Glastonbudget and half term

We had bought tickets for Tonefest, a small music festival that we went to last year and enjoyed very much. Unfortunately, the festival had to be cancelled due to poor ticket sales.  As we had been looking forward to a festival on Bank Holiday weekend, we decided to find another festival on the same weekend.  We found Glastonbudget, held in Wymeswold in Leicestershire.  This was a festival of tribute bands with a just a few new bands in the line up.  In normal circumstances we wouldn't probably have considered going to a tribute band festival but it was great to find an alternative festival on the right weekend, which had tickets at a late stage.  As it turned out, it was a really good weekend.

On the day before we left for the festival, Chloe's dad, Steve, rang and offered to swap cars for the weekend.  He had a Multipla which seats 6 comfortably.  I wasn't sure at first as it was likely to use more fuel than my Clio, but the extra room was an attractive proposition so we agreed to swap.  Steve picked me up from work on Friday, when we were leaving and, having taken me home, he took my car and left me with his.  I drove it round to the local shop to get cat food and to make sure I was comfortable before taking any young people up north.

Brian had left with Ben and his friend Ben at lunchtime with the tent and all the other camping equipment.  I left with Beccy, her friend Shannon, and Ben's friends Chloe and Jeni at around 3.45pm.  Brian rang while we were on the way to say that they weren't letting gas bottles onto the campsite.  We decided that he should try to smuggle the gas bottle in, otherwise we wouldn't be able to cook or heat water for washing and washing up.  He managed it and we used it with no problem for the weekend.  The girls and I arrived at around 8.30pm.  We unloaded our stuff and went into the arena to watch 'Four Fighters' and for Brian and I to have a beer and relax.  At 9am I was at work in Gillingham having taken the bus to get there.  At 9pm we were in a field in Wymeswold, drinking beer and standing in front of the stage.

The night was cold but we all slept OK.  On Saturday morning we drove into Loughborough, drove into the university campus to have a quick look, then went into town to get something to eat.  Ben, Ben, Chloe and Jeni visited the Bath Store and picked up 36 rubber ducks, which they brought to them with the cafe.

We found a place to eat called 'The Cafe' next to the Rushes shopping centre.  As there were 8 of us and we couldn't all eat at the same table, we divided into 3 tables.  As the children were taking ages to make their minds up about what they wanted to eat, Brian and I ordered and paid for our food first, then ordered and paid for Beccy and Shannon, then Ben and his friends.  As we had ordered separately, this made it easier for the cafe to deal with it and the lady we assumed was the owner offered Brian and me a portion of cake each free to say thank you for spending so much and making the orders easier to deal with.  The food we had was good and the cake, although difficult to manage as we had eaten so much already.

We shopped for supplies in a supermarket, then returned to the festival site.  In the arena we watched The Splitters, a new band who were really entertaining.  They were very good to watch but were asked to cut their set short to make the stage available for the next act.  Shame, as we were enjoying watching them.  They were followed, after a long gap, by Mercury, a Queen tribute band.   They were very good and kept the audience singing and dancing.  They did a good rendition of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.  I had forgotten about the head-banging bit in the middle and when it happened, Brian and I were knocked from side to side.  Just before this, Beccy and Shannon had been near the front of the crowd and we could only see them every now and then.  Afterwards they were not far in front of us.  I think they had been 'bounced' back by the crowd!

There were many people in fancy dress, we saw scooby-doo, a group dressed as a hot dog with ketchup and mustard, superman, batman, the Blues Brothers and many more.  We came across a group of adults and children dressed as Where's Wally.  We wondered if this was a strategy for making sure they didn't lose the children, they could spot them in the crowd as you find Wally.  However, every time we passed through the part of the arena where we had seen them, they were still there.  You don't have to find many of a group that never moves!

In the evening Brian and I watched Duran Tribute and then Money for Nothing.  Each was OK but neither was a tribute to any group we would have watched originally.  We had managed to cook a meal for all 8 of us and had left Ben and his friends to do the washing up.

When we arrived we were quite worried about the number of toilets available for use on the campsite.  There must have been more than 500 people on the family camping site and there were 8 toilets!  There were more toilets at the arena and it was only a 5 minute walk to get there (which avoided the queue).  We had visions of the toilets being disgusting after a short while.  However, the toilets were cleaned at least three times a day and, due to the open urinals provided for the men, they remained pretty clean throughout the weekend.

On Sunday morning, I walked to the arena toilets as the queue at the campsite was too long.  On the way back I saw two men trying to smuggle a gas cooker onto the campsite (we had already smuggled ours in simply by carrying it to the tent in a bag).  They had one man in the car park and one in the site and between them there were two fences each around six feet high and both about 10 feet apart.  The man in the car park threw the cooker over the fence.  Unfortunately, it didn't make it over the second fence and crashed to the ground, smashing into pieces.  At the same time, it attracted the attention of the security guards who gave them a good grilling but probably didn't take any action as the cooker was beyond repair anyway!

From lunchtime onwards we watched bands.   We watched Green Date then went back to the tent to have some very quick lunch before going back to the arena to see Cold Place, then Blings of Leon and One Step Behind.  After this band, they announced the winners of the fancy dress competition and we realised why so many people had been dressed up (we thought they were just doing it for fun - there were a large number of men dressed in women's clothes).  The competition was won by Jesus (who had a real crown of thorns worn all weekend) followed by the 118 team and the Rainbow Builders.  While we had been watching Cold Place, I had turned round to find Dangermouse standing behind me.

Later in the evening we watched the Stereotonics and ex-Simple Minds.  The first band were really good.  We didn't know any of the Simple Minds tracks but the crowd invented a dance involving clapping up and right, then left, then down left and right.  It started with a small group of people in the middle of the crowd, then it was picked up by the people behind them, then by the people to either side, until at least 70% of the crowd was doing this dance.  There had been a number of mass congas earlier in the day and many people who got their picture taken with dressed up people.  There was a real feeling of  camaraderie among the crowd, that I'm sure you get at many festivals.

On Monday, we drove home.  Brian took Ben and Jeni, along with much of the camping stuff, earlier in the morning as Ben had a tennis match and Jeni needed to get back for her sister's birthday.  The rest of us took the tent and travelled home later in the morning.  It was a really good weekend.  The children were able to fluctuate between arena and campsite as they wanted to and Brian and I could do the same. We spent a lot of time just the two of us and even had a little time to ourselves in the tent!

Once we got home, we swapped the cars back and spent Tuesday recovering and washing.

On Wednesday, we took Alexander to Colchester Zoo.  We had a lovely day, the sun was shining, Alexander wanted to walk everywhere and we covered the whole zoo.  He is not old enough to be able to recognise or get excited by animals for the sake of it, but he managed to find things to move around and to shout at.  We took him to the play area and he played in the ball pit and with the soft equipment.