TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Goaty, perhaps you can start...  ;)

Oooh, errr, s'a bit early & I'm hungover (very unusual, was particularly thirsty last night ::)), hmmm, here's a truly dreadful one!

Glasto', late 80s early 90s, we were some of the first on site (thankfully).  Don't know whether they still have these, open air toilets, basically a huge hole in the ground, around 6' deep, 8' by 20' (ish), with a metal structure placed on top with holes in to **** through.  My other half goes for her first **** of the festival, with handbag containing all our money, car keys etc.  Other half emerges without handbag, you can guess where it went.  Thank deity of choice it was early on and only around 6" deep down there :-X  Hard work climbing out though.

And a good one :D

Some insane people actually let me stand on stage to watch Fairport at Cropredy last year, that was a bit good.  Simon, if you've never been to Cropredy, you really ought to (IV next year perhaps ?), out of 25 years of festival going it's still my favourite, but you do have to be wary of Welsh pond life bearing mil-spec beverages ;)

Worst Moments- obviously for me was getting Food Poisoning on the first night of wychwood-then having to go home in the middle of the night.........a  quid burger or something just cost me 100 quid!

glasto in '92......got severe sunburn and my mate and his girlfriend were mugged and he got beaten up.


best moments:   i've said about this before- more of a personal thing for me this:  towersey last year, was next to a young chap with Down syndrome, in the dance tent watching peatbogs, lost his helper in the mad crush getting out of tent, poor lad started to panic, so me being me i grabbed his hand- promised him i'd get him out and hold on to me hand TIGHT and don't let go and promised him nothing bad was going to happen- got outside- found his helper- and got the best hug ever.......makes me feel a but lumpy in the throat like, but in a good way.

would somehow love to bump into him/them again.  someday    :)  

Aaaw that's a lovely story Ady.  :-*

when I was 17 years old I went to the reading festival, I needed a dump really bad, went to portaloo, opened door and was met buy a flood of biblical preportions......including lumps!!
the following year I was on my way to reading when I had a drunk punk hold a knife to my throat on the train while he told me how hard he was......I laid him out with his voddy bottle while he was distracted, never went to reading again!!

The best ones, returning to the cambridge festival after a 19 year break from any festivals.....Like coming home
and discovering cropredy four years ago, wonderful!

Blimey Bill I could have done without reading about the first bit....... :P :-X

My festival moments are few and far between, but all of them positive. Cropredy the first time, hearing Chris Leslie sound checking "I'm Already There" at 9.00 a.m. from the camping field nearest the stage. My first festie and it was a wonderful way to start it.  "Yup" I thought. "I'm Already Here"  {:-) ;D

1990 was my first Cropredy.. indeed my first ever festival..  (I know.. why did we leave it so long?! :o)

But my 'festival moment' was sitting in the sun that very first day soaking in the atmosphere and the warmth of the sun and the superb music.. and thinking..

'Hmm I like this.. this is where I want to be every year for as long as it happens, and I hope that will be a very long time.'

Haven't missed one yet, and don't ever intend to!! 8) {:-)

Festival Moment

I forget what band were headlining at Knebworth that year, but yours truly had upset a superior and found himself in charge of a roundabout somewhere between Harpenden and Hitchin.  Tumbleweed was rolling across the road but I could only hear the faint sound of music.  A car hadn't passed for hours. And then, oh joy of joy, a car pulled up and the passenger ran towards me in a right panic.  It was Mick Jagger.  I offered to navigate and jumped in the front seat.  

Trouble was - I was a mercenary, a hired hand, a 'visitor' to the area and didn't know one road from another. It took us ages to get to the stage.

I never went back to the roundabout. Hope nothing happened to it in my absence.

My favourite festival moment  (and will probably never be surpassed ) has got to be  when Chris While started singing Come all ye Roving Minstrels last Cropredy . I think I flooded the field . A sublime moment .  [;-)

My festival moment was in 1997, the 30th Anniversary year.

