The Festival

Well I'm back from my press adventure. And somehow seem to have ended up in charge of an enormous dog! Dog is called Marmite and belongs to Eldest and his girlfriend who have gone to London for the day. I was warned that Marmite might show separation anxiety when they left and he did indeed throw himself at the door and also the window with large sorrowful whines and small yelps. But he's now subsided into a heap on the floor and occasionally heaves a sigh with a whimper attached. I'm quite grateful that that's all so far. I'm only accustomed to a smallish, ageing dog these days and this large floppy, hairy creature looks as though he could be quite a handful if he really got in a state.
(Smallish, ageing dog is in a state of collapse having been for three or four very long walks with Marmite!)
Ok. Peace descends.

So, Cropredy :)
I like being The Press :)
You get to go between the stage and the 20,000 people behind the barrier and because the Cropredy organisers restrict the numbers of photographers in the pit at any one time you can wander about quite freely taking pictures from all sorts of angles. Beats balancing on tip toe in between the 20,000 people and waving a hopeful camera above your head any time:)
I have to say that the pictures I took, while a million time better than most of the ones I usually take, are no better than the ones you see all over the place of other, non press passed people who've been to festivals. Almost the first thing I saw as I nervously approached the press tent to book my first slot in the pit was this pretty girl with possibly the most enormous amount of camera lens I've ever seen up close. When I confessed to camera envy she said it would make her arms really strong as it was heavy and she'd only had it a couple of months!(My camera probably felt a bit undersized though, as there were a lot of large cameras in the pit. I only saw two as small as mine. And I've become accustomed to thinking mine is rather big. I should have made that cardboard cut out!)

But to start with, the festival itself. Three days of peace man. (quite noisy peace sometimes but nonetheless peace with a big P). Lots and lots of ageing hippies with their children and grandchildren and dogs and blankets and umbrellas and (regrettably) their beach shelters:). Fairy lights, flags and candles. Glowing thingies. Banners. Hairdos, head scarves and patchwork skirts and trousers. Small children running a lot and waving things. People wandering about with pints and platesful stopping to try and work out if they were at all close to where they left their chairs/partners/children.

On Friday afternoon somebody's luggage arrived. It was addressed to Fairport convention, Cropredy and had come from America to Heathrow and hence to the festival. Well that would save you dragging your suitcase all over the country!


Right, let's meet at the bar. Where are you now?
Between the Caribbean food and the Fish and chips? Ok. You draw a line between the British flag and the white horse flag... what? Oh well the black horse on a white background, you know, like the white horse of Uffington right? But black instead of white. You don't know what I mean? how can you not know the Uffington White Horse. Well, a stylised horse on a white flag. Look it's the only black and white flag uphill from the British flag. Oh. Well how about the white dragon on a red background? How many?? Well I can only see the one.
Oh Ok. well can you see a row of six blue and yellow beach shelters with a sheepdog in the second one from the end? And a pink man? Really, a pink man. A big pink man, you can't miss him. Oh. Right. Well there's a white vest with a pink scarf. can you see that? No on a flag pole I know there are hundreds of them on people. Look up! Got it? good. don't go anywhere near that one. Oh, I tell you what, go to the other side of the field and walk down hill till you can't get any further because of the crowd. Push your way into the crowd until you hit the bar. I'll meet you there.


Here's someone who looks as though he also was not in use.
A place to keep the kids busy
Waiting for my first slot to get into the pit. (I arrived fifteen minutes early because they thought they might be ahead. What sort of festival runs ahead of time!)
A bit of shade in between pitward dashes and platesful of exotic food. And fresh donuts. and coffee and orange juice. (It was wonderfully sunny all weekend. Fantastic)My favourite, the Thai food stall.
A peaceful early morning moment in the campsite
Meet on the Ledge.
For those of you who aren't Fairport fans, it's the song they always finish with. A special moment for a special song.

We used to say
"There'd come the day
we'd all be making songs
Or finding better words"
These ideas never lasted long

The way is up along the road,
the air is growing thin
Too many friends who tried,
blown off this mountain
with the wind

Meet on the ledge,
we're going to meet on the ledge
When my time is up,
I'm going to see all my friends

Meet on the ledge,
we're going to meet on the ledge
If you really mean it,
it all comes around again

Yet now I see,
I'm all alone,
but that's the only way to be
You'll have your chance again,
then you can do the work for me

Meet on the ledge,
we're going to meet on the ledge
When my time is up,
I'm going to see all my friends

Meet on the ledge,
we're going to meet on the ledge
If you really mean it,
it all comes around again

That's all for tonight. I have Eldest to talk to and dog to take out and Oh, stuff to do.
Tomorrow I shall post pictures of bands, if I have time to sort through them :) There are quite a lot :) Sleep well.