Watchet Music Festival 2014

Watchet Music Festival

We saved the best till last!!

We are now back from a weekend of fun at Watchet Music Festival.  And what fun we had, it was brilliant, as soon as we arrived we knew it was going to be good, we were put in a great spot, just a stones throw away from the stage, as it was all in one field, it was intimate and not over powering to us newbie festival traders and we loved it!!

We arrived on the Thursday evening (about 5'ish) the weather was glorious not a breath of wind in the sky.  After having a look around the sight, we soon realised that we were in for a great weekend.  We got the main structure of our stand up and pitched the tent behind and sat down to relax and watch the sun go down whilst having some dinner and a glass of wine and looking at the amazing view across the sea to Wales.  We played Cribb (which after not being able to remember how to play as we havent played for years, somehow I managed to thrash Mark two games to one!!).

This was going to be our view from our stand for the weekend - how lucky we were we!!		And this was our pitch space, what a view!! Amazing.	We liked this sign, not that we are a couple of old grumpies, but we do like to have some sleep!!
The view from the camp site gate, back to the main stage, we are on the left hand side, in that bunch of white at the back of photo.	A well stocked bar, with some strong cider, that made people's legs wobble!	Sandwiches and flapjacks for our tea.	Then we watched the sun go down.
Beautiful	Enjoying a relaxing evening	Bit blurry, had hit the wine at this point	Not sure if this face is because he's a bit miffed because I am beating him at Cribb or its the beer!!

What I like about this festival is that the general public camp site was not any where near us traders, which meant not only were we going to be able to get "some" sleep at night, but it also meant we knew our stuff was safe.

We got to bed about midnight, by the time everyone had started to settle down.  With ear plugs and ear defenders at the ready.  Then up again at 7am to get ready for the day.

The flag pole chaps had worked hard to get all those up!!	Mark is into photo bombing at the mo (let us know if he's in any of yours!!)	All set up and ready to go!

People started to arrive about 12, so we had lots of time to get ready, chill a bit and take in the growing atmosphere.

Mark creating a new hand made in Devon sign.	Starting work!	Groovy Tree #3	We sold out of Tree of Life prints in the end!!

Friday was a lovely relaxed atmosphere, everyone was just milling about, taking it all in, getting to know what was where and who had what, we made some sales but it wasn't particularly busy, which you expect on the first day anyway. But that was fine, because it meant we could also enjoy the bands. And one that I was looking forward to was Dr and the Medics!! I remember as a teenager I would do all the actions in front of the mirror - did I really admit to that!!

Dr and the Medics!!	Getting a bit tiddly at this point!! Back on the wine!	Mark went to see a band in the Udder tent called Erika which he loved	He said his ears were "bleeding" when he came out!! Bit loud!

Mark even had time to boogey!!

Friday evening was great and we were having a great time! We didnt get to bed until 2am but we didn't care - at the time!!

Another good thing about this festival was the security. They really looked after everyone. I loved the way at 1am they ushered everyone out the festival site and into the camp site. This was then our time to relax.

I woke tho at 4am to what I thought was really heavy rain, I remembered I hadn't put the water proof covers over the table cloths so I jumped out of bed and had a peek outside at the gazebo, but all it was was the sides of the gazebo flapping in the wind. I thought nothing of it and got back into bed, but 5 minutes later we saw flashing lights and heard the security guards taking down the gazebo next to us as that was breaking!  I then panicked about ours and got up again.

We then spent the next hour and a half giving the two gazebo legs, which were taking the brunt of the wind, extra support in what was 32 mile an hour winds which felt more like 100!! (We were told in the morning that we were getting the back end of a hurrican from Florida!  Mark saw a windometer on the stage later which said that if the winds got to 38mile an hour the stage would have to be evacuated!).

After hanging on for dear life for what felt like an eternity and having non of my prayers for the wind to die down, we decided and with the help from the very kind gentleman from the cystals stand that we would lower the gazebo to half its height and re-strap it down like that.  So we did that without managing to loose the whole thing when the straps were temporarily off and went back to bed.

BUT after a couple of minutes I said to Mark something is not right and got up again, only to find the central pole had ripped the fabric and now the roof was flapping about all over the place.  I did'nt want to risk loosing the whole thing, so we got up and took everything down.  Luckily as we dont ever leave any of our stock in our stand over night it was just display stuff.

So back to bed, but guess what I couldn't sleep now!! So at 7am I am thinking what in the world are we going to do now?!

In my sleepy state I figured we had some options, we could contact my Dad and get him to bring the spare roof, but in these winds that still left us with the big risk that that would break too and I wouldn't have anything to trade in on Friday at the Bude market. Or we could give up and enjoy the rest of the weekend - NOT an option - agreed.  Or we could try to repair the roof, again that would still risk the gazebo as the winds were not going anywhere today.  Or we could trade from our tent!

The tent was agreed to be the best option, as it was coping with the winds well. Thank God I bought a big tent!!

And so everything was taken out the tent, all the stand stuff was moved aside and the tent, complete with blow up mattress still inside (figured that would just take off if we took it out and couldn't be bothered to blow it up again) we slid the tent forward and pegged it down with the big 2foot pegs that were on the gazebo.  Set two of the big tables up inside (we still had our bedroom in one end so we could sleep at night) with a couple of easels for prints, then Mark put two smaller tables outside and clamped the card stand on, then the grill panels were put outside too to display earring and paintings on. Perfect - it looked good! phew!

	After waking up to the carnage of broken flags and missing gazebos

We picked ourselves up and came up with a plan!! Which the other traders patted us on the back for, when most would of given up, we got on with it!

And created a new stand!!	With a twist!

And then we were ready to get down to business again!! And what a great day we had, we made lots of sales, spoke to lots of great people and got to listen to some fantastic music.

After over 16 hours in the wind, I was beginning to wish I had put that extra jumper in the car!

	The I scream Zombie van was most intriging

We got to bed at 2'ish. I think I read a page of my book with my ear plugs and defenders on and that was it, I was sparko, next thing I know its 8am and we gotta do it all over again!!

		I thought the entertainers were great

People find Mark working fasinating, he gets all sorts of people come up to him to talk to him about his work, from children to adults, one little girl even asked him how much it was to have a go!! Which has deepened our thoughts and ideas on how to grow next year!

I loved the effort people put into Sunday's costumes, I thought this was great fun.

Mark was over the moon to sell one of his original paintings (only just!! typically when I really needed it most my card payment system failed me, by not being able to get a reception - despite having to go to the entrance where I previously got a signal.  We started to make arrangements for the couple to come by our house on the way home to collect and pay for the painting, but we did have another go a couple of hours later and all went through. phew!).  We both get a real buzz when we make a big sale, as artists we are always very critical about our work, but this weekend really proved that people actually like it!!

Dinner - chicken curry and wild mushroom bulgar wheat - mm mmm!	The Wurzels	These looked fab	Sunday evenings set up.

I was cooking dinner unfortunatley when a great band was playing - The Outcast Band. I was bopping away behind our car while they were playing.  We are going to go and see them play in Taunton on the 21st.

We decided we were pooped and needed our own bed, so while Dreadzone were on we started to pack up, and as half of it was already gone, it didnt take long to do the rest. Luckily we were aloud out just after 1am and were tucked up in our own beds by 2.30.

What an absolutely fantastic weekend, we will definitly be back next year.

To read a proffessional's write up about all the music and events that I missed due to trading click here.