Being back on stage at Cropredy during the 'Early Years set' with Simon, Ashley, and Richard and DM for the first time in 16 years and being able to see the whole field full of very happy people. Wonderful  ;D

Must have been around 20 years ago at Cambridge - taking the midday sun with a pint when nearby a couple of Dulux dogs start getting frisky (filmed I might mention by the Anglia TV crew).
After having his wicked way, Mr Dulux dog retires to the beer tent and props up the bar for a welcome glass of ale  :D

A friend of mine went to the portaloo at the Phoenix festival around fifteen years ago now. Whilst she was in there someone pushed it over and it landed door-down. She was stuck in there for what seemd to her to be ages before someone tipped it over and let her out.

Yes, I'm afraid we did laugh when she told us why she'd been so long.

Blimey Rory, even I wouldn't laugh at that.  If I ever saw someone do that I think I'd have a very hard time stopping myself from doing them some major damage!

It's the way I tell 'em.  ::)

She was laughing as she told us why she'd been so long, so I guess that's why we didn't get upset. She's my sister-in-law's best mate, and she recounted the tale herself only last week to others, so in this particular case there was no harm done.

Thank goodness for that!  I'm very relieved to hear it.

My fave festival moment was a mid-late 90s Cropredy.

I'd had a few pints - a herbal relaxent or two and was feeling very mellow. It was warm but a bit cloudy, then as it began to get dark Fairport struck up Red and Gold. The clouds parted and the field was bathed in Golden sunshine for the duration of the song.


Thats how I remember it anyway.

 ;D ;D

Downer moment. Look at the line-up below.

The camera exploded after numerous snaps, particularly of Mr Harper Snr, had been taken. In my defence had drunk a lot of Old Growler beer and eaten a goat kebab and it was long before digital cameras.

[attachment deleted by admin]

Blimey, that must have been one hell of a skewer.

I was a rabid carnivore in those days!

The beer made me hungry!

i saw someone here had mentioned Pheonix festival, went to all of those  ;D   was a great under rated little festy.....



although i did do something a bit naughty......was a bit drunk and herbed in the day at pheonix ( hey its a festy!), needed to escape the sun so i went into the dance tent, shades on and it was very dark, just as i walked in i thought i'd accidently knocked a bin over with my knee, i just carried on and saw some mates who gave me a filthy look- one said"look what you just did you clumsy git ( was a much worse word then that! )  and i looked around....and there was this four year old girl with ice cream all over her face.........turns out she was the bin i tripped over.......oops!!!!!!

I suppose some of my festival moments have only become apparent with retrospect.
 
Being at the first and second Glastonbury, Bath Festival in '70 and '71, surviving Bickershaw. Its only talking to people now that I really appreciate what great bands I saw in a very short space of time - Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead ..... the list goes on. I only wish I could remember more of it all ;)

More recently I have to admit that Beautiful Days in 2005 was, and still is pretty special as it saw two of my best friends getting together and now planning to get married. In fact, Beautiful Days every year is special for all sorts of reasons. Last year there was a pretty good band on just before the Levellers. I'd recommend them to you ;)

as a ps, loos at festivals don't really bother me that much. In my day you were lucky if you had   ...................

I haven't been to that many to have good and bad moments.

I remember being ridiculously drunk at an all day mnusic events circa 1989. My mate's bad SuYu were playing and I believe I disgraced myself with the drummer and some cider. My (now ex) husband didn't talk to me for days, but I never really found out what I did.  :-[

I think my best was the time I walked into the Cropredy field for the first time in 2004. I just felt at home and amongst friends. I can't imagine missing one.  :-*

Stood in the field at Cropredy 2000 as the sun was setting, Fairport were playing something haunting (maybe Hiring Fair) just ace!

Now that's set me thinking, smiling and reminiscing.........here's a few........


