6th July.
We’ve had a mighty busy couple of weeks rendering me unable to write the old blog. For that I apologise.
As you will know, recently we had our own little festival with fantastic live bands that supported us 100%. It was a marvellous affair and everyone had a great time. I have to confess to being really worried about it all but everyone was fantastic and I really felt proud of the way they all came together for us.
This last weekend we were fortunate enough to be given a pitch at the Hop Farm Festival that is based just round the corner from us which is a proper and utterly professional affair.
When you don’t know anything about such things then it’s a bit of an eye-opener to see how the big guys do it and boy, oh, boy did they do it! They had Bob Dylan headlining and the list of names just went on and on with some people coming just to see the likes of Blondie. Everyone seemed to be having a ball, the music pumped into the night and the so the daftness went on.
Following paying about £130 to get a weekend ticket, getting a beer was probably best part of an hour queue (at £3.80 per pint plus £2 deposit on a glass only refundable the next day – bad luck it you were only there for the day!) and I noticed with some amusement that the queue for the toilet was almost directly opposite and equally as long. To get free water from a tap was the same again so it seemed that a sensible drinker in the scorching heat faced the eternal triangle and could easily queue for a beer, decide to pace themselves with a water then need a pee… With the best will in the world the toilets stank and the whole experience was not good. So, all of that would probably take at least a couple of hours just in time to start again! No need to bother with anything as dull as the music and, to me, it all seemed a bit mad.
I can say, hand on heart, that I’ve never seen such a horrible mess on the ground. There was a van selling spit roast chickens and the place was littered with half eaten carcasses to the point that you couldn’t walk without encountering one in an instant. It was revolting and I genuinely felt sorry for the people that had to clean up.
I felt ashamed for the human race.
All of this took me back to our beautiful event. Any of our bands would have stood proud on the stages of the Hop Farm and I say that with confidence. They looked and sounded excellent and after theirs sets were happy to have a beer with the audience. No security required or asked for. It was a truly beautiful affair and we were privileged to have hosted such an event for up and coming bands. I hope that they remember us when they’re famous!
Our toilets were clean (I had several people tell me that they were the best ‘festi’ toilets that they’d ever encountered!!!) the bands were brilliant, the food was great, as was the beer and everyone had a great time.
We will be doing it again, courtesy of our friends who care about the animals so, please, once we have a provisional date then do pencil us in for next year. It’ll be even more fun then!!!
