Si Blatchly – live music organiser
Fifty people are crammed together as their bright outfits sparkle under the stage lights. Horns blast, strings pluck, guitars ring out and drums pound, as the UK’s biggest folk band explodes with energy. “It was epic,” recalls Si Blatchly, who’s also known as Si Chai. “The crowd went absolutely ballistic. There was so much joy in the room and every single person on the stage was utterly beaming.”
Blatchly is recalling the moment The Conservatoire Folk Ensemble, made up of an ever-rotating number of students from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, took to the Chai Wallahs stage for the first time. “Some of those kids had never even been to a festival before, let alone played in front of 2,000 people,” he says. “So, to see them absolutely smash it was such a massive rush. It gives me such a kick to see that. It’s such a beautiful thing to witness that I can get quite weepy sometimes.”
Blatchly has been involved with Chai Wallahs since 2004, when he came up with the idea of combining his two passions. “I wanted to introduce people to health products and things like natural incense, goji berries, wheatgrass and juices,” he recalls. “And I was also passionately into music, so I merged the two.”