Seeing Christy Moore at Cambridge a couple of years ago - one of those sets that sent a shiver down your spine

the first reunion, hearing Swarb do a solo in Sloth

my friend hooking her lantern over the ridgepole of my tent and putting it through the canvas - it was pouring with rain >:(

Same friend spilling a bottle of milk in the boot of my car  >:(

Tom Robinson at Cambridge, a few years ago - his reaction to the great reception he got

Being made to do 'door' on the club tent when Janis Ian was playing on the main stage

Just being on Cropredy field - it makes me smile to think of it {:-)

Mine not soo good!  Sitting outside the Guinness tent at Cambridge circa 1990??, just chilling.  Big dog running around, everyone laughing, me wondering at what.  Sudden warm and wet feeling through the back of my tee shirt :-[  Big dog runs away :'(

I have many many happier festival moments of Cambridge though, luckily!! :)

I've only been to Cropredy twice and Ely once, so my moments are limited, but most of my best moments come from my first Croppers in 06. Being down the front for Feast of Fiddles was a fantastic experience as it was my first proper festival gig. Also, singing MoTL for the first time at Cropredy was pretty special. My worst moment was pouring salt all over my fish and chips last year at Cropredy and finding it allmost inedible.

Jet lag, a very understanding wife left home with a one year old, a 12 hour drive, forgetting any form of illumination, John Martyn riding his guitar on stage, Bert the Squirt in the portaloo, falling on Nick Harper, I think that was the moment the camera exploded. It wouldn't be such a good memory if the camera had survived though. My Dad finally told me it took the scouts hours to get the beer labels off the windows of the tent. Yes there was a tent with windows and curtains it was worth serious money to someone that weekend.

Worst Cropredy moment the warm can of Spam four of us had to share in the National Express bus terminal in Banbury one Sunday afternoon in 83, it was the only food we had left and then for the next 5 years deciding it was a tradition that had to be repeated every year.

Best Cropredy moment has to have been hearing Trevor Lucas sing Bring 'Em Down or hearing my friend utter the words, "Is That Bobby Radish up there" and knowing he meant Robert Plant, no it was definitely Trevor Lucas.

Here's mine from early Afro Celt days. Infact 2 at the extreme ends of the spectrum from one festival: Glastonbury 1997. The 1st of the really big muddy ones of the 90's. 2 stages were declared unsafe, one actually slide off the site into a ditch! The Afro Celts flew back from another huge festival in Roskilder/Denmark straight to Glastonbury picking up the tour bus at the airport. We arrive to find apocryphal scenes from post Holocaust Britain. The bus aqua surfs it's way down into the Jazz World arena, the driver convinced 'out of it' punters are going to fall under the buses wheels as he can barely control the steering. We all agree as a band we are going to make it our best gig, we are going to remain focused, clear headed and give the crowd a performance they really deserve. Half way through our set the monitoring packs up through the mud and rain and we have to stop to re-cable some of the gear. N'Fally our African Kora player takes the only mike that is working and sings a song about hope in times of hardship that his village sings when the rain doesn't come for months. No irony spared here. I look up and see what seems like rays of light pouring out of his body into the crowd. Iarla our Irish singer, who belongs to the no nonsense Richard Dawkins 'all religion is ****' school of thought comes over to me and says:
"Would you look at our man N'Fally he's like some big radioactive heating unit with all that light pouring out of him"
We get the gear back on and working and have the best gig of our lives. In many ways it was the turning point for the band. I've never felt so much love and connection from an audience. Even if it was a trick of the light no one can deny me the pure poetry of that moment. The gig finishes and I am struggling to get back to the bus to put the kettle on get ready to celebrate with the band and crew (all of whom are still up on the stage de-rigging the gear) with a nice cup of tea, a few beers, a spliff and maybe a cake or two. I am wading through a liquid sea of mud that's up over my boots when I see my wife struggling towards me through the darkness:
"some one has overdosed on the tour bus" she says. My wife used to be a trained nurse so she knows about these things. I manage to struggle back to the jazz world production office and tell them. By the time I get back to the bus it's full of out of it ravers, some **** of a smack head has given a band members friend some super strong smack. Everyone is so out of it no one has noticed she's turning blue and about to o/d. The paramedics turn up within  minutes, they assess the situation, give her a small shot of adrenalin and save her life. They all turn out to be local Somerset lads, one of them an ex farmer.  When the drama is over one of them tells me about a voluntary self help scheme called 'the Responders' were people from isolated rural communities learn the basics of 1st aid, resuscitation techniques, how to use a defibrillator etc. A 1st Responder can get to an emergency call out within minutes, in case the paramedics are delayed. And that's what I am doing tonight, Monday night is my night as a 1st Responder as has been since I moved down to glorious, rural West Dorset. What goes around comes around.
simon

