I should have done a speech at the end and thanked everyone.

This negativity is personal to me and planning and had nothing to with the bands, the sound engineers and all the people who came and supported it and all who helped me. They were all brilliant. Now that’s out the way here’s all the fabulous positives.

Special thanks goes to Anndra in his contribution in helping make my festival to memorialise Gary become a reality.

Gigs in Elgin is something I have wanted to do for years pre to Gary’s passing but particularly was most prevalent after his passing to commemorate his life and make others aware of the sad situation it was. It could have been a whole different story had he or I or his family known the symptoms of Lymphoma Cancer.

I feel there was aspects of both the planning and the day that could have been much better organised. However as above the emotions, ill heath and other stuff tied to this situation meant my mind wasn’t quite where it should have been.

Thank you to Morag and then Craig coming to help earlier in the day before doors opened, that was so appreciated and then continuing to help throughout the day as mentioned later below.

Eat Audio Sound & Lighting Hire, Aberdeenshire were brilliant- visiting the hall before hand and designing and building the stage that would fit the hall. They provided everything basically aside from the drums and amps. I’ve known Daniel Edwards for many years and was nice to meet his lovely partner Georgia. What a team you guys are! ❤️

There were some feedback issues and apologies to anyone who was affected by this but this was in no way a reflection of them. No one knew how to turn off the hearing aid induction loop system that was interfering with the high gain guitar pick-ups.

To say I was running around like a headless chicken in those moments when I was made aware, googling/looking at the folder of the venue all whilst juggling people coming in at the door – was really quite comical and I think Gary would have loved that – punk as f**k! We did think we had found them and managed to switch two off- thank you Craig! however it was clear there was still more around the building no one could locate.

In Daniel‘s words “It affected almost every guitar proving to be a nightmare for all the musicians, particularly on their clean channels-thank goodness some of you had mute switches on the pedal boards between songs. If I could have reached it I would have cut the mic mounted above the stage with a pair of scissors’

Well Daniel it didn’t matter to me the vocals and instruments came through clear and that’s what I wanted and was delivered as I see so little of it at other gigs. So thank you for your hard work guys ! A 16 hour odd day plus travelling and I’m sorry I think I only got round to offering you guys drinks twice as it was so full on.

On to the bands – T x D x B x The Endless North The Idiotix Cow Catcher Be Like Pablo UNF Electric Redemption Volupta and The Fragz! All brilliant and I’m so grateful you gave up your free time to help support this. Lovely people and performances were great from what I heard and I’m just sorry I didn’t get to see much of it or speak to or meet all members. There was a rider I provided but I’m not sure every band/member were aware. - As there was quite a bit left over. Apologies if it wasn’t clear.
Gary would have loved you all I’m sure!

The day was always meant to be about our love of the alternative music we shared and a showcasing of local(ish bands) and doing something for the lack of scene for the alternatives- something Elgin has always have struggled with since way back.
The genres all kinda different but still under what I wanted and was lovely that 3 bands had members that knew Gary.

So thank you all so much for travelling and turning up each and every single one of you. ❤️

On to the photographers - thank you so much for getting in contact to offer your services Lisa Henderson from L.A Photography and Graeme Mclennan GMC Photography there has been some brilliant shots! So pleased at these. ❤️

Lymphoma Action Action have been in contact today and are amazed at all the social media pictures on the socials !

Thank you also to Little Kitchen outside catering for coming and setting up, apologies that sales were much lower than expected for you.

On to my team of helpers Morag , Craig , Mac and Heather who had paid tickets! So grateful to you all - the tidy up at the end with Marshall and helping too was manic work ! but due to you guys we did still make it to the after party for a few! Give yourself a big pat on the back guys !

Finally onto all of you who came. I can not express to you my gratitude to you all for supporting it – and your generous donations. I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. The money taken in from the door sales, ticket sales, raffle and the full amount raised along side the just giving page donations will be announced in due course.

It was lovely for people to tell me it was a success and was humbling to be praised as I certainly wasn’t in it for some sort of glory. People asking for T-shirts surprised me!
To hear that people were enjoying themselves in the hall (much of which I didn’t see) and some have asked for a Hedge Fest Elgin 2025 was mind blowing!!

It was meant to be a one off event and if it went well I would only possibly consider putting on more gigs. That said, Gary would have been elated to know there was requests for it to be an annual festival in his name. As a well known character in the alternative scene back in the day (some calling us the Sid and Nancy of the town 🤣) this seems to be a fitting and awesome idea and is food for thought.

If I was to consider it however then there would defo be changes and I would need a full team on board as I was wrecked on Saturday and in the planning stages and I couldn't go through all that again!
I would also change and try to be more assertive – something I will admit is not my strongest point. It needs some serious thought and logistics but who knows -I do have people now I think are willing to help more than I originally realised - you all know who you are. ❤️

Thank you all once again and gratitude to all involved and sorry if I have missed anyone.

Sharing posts and liking and loving posts will commence from my side now!

Last thing I’d like to say please tell your loved ones you love them check on them if you haven’t heard on them in a while and do not let silly fights stop communication.

If you have any of the following symptoms even if these symptoms are regular for you in other health conditions please get them checked out.
Fever.
Night sweats.
Fatigue.
Itchy skin.
Painless swelling of lymph nodes in the belly, neck, armpits or groin.
Pain in chest, abdomen or bones.
Losing weight

Gary Stewart MacDonald “Hedge” 02/08/1974 - 09/02/2018

09/09/2024

Hi all Im struggling to post my thank yous as my phone gave up the ghost Saturday night. Don’t want anyone thinking I’m being rude. I have a heartfelt thank you speech for all involved and I lost the draft and it took me ages! For now a huge thank you to everyone who played their part and the proper thanks is coming as soon as possible please bear with me !! Fiona xx