fantastic weekend had by all
Joefest 2016 was a triumph that could not be dampened by the rain squalls that periodically blew in from the West.
Highlights:
Picked up 3 barrels of ale from Pheasantry brewery Wednesday and installed them in situ at Bridge Farm Thursday evening after erecting the marquee.
Friday saw the delivery of the generator, portaloos and chiller unit, all of which proved to be essential for the smooth working of the event. Lorry delivering the generator got stuck in the mud of the wet field and I had to fetch a nearby farmer (Jim) with this tractor to tow it out.
Generator proved not to have a full tank of fuel so the delivery man, Alan called through and ordered a couple of plastic containers of red diesel for me.
Spent Friday afternoon doing a bit of work and also printing out some menus/prices for the bar and bbq areas.
Friday afternoon saw Peachy Productions arrive to put up the staging and sound and light gear. We set up the bbq and bar and lots of bunting and lights were placed strategically around the site.
That evening Joe, James Powell, Dave and Jacqui Culy and I went to watch Wales beat Belgium 3 – 1 at the White Hart in Lissington. I had steak and ale pie with chips. Joe had chicken tikka massala. Great evening.
Slept on my own in campervan Betty that night.
Saturday was the big day. Started slowly but numbers built up gradually over the course of the day. We shifted around 170 wristbands in total. Not bad.
There was live music on for most of the afternoon and evening with a cutoff at 11pm. The Pylons were terrific. All the ale was consumed but not much lager and cider – the punters mostly brought their own.
I almost lost my voice in the emotion of the Pylons gig – it was the best I’d seen them play. Afterwards we had planned on having a firepit/campfire singsong but the wood hadn’t been chopped in advance and tbh my voice had gone and I was cream crackered.
Hannah moved us all inside the marquee to sing and Dave Cooper stepped into the breath in my absence. Unfortunately Coops only knows extremely pornographic rugby songs which wasn’t quite what Hannah had in mind 🙂
I wore sandals for most of the day but the ground got so muddy and my feet so filthy that I ended up washing them in a bucket of water and wearing wellies from the middle of the afternoon. My feet are still somewhat muddy now even after a shower.
Started drinking before noon – just to test the beer of course. Steve Wildman arrived and I spent some time with him on wristband distribution (sales) duty at the entrance. Lots of ale consumed.
Bed around midnight I think. In the night we were woken up by a beeping sound. Turns out it was one of the walkie talkies’ “low battery” sound. Eventually found it and turned it off.
Large quantities of bacon and sausage baps dished out for breakfast and we gradually packed up the site. A hard core remained to help the scouts take down the marquee and indeed the family went back to the Bailgate Methodist Church to help unload and store the borrowed gear. Fortunately the marquee was being used the following weekend at beaver camp so we didn’t have to unload that which is the hard bit – storing it in the cellar.
Now this afternoon we are all knackered. I’m taking the walkie talkies back to Geordie (Chris Thompson), have picked up the lager and cider for taking back to Tesco on sale or return and booked a taxi for 7am tomorrow. I am off to London for a couple of days with Netaxis.
186 pics and videos taken – got a message from EE saying I was nearing my data limit for the month! I have 20GB! Had to change the backup options to just wifi to save data until the 12th when the month resets.
Chicken stew for dinner.