As a young lad in '79, joining the crowd breaking in to Knebworth the night before the Zeppelin gig. Stonehenge festival listening to Hawkwind playing silver machine backwards (was it them or me or the sweeties?), in the early 80's hitching a lift into Glastonbury Festival on one of the travellers buses. Climbing on stage with Billy Bragg at an anti racism festival in Glasgow... short intermission of 15 years - marriage, children, divorce etc ... we find our man older, balder, wiser(?) at Cropredy 2003 with some dear friends, sitting on the grass with a beer in hand watching the kids dance. Cropredy 2004, a late night sharing some whisky with the guys from the tent next door at 2 in the morning, listening to their tales of Fairport and London in the late 60's. Glastonbury '07 Lost Vagueness in a marquee for the 'secret' Madness gig.

Boy, I've had some good memories just raking these few out...

ronnie      

 My best Festival moment was Robert Plant playing with Fairport at Cropredy (er...92?); I almost forgot to breathe during their performance of 'Thank you'. The hair on the back of my neck tingled with pure electricity and I swear I was lifted a fingers-breadth above the ground... [;-) ;D

     The worst moment was arriving at Cropredy saturday lunchtime in 1997 and being unable to get a ticket at the gate  :'(  my own fault, of course, but it was the first time in about six festival visits that I'd been unable to just walk in on the day.
     Watching every one else wandering into the field while the music played joyously and invitingly was just HELL. I went home in a taxi leaving the village and my friends behind in the heat and the sunshine, and vowed never to make that mistake again..... :-\

sooooo many, where to start??
a disastrous reading '92, my travelling companion had to go back home cos he forgot something so i hitched there on my own, it rained all weekend, my borrowed tent leaked, friend made it back on saturday and 'fixed' tent so it leaked some more, hitched home together, hole-in-the-wall ate my cashcard, no fags, no food, pitched the tent on the roadside in market harborough, finally made it from reading to gt yarmouth on about 34 hours...........
totally overdid it at glasto '93, ended up hugely dehydrated having drunk nothing but beer for 4 days and eaten nothing but, well they weren't bags of sugar, then fell asleep in front of main stage sunday lunchtime and ended up in the st johns with sunstroke................oh and the landy broke down and we had to wait for the aa to find a flatbed trailer to relay us home, we left the site at approx 2am on tuesday..........
more recently, seeing georgie bump into friend she made at crop 2 or 3 yrs ago, and watching them, both 11 yrs old, arms around each other singing meet on the ledge and vowing to meet up again next year...............
oh and daisy, 9 yrs old, asleep between the barrier and the front of the main stage while jonesy was stewarding there during the ozrics at solfest last year - as he carried her still sleeping he was met by a call of 'now that's proper hardcore!'.............
now i recall she slept with her head virtually in a speaker in front of kt tunstall too.............
georgie doing fire poi somewhere or other, and waking up next morning she said 'my eyelashes are all bobbly', as she turned and looked at me she had a big black smudge right in between her eyes - that'll be why then george!
and we won't mention this year's sunrise debacle..............

plenty more where they came from ;D

The only people who spoke to us all weekend were from Huyton and they were equally unimpressed when the Strawbs came on and people yelled SIT DOWN.

I was so much older then I'm younger than that now!

