Catch up time! - Bimble Inn Bandada, Boomtown Fair, Reading, Proms In The Park and OOTO!

It's that long awaited catch up and I guess I'm now expected to remember all of the things that happened 3 months ago.....Well lets have a go :)

Right I think I left you all at The Lonely Tree. Well clearly I came down from there and after the end of the Play Festival I rode the 200 miles home after what was three festies in a row!

Next up was the Bimble Inn Bandada and another beautiful installation from the Bimble crew and Pony. We had amazingly wonderful weather the whole weekend! It looked like this:

See! Beautiful! :)

Next up was the one I'd been waiting for all year! The Boomtown Fair! This was just going to be so epic! So many friends all coming to the same festival and a line-up that screamed PARTY!!!!

More to come a bit later today......

I arrived a day and a half before it opened and had a nice day chilling out with friends :)

And then it opened da da daaaaa! So many great parties, I was in a show, we watched Gogol Bordello

and managed to achieve best festival of the year!

Next up was Reading. Always an epic one as it's usually the last time a lot of us festival workers get to see each other till next June! I was lucky enough to be given the Jack Daniels Bar to run, which was nice ;) Reading 2011 turned out to be my best Reading to date! Really had a great time, wonderful entertaining staff and what really seamed to be a great crowd too!

Proms In The Park was up next and for me was a four day event that involved hard work but it was still much fun working with friends. I won't mention the amazing job I turned down at Bestival to stay in London for a paid event rather then voluteering.....Oh well who needs The Cure when we had Gary Barlow.... :(

Out Of The Ordinary was the way I chose to end my 2011 festival season. Festival number fourteen was lots of fun! I took my motorbike out for what was to be the last time and rode down with Rob on his Triumph, it was an excellent ride :D The festival was just what I needed :)

Hatfair, Sonisphere, Latitude, Secret Garden Party and Play Festival

And so I arrived in beautiful Winchester for Hatfair. Europe's longest running street performance art festival. This one was year 38 and myself and Tim would be running two bars. One in the big top every evening from 8pm till 1am....ish and another on the Sunday during the day time.

It was up to Tim & myself to have everything running and organised, and due to the fact that we had no daytime bars we always had the daytimes (apart from Sunday) to mooch around town. So for three days we explored wonderful Winchester, watched the street performances and ate out and nice cafes. I was very lucky to also catch up a few times with my very good friend Tim (another Tim, the place was full of them!) And on one particular morning met for breakfast and were joined by a member of Winchester council. The situation soon became very comical when Tim's (Winchester Tim not my work colleague) ex wife turned up, she was immediately very happy to see the councillor there and wanted to pay him back some monies she owed him. The councillor looked noticeably disturbed by this happening in quite a public location and insisted on going into the cafe to pay.....He never came back! Instead deciding that the back door would be in his best interest.....Perhaps a similar decision that got him into the predicament in the first place? ;) In any case whilst in the cafe he also paid for mine, Tim's and Tim's breakfast! And considering that he only had one coffee, we worked out that that single cup had just cost him around £27! So breakfast on Winchester council then nice!

The rest of the weekend bathed us in glorious sunshine. We had amazing and happy bar staff courtesy of a local agency and even had rooms in the local university as there was no camping, what a touch! It was one great party!

Our bar in the big top


Sonisphere was the next festie I went to and for this one I was trying out a new company, Creative Events. I'd never worked for them before and would only earn a small amount of money as I was bar staff for the event. So I decided to do what (it seams) I do best, show everyone up! Might as well, they don't know me and I'm trying to get in good with a new company, makes sense no? So I worked my arse off for my first shift, ran rings round everyone. And wouldn't you know it, they made me supervisor from then on in! That paid off nicely :D The rest of the weekend was spent with an awesome metal soundtrack, Slayer, Metallica, Weezer, Cavalera Conspiracy and Limp Bizkit. Overall a really fun weekend! Met some great people too!

Wonderful meeting up with good friends at Sonisphere


One of my favourite pictures of the summer

Night photography, 60 second aperture opening

Latitude was next up and I was to run the Campsite Bar again. I really like working there and it's my second year doing so. A great festie, bit middle class but done well with lots to see. Caught up with many friends and had a few parties along the way.

