Tuesday 19 August 2008

Monday 18 August 2008

V Festival, Chelmsford




This was something different for us as we usually attend more family orientated festivals but as we live only minutes from the site I thought it would be a good idea to go.

I approached the event with some trepidation as I was very unsure what to expect. However after the usual hassles of getting on site to set up, the sun was shining and I felt a bit more positive about it all. The grotto looked great really colourful and stocked with more tutus than ever before.

Living so close it was lovely to be able to go home and shower etc and get ready for the first day with such home comforts as a proper cup of tea and flushing toilet (though not at the same time!)

Saturday proved to be much as predicted we were busy, everyone was drunk but happy and the site began to look more rubbish infested by the minute. The fencing opposite the stall soon became a public toilet but overall the atmosphere was good and the weather held out.

Sunday started grey but by the time we were on site the sun was out and it was scorching. After spending a good chunk of time getting the swimming pool off the roof of the grotto we were ready for another busy day. The atmosphere on Sunday felt a lot better and more relaxed, I think most people were a feeling a bit more sedate after their second night of not much sleep and overall I felt it was a better day. we didn't get to see much of the music but I did catch Amy Macdonald who was fantastic and Dan went to see Stereophonics who were great apparently.

Rosie helped on the stall once more as did our friends Steve and Alison who jumped in when ever we needed them and also very kindly took Saff with them to see alot of the bands.

We met some lovely people and caught loads of you on camera so see if you can spot yourself on the slide show.

Today was spent drying everything out and reloading up the car for the next festival Towersey Village Festival which is a much more family friendly festival so will be more relaxed hopefully.

Stokes Bay Festival

I'm still waiting on my photos for Stokes Bay Festival but this was a fairly quiet event for us. It was situated right on the Solent which did mean wind was a problem for both us and alot of other traders. Perhaps I better clarify thats wind from the sea that was a problem not from us fairies!

I had a new fairy helper Rosie and between ourselves and my parents who had come to help transport all our stall we got the fairy grotto up fairly quickly. However putting the tent up proved more difficult as the ground was solid and tent pegs wouldn't go in. It took longer to put up a tent than it did to set up the whole stall. On the first night the wind picked up and I woke to a loud noise at about 2am. After about ten minutes of wondering whether I should check the stall I finally plucked up courage and was horrified to see the whole back and roof of the stall had blown off and tutus were now flapping in the wind! I woke Saff and Rosie up to help mend it but luckily Peter the festival organiser was passing and he quickly got the security blokes to come and help get the tarpaulin back on, no easy task in a strong wind. That taught me a valuable lesson about the amount of clamps needed to make the stall secure!

The rest of the festival passed without incident thankfully but I think we were all glad (apart from the kids) when it was time to pack up and go home.