My worst ....Glastonbury 1981. Hitched there with my best friend. Her Aunty beverley Martyn was going to be playing there. Took bloody ages ended up having a lift the last part with dutch bloke in his V Dub- police stopped us on entry stripped down his van and searched us... We had to empty our bags and they went  through the lot tampax included :-\- It was a really horrible moment. Later during the festval i saw the PC and WPC who had searched us sitting in Afghans "smoking" with a group. I managed to let one of the group know who they were sitting with and they all ran! ;D

Second bad thing about this festival was the argument that broke out on stage between Roy Harper and Ginger Baker. Roy was on stage performing away when Ginger walks on and starts putting up his drum kit at the front of the stage saying Roy had tken too long. Roy asked him to stop - Ginger swore at him and the next minute they were fighting. Roy Harper was carried off and the crowd started throwing bottles at the stage :o I was near the front and scared stupid!  :o Then  somehow a couple of rocks came flying though. One of them hit Ginger smack on the head and blood started pouring down his face. By this point he was drumming and he didn't stop. It was scary! The next day my friends Aunty Beverley Martyn said that Ginger had come up to her with an enormous cut and bruise on his head and two gigantic dogs saying he was going to ******g kill Harper and the C**t who'd hit him with the rock.



My best moment well one was Liege and lief Cropredy 2007- Amazing! ;D ;D

Someone mentioned surviving Bickershaw 72 - an unforgettable long weekend with the Dead/NRPS as highlight, but exhausting; unmissable, but  Beefheart,for example, appeared @ 0300 in the morning, just to test our stamina.
 Similar experience at Lincoln (Great Western?) Festival later that year...went to both but time takes its toll on the memory/detail. Rory Gallagher played twice 'cos the Friday storms were atrocious and Roxy Music played (debut gig?) mainly in anoraks. Stone the Crows, sadly post Les Harvey, with Steve Howe in tow rings bells; Vinegar Joe with Elkie Brooks; Sha Na Na were excellent...Beach Boys, Joe Cocker and Monty Python were prominent without blowing anyone away-the Night Assemblies Bill was an issue as I remember, so nobody slept much as the music never stopped
And the Incredible String Band were ace!We even took time out to enjoy Slade & Status Quo in moderation. Fine times, indeed.

MikeA, your post reminded me of the first weekend festival I ever attended!!!!!!!!  the music never stopped either :o

http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/extra/series-1/weeley_festival.shtml

An odd moment at Glastonbury 1986. I was watching The Psychedelic Furs (made even more psychedelic with the addition of a swirling wind that made the sound go all wierd and erm....trippy, as did some blue sweets I'd bought from a man with a clown face who I'd found under a Mini Cooper on the 'Convoy' Field) and a fella came through the throng to me and my mate Liz, shook a stick in our faces and said "This stick is my wife and she won't give me any heroin!". That was strange. We ran away quickly.

Good moment - same festival; I absolutely hated, detested and reviled The Waterboys - couldn't stand their overblown, posturing 'big music' nonsense. Liz said "Nah, come and watch them, they're superb". They were, I was converted within 10 minutes and i've adored them ever since.

I've obviously had a very sheltered festival experience compared to you lot  ::)

The Not-So-Good...   git coming in my tent and going through my stuff while I was nearly asleep and alone, and most embarrassingly, losing all sense of balance and proprioception (cant think why  ::)) during John Martyns fabulous set at Crop and tumbling over some people who were still stubbornly sitting on their blanket in front of the stage while everyone was standing round them.  Managed to crawl away despite the massively increased gravitational attraction of the ground and deposit myself hopelessly at the periphery...  where I just wanted to chill and be left alone..  where I was apprehended by some wandering members of St Johns who had some other ideas and were concerned that I might be in a diabetic coma!  I rose splendidly and quite remarkably to the occasion to confidently reassure them that I was not in ketosis and should be completely ignored thankyou.   And then crawled away somewhere else...

The best...  the fabulous loved-up sublime vibe at Beautiful Days in ?2005 during the Michael Franti and Spearhead set.   Power to the Peaceful.   Unsurpassed.

Issy  {:-)

"fella came through the throng to me and my mate Liz, shook a stick in our faces and said "This stick is my wife and she won't give me any heroin!".