I left Latitude and headed straight for Secret Garden Party! I arrived as a Green Steward but was quickly passed onto a wonderful job in production! Yet another sweet touch. The summer was really looking after me! After meeting Lou and her team it was decided that I would be working at the information point which was also lost & found. Seriously best job ever! I had so much fun working there and have since been promised work there anytime I want! Happy days!!! What a crazy festie! So much fun, dancing, drinking and playing with friends new and old, I love SGP!!

My next stop was the Play Festival. A small and intimate circus skills event in North Wales, 200 miles away from where I was, and onto my bike I jumped and headed there, oh the feeling of freedom. Play was a wonderful festie too (they all were!) I did a few shifts on the gate, met many many wonderful people and had a real good chill out!

Took a walk up to the lonely tree:


And never wanted to come down!

Right! It's now sleepy time! I've almost caught up with my summer and only have a few festies left to do and write about. That'll all happen in the next few weeks before I head off again into the sunset. This time round Europe then Israel! The excitement draws in again :D

Till then sweet dreams to you all xxx

So now I'm back after what was five months away from home and all I can think of is, 'what am I doing here'......I never really thought about any downsides of returning back to London. But some good friends have confirmed that what I am going through is quite normal. Living away from home and experiencing something so very epic will have a flip side once you're back. A feeling that I don't belong, a feeling of unhappiness, a feeling of loneliness. I have been extremely lucky and with a few years hard work have managed to secure myself many festivals to occupy myself over the summer (fifteen and counting!) And for this I am very grateful, for without it I would certainly be one lost soul in London. But as it turns out, I am not. No in fact my biggest challenge is that of motivation. All else is really quite wonderful. I have wonderful friends, wonderful encounters and have been led to wonderful situations that in turn have helped me get ahead of the game.

So I came back home and spent around five days just waiting for The Sunrise Celebration to begin, and soon enough it did! So I had the bike fixed (new clutch £450!) and a few days later I was ready for festie number 1. Sunrise was wonderful for me! I reconnected with so many people and had the easiest shifts with Green Stewards ever, just what I needed!

Festival number 2 was Glade. At the time I didn't have any clue just how epic Glade would be. I was going alone to get out of London, that's all I knew. I got there early and put my tent up in a large empty field, about half a day later some others arrived. I met some of my neighbours and eventually had an early night.

The next day Spin arrived and introduced me to all of her lovely friends and instantly my new family were all around me! Green Stewards asked me if I wanted to do a Supervisor shift which I happily accepted and afterwards was told this was a trial and I'd done really well! (got paid too!) That night we all went out and got quite messy, it was lots of fun! and by the time the sun was coming up we were all ready for bed.....That was until I saw Mr Sunshine poking his head above the horizon, what a sight! And I moved a little closer to interrupt a group a people who hadn't yet noticed, 'looooook' I said! And that's how I met Tabatha. She insisted that I come back to her tent to help her finish off her drink, be rude not to! A little later we went in search of some nos and somehow ended up on a trampoline. Some ten to fifteen minutes must have gone by with much jumping and laughing when all of a sudden we were joined by some random who go up on the tramp and in all of a few seconds managed to put me off balance and I crushed my ankle. The pain was instant and I came down off my high very quickly indeed, got very warm and almost through up. Luckily the medics tent wasn't far so I though I would hobble over, although I could sustain no weight on it at all so Tabatha had to go over and get them to come and get me. The doctor decided I really should go to the hospital as it could be fractured, it had swelled up like you wouldn't believe!. So off I went to Kings Lynn Hospital (dressed as a polar bear by the way!) Hospital in fancy dress is rather fun, really put a smile on the nurses faces :D

Wind forward a few hours and with the great news that nothing is broken I returned to Glade via the free shuttle bus service and was back on the dance floor (crutches and all!) The rest of my stewarding shifts took place in the 'office' passing messages on the radio (felt quite at home doing this after over eight years with the couriers)

Getting home wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be as it was my right foot and not my left, so I motorbiked back and was even helped out getting petrol so I didn't have to get off.

Festival number 3 was London Feis where I was running a small Guinness Bar (at an Irish Festival!!!) Were we busy? Jeeeeez! My bar made £26,000 on Saturday selling just Guinness! That's over 6,000 pints!

