Get Chris Roberts and Seth Bye a foot massage, stat. The two musicians, members of the folk band Filkin's Drift, on Tuesday wrapped up their latest tour through Wales, performing dozens of shows over two months. But it wasn't private jets, regular commercial aircraft, or even a van that transported the duo, both 27, to their gigs, per the BBC. Instead, they walked the nearly 900 miles in total, all in the name of being environmentally conscious.
The two started their "radical approach to sustainable touring" along the Wales Coast Path in the Welsh county of Flintshire on Sept. 3, inspired by the traveling poets of yore and following COVID lockdowns, after which they found themselves stuck in cars and idling in traffic again. "We were just wondering whether there was a better way to tour," Bye says. And so the men headed out with their instruments and a 33-pound bag each, with Roberts stuffing some of his clothes in his guitar case. Not that they brought much in the way of apparel: Roberts explains they each had one outfit for their daytime hiking, then a second outfit for their evening shows.
Roberts and Bye—accompanied by a friend who helped them carry gear and figure out logistics—had mostly nice weather during their travels. They managed to avoid the worst of two major storms that hit, though there was one day Bye says they got "absolutely drenched." One of the most challenging parts of their trek was finding venues to play in after a long day of hiking. They performed everywhere from breweries, pubs, and museums to a local wetland center and a "tiny chapel ... that we could only walk to at low tide," Roberts says in a video. Per Folk Radio, some of their gigs included tales from their travels, "a tapestry of shared experiences of the Welsh coast."
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Surprisingly, when their tour came to a close, neither one was plagued with blisters or the usual "aches and pains" that one might expect from such an arduous walking schedule. It's not like they did much preparing for such a long walk, either—they simply adapted along the way. "We walk all day, we have an hour for food, and then we do a gig, it's just back to back," Bye tells the BBC. "To start with it felt incredibly daunting, but [then we] just settled into the natural rhythm of life." See them speak more about it here. (More bands stories.)
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