Pete Docherty with Kate Moss??

 ;D

First sunrise fest, main drag through the camp site, some gangly hippy wearing nothing but sandals and shorts comes bounding up to us and says, loudly and in a very thick Welsh accent, 'Would you like to buy some mushrooms ?  I picked them myself in Wales, in my pants!'  It was such a hilarious delivery I couldn't talk for laughing for about ten minutes.

I remember Spearhead Issy, fantastic!

which reminds me of jonesy and i losing each other at the same festy, and he found a wonderful little stage/bar he forever refers to as 'the bowie tent' - turned out to be the ogham tree cafe!!

and rolling down the big hill to the bimble at beautiful days 2007  ;D ;D ;D

The 'anniversary set' when Ashley did a Friday night commentary (30years?) and the finale fireworks singed my camera... (I didn't care, I felt so exhilarated)
Leige and Leife of course
Walking onto the field 4 o'clock sharp on a Thursday, taking that deep breath and feeling Home, and realising Jen was standing next to me with exactly the same expression on her face.

Aah yes, Beautiful Days, 2005 I think.  Steph (the one who sang at my party) is a well built lass.  Steph + very skimpy top - bra + human gyroscope = entertainment for all :o ;D  

She's bought her own gyroscope now, must go visit and have a spin ::)

Was that this Jen Polly??

If it wasn't then rest assured that I DID have the same expression in any case.. and will again very soon... whhoopppeeee!!!!  {:-) {:-) {:-)

Share the moment again, VERY SOON!!!!  {:-) {:-)

YES!!!

 In 37 days and 12 hours.. (according to the clock at the top  ;D ;))

I can be there in my head any time.. but NOTHING beats that feeling when I walk onto that field!!

Some things just don't need words  {:-) {:-)

Ok then....its confession time.......My most embarrasing festival moment was at Cropredy 2007.

Being backstage manager it was my task to get the Liege and Lief line-up on stage at the right time...I went to the dressing room and asked the band to make their way to the stage.   They all moved in a stageward direction.....i thought i saw Mr Swarbrick disappear into the toliets (he moves like a whippet these days you know!!!!)......so i stood by the toilets waiting for him to appear.....i waited and waited ......so i then shouted  "Are you ok Dave" ......the reply came back "yes im fine".......i waited a little longer and the cubicle door opened and it was Dave Pegg!!!!!!!..........I thought "s**t i've lost Swarb".

I ran upto the stage,,,,,there was Simon, DM, Richard, Ashley and Chris.....but no Swarb.......I ran back to the dressing room......No Swarb there either.........back to stage left.....nobody had seen him......so you may remember seeing me dash across the stage to the other side......where i found Swarb wondering why we were waiting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..........there you go....the rest is history......The day i lost Swarb

We all wondered what was going on there at the time Simon...  ;)

Bickershaw 1971? 6 hours of the Grateful Dead
I am wary to write the following as it may sound romanticised and a little pink round the edges but it is a real experience which i am sure in on way or another is mirrorred by a lot of you reading this. A bunch of us, usually about 18, go to Cropredy every year in convoy. A hard core of 8 , some of whom haven't missed since mid 80's some who have done a few years and usually a Cropredy Virgin. The group is based on  friends from a very small,close, leicestershire village. It sounds awful , I am struggling with the year, but late 90's ,a very close friend of mine lost her 32 yr old son in a car accident. She and her husband have been going to Cropredy longer than any of us. Accident in March but we still decided we would do Cropredy. including, 4, friends who hadn't been with us before. So Saturday night ,my wife, Sheena,and I had wandered down front as is our want during most sets,but it was a year Fairports were playing particularly well, Sheena was in love with Chris Leslie etc,etc so we were down the front for Fairports. 11.45 ish ,all of us. who had wandered off, including those who had no history  of Cropredy, knew little of Fairports, wandered back to'our base' 'On the Ledge' slightly to the left and behind the sound tower. Nothing planned. There we were 18 of us in a row , linked arms, crying our eyes out and singing Meet on the Ledge. I can use trite words like 'a healing experience' but it was and it is. It happens every year. we don't plan. We sing. we hold each other, some cry and we think of our own losses. It isn't sad. I am not religious. Hopefully spiritual but also,hopefully, an unpretentious northener. But that particular year and those few minutes of 'the ledge' were unrepeataable and very very special.