Festival number 4 was Glastonbury where I was asked to look after The Pussy Parlour, the very same Spiegel tent I spent six weeks of my life in over xmas and new years! This time though I was being subbed out to work for The Dance Village with no other WBC staff but me I was given 18 bar staff who were working for their ticket and by the way, all dressed up in burlesque outfits, nice! I had lots and lots of fun working there! Didn't really see any bands at Glastonbury, had much trouble with my ankle and didn't get that much time off......Still had a blast though! Deffo got the good straw in bagging the pussy parlour :)

So now I'm home after a coach journey with no air con or windows on the hottest day of the year. I've had worse journey though :)

Yesterday i had a job interview for a bar job at Sonisphere, went in to the head office at The WBC to finalise some arrangements for Hatfiar (Festie number 5) and finally attended the wonderful Flash Mob Meditation in Covent Garden with my friend Anna. (the whole time still wearing much glitter from Glastonbury that will not wash out!!) After we went for amazing vegan food with some of the people we met and laughed about all sorts of silly things. Life is quite sweet!

This morning I woke with little or no motivation and spent the day in bed. It is now 16:34 and I have not left bed yet. I am making up for lost time though and do not feel too guilty. Shortly I will actually get up, do some washing (clothes and also myself!) and then maybe pick a movie for a quiet night in for tomorrow morning it's off to Winchester for Hatfair. Am very excited as it's just me and a guy called Tim. No other WBC staff at all! Should be much fun! And it means I don't have to go to Hop Farm (which I'm not a massive fan of)

Oh and I just had a call from Green Stewards offering me last minute paid work at Hop Farm (I had to turn them down due to Hatfair) They were only after 4 people and requested me, feels gooood :D

Till the next time, thank you for reading, chat soon x

Seattle, Vancouver, New York & home

I arrived in Seattle and was greeted by my most gracious hosts Daniel & V and driven back to there lovely house. I spent 6 wonderful days in Seattle. Had massively long walks in town, checking out the amazing markets and popping into coffee shops every now and then (it's the law in Seattle to have some caffeine after every four blocks of walking) The people are just as friendly as in San Francisco and it's just as hilly too!

One particular day Daniel drove us all out to Twin Peaks country and we did a little tour. Earie and beautiful at the same time! On other days we ate amazing sushi, drank in exclusive backstreet speakeasy's and attended high class burlesque nights. All in all a wonderful experience and one that I hope to repeat again as soon as I can get myself back there :)

After Seattle time was sadly over it was time to head for Vancouver. A greyhound bus and around three hours took care of this and Emma was at the bus station to meet me. I spent 6 wonderful days with Emma & Wayne at their lovely flat in Commercial Drive (which is by FAR the best neighbourhood in Vancouver according to Emma) Generous to the core, they took me out everywhere and gave me evil stares if I attempted to take my wallet out of my trousers! (I managed occasionally though haha!) Vancouver is a stunning place surrounded by huge snow capped mountains. I had a lot of fun with Emma and her gorgeous friends. There were beach trips, lunch dates, spin classes and so much more! Vancouver is a jolly place that I really hope to get back to soon :)

And so eventually it was time to lift my bags and carry on, for New York was waiting for me! And another two plane flights later I arrived in The Big Apple! Coming from London I didn't think New York would astound me like it did, but it did! It is truely a massive place! It was great to see Kristine again and one couldn't hope for a better host/tour guide/drinking companion! We ate massive burgers at amazing diners and even sampled what can be best described as alien food! We found goth nights and burlesque nights and made me feel right at home. New York was also a chance to catch up with my friend Chef and also Nellie. I spent at least two days in Central Park as it was just about the only place that made me feel grounded.

After New York I flew home via Iceland right only a day after it had been reopened due to volcanic activity. Only got to spend an hour in the airport though which was a shame.

Arriving back to the UK was about as uneventful as I thought it would be. And I basically waited for the start of the festival season and the Sunrise Celebration where I could be back in nature with my festival friends. I wasn't liking the big city much and when I finally got to Sunrise it didn't take me too long to reconnect and ground myself.

So this blog will now be a tale by tale or should I say festival by festival update through the summer. Currently I should be attending around 12 festivals though that number is expected to rise. Expect all the highlights and lowlights here. Then in October I shall be on my merry way again first to Switzerland to see my grandma then to Israel with, if I'm very lucky indeed, a few pit stops on the way.......But that all depends on my cash flow.

Till the next update, thank you for reading and I'll post again soon x