I was there- "Suffolk and Good" festival, 1993- I think, a couple more followed, and then a better one in, I think 1998, but never happened again, thanks, I heard to some idiots fighting in the local village pub, (not a good idea in deeply Conservative Suffolk countryside, whose residents were opposed to the festival in the first place) and a local idiot misbehaving on the festival site- getting very p---ed and setting his dog on people- not good!
They were a great couple of festivals though.

just back from a very nice folk festival in Rudlestat (old east germany) with IV band. We played at midnight in the medieval court yard of a fairy tale castle up on a hill overlooking a massive valley of ancient European woodland, also did v good  impromptu unplugged session in  the afternoon with me, Eliza C, Sheema M, Martin C and Johnny K at a Question and Answer session (full of very earnest Germans). The main IV gig was much more focused than Glasto and the sound on stage superb although the on stage crew managed to loose the audio track to Tam Lyn and 'ouses, which was fine if you could lip read. Billy Brag and Chris Wood also did storming solo sets during the day. Camp Bestival, Lulworth Cove, Dorset next gig for the IV (20th July), Billy and Eliza are also doing spots. Hope the weather is better than the 5 hour  drive back home thru torrential rain from Stanstead AP yesterday. Just imagine if Glasto had been held over the last few days....
Simon
imagined village

We were dancing to Jaune Toujours, Salsa Celtica and Bellowhead in that rain!

Bellowhead had just come back from a German Festival too and were wondering why they'd swapped the sun for the swamp...

Cheers

Nick

Bad - A toilet break somewhere on our way to Cropredy. "Where did you leave the car keys?". "In the car".

Good - soundchecking at Cornbury, supporting Robert Plant, and our drummer doing "Moby Dick".

I bet that got a 'look' from Percy....

Can only be Croppers monents I'm afraid as thats really my sole festival but 3 good and yes there has to be one bad

Good -- ALL at my FIRST Cropredy - in fact my first festival EVER at the ripe old age of forty ........!

1)Driving in convoy, with some old and some new friends, in slow moving traffic through Banbury, having been told to "do what the car in front does" - suddenly the driver got out of the car in front, his partner got out the passenger side and ran round and jumped into drivers seat, the traffic moved off, ---what was I to do? - I only had my 14 year old daughter with me and she couldn't drive!
Luckily the driver soon re-appeared, passenger got out and ran round back to her side and in he got - a quick usage of the public facilties I was later told!  What a start!!!  :)

2) Arrived on the caravan field to find further friends waiting - found flat ground, pitched(?) caravan, made space for our camp and was immediately thrown a little dumpy Stella " to put the tents up with"  - what an introduction to my new friends!  :D

3)  Roy Wood. dancing with my daughter and the "moon" rising over the field - Oh I wish that could come back but I understand it was in fact only there for acouple of  years - just my first ones!! Magical  moments  ;D

BAD bit
2006 - Field 4  Last wee of evening and for some reason my car keys were in my shorts pocket.  Suddenly they were no longer there and there was a mighty clunk and a mighty 'F**K!' from me as they landed in the toilet!!!!!!   :o   Luckily fairly clean as retrieving them was the only way I was getting home!!!  :-[

Happy days -- Roll on 2008!!   Only a month to go  {:-)

Too many to list really;

First Croppers - 1986 I think, also my first propor music festival.
Loads of great classic artists turning in brilliant sets - Johnny Cash, Sex Pistols, Neil Young, Iggy and the Stooges, and an absolutely fabulous Leonard Cohen there this year.
Oh, and moshing to Gogol Bordello at Beautiful days.

And all the new bands I discover at festies - I allways seem to come away from Cambridge especially loaded down with new music.


Worst;
My encounter with the power mad fascists who were running Guildford festival a few years ago. It used to be a really relaxed, nice sized festival. Now I would not go there again unless armed with a big gun and a licence to kill.
Some of the glastobbury mud fests have been taxing.
Dropping my Mobie down one of the crappers at Cropredy (actually this was a blast - we used my mates phone to ring it & find out where it was, pity the poor user of the 'box' at that time).

I remember that - they 'locked' everybody into the campsite and wouldn't let them out. That has got to be illegal, surely.

So it was not only us!

That got me irate enough, but then when I went to complain (after the only security gard with a brain let us through), they just did not care. And when I demanded to see the person in charge, they laughed at me. >Insert the worst swear word you can think of here<.

So, as we used to go every year, I wonder how much money it has cost them....

Best Festival:
1st Cropredy 1987.
Mate of mine says one night "Do you want to come to a folk festival?"
"A what???" I reply.
Well it's great beer and I'm sure you'll like the music."
"OK anything for a laugh".
2 days before I manage to crash my car so we now have no transport  :(
"It's OK" he says "We'll hitch. And just to make it fun it can be a race, last one there gets the beer in."
So we set off from North Wales 1/2 a mile apart. Some time later some fellow with a sense of humor drops me off at J6 M6 (exit only! Middle of Bl**dy Spaghetti  Junction)! A 5 mile walk later and I'm back with my thumb out again.
Suddenly a white minibus full of students pulls up the back door opens & a cheer of "We know where your going" comes out.
They drop me off at the pedestrian gate to the camping field (about where the pavilion is now), just as my mate jumps out of a car 2 back! We called it a draw.
After that it's a bit of a 6X fueled blur ending on Saturday night when looking a little bemused by Fairport's set I was grabbed by a very large biker on one side & a Punk on the other and taught the words to MOTL  :D

Haven't missed one since.  [;-)

Keith

Magnificent :)  That's what it's all about, isn't it ?  Great story too, my first Cropredy was not dissimilar, "Yeah, I've heard of Fairport & you're a bunch of party animals, why not.." ::)  Those were the days...

Brill story Keith!  ;D

My husband wouldn't even come along the first year I went, but now he's been twice he refuses to miss it (not that I have to be dragged along either, of course!)

I shall be wandring around the field in 16 days time looking for punks and hairy bikers to stand next to....  :o

Well, I can hope!  ;D

The Lovely Hairy Bikers....
Late 80s, Saturday night, small child - aged 6 or 7 desperate to get to the front to see Fairport close to. Being small myself and it being very dark and very crowded I was a bit timid. We got to the back of the crowd just in front of the sound tower and a large HB bent down and lifted small child to his shoulders, and made room for me in front. After a few minutes, small child was passed forward, I followed and we ended up after several more handings over right in the thick, surrounded by smiling friendly beery faces.
I remember the feeling of being amongst friends, and I still feel it now.
16 days....

Hello again the sun is out I've checked the tent and time to talk to you lovely lot again!  Been looking for a thread to join and this seems the most appropriate (?).  Best bits of croppers:

the sun's going down flags are flying field full of mellow folk looking forward to the evening setting in

anyone remember the big rising moon ball at the top of the field?

and yes, walking through the top gate onto the main field and drinking in that atmosphere - brings tears to my eyes every time!!!

Nice story Polly, us bikers do have our uses!  ;D ;D

the way I heard it, it was you being passed around Dave

Many years ago (back when you could camp away from your car), we were camped on the cricket pitch (this is probably 87 or 88, before we were married), and a gang of bikers camped next to us were up all night, speeding and singing dirty songs (the one I remember was a varient on 'Tie my Kangeroo Down').
In the tent we were giggling away, trying not to be heard.

In the morning when my to be wife emerged, they were the most embarressed blokes on the planet - apparently they wer e'really sweet'.

Bog Off!!!!  ;D ;D ;D

Its even been put into song......Pass the big dave from the left hand side!