We went to Wickham to film the Peatbog Faeries, who were set to close the main stage after the weekend.
We (Steph, Sue and myself) set off early from home, having packed up the cameras, making sure we had fully charged batteries, and fresh formatted media. Everything was packed into the big road trunk we had trialled at the Sankara Buffalo gig.
First stop was to pick up Karen, and then we pulled into the festival site. Everything was changed around from the last time we were there, and what was the car-park was not the festival site and vice versa. Luckily I pulled into the "caravans and campers" site, which allowed us to get a good view over the whole set-up.
We got the chairs out and had something to eat and relax before the efforts to come. It also gave us a good opportunity to catch up and have a good chat.
Around 4pm we went to the box office to pick up our passes, and meet our liaison person - Graham. we got day passes, and ViP bands, but could not be given the back stage ones yet. This was because Rolf Harris (or his people) had "sealed" the back stage areas, and we would have to wait until he had gone. However this gave us an opportunity to wander around the site, and whilst I found the teashop, the others went around the retail opportunities. A bite to eat while Wilko Johnson was doing his stuff.
We wandered around to the ViP area as Rolf's team was preparing the stage.. I was quite interested in his stage craft, much more than the actual content, and it was nice to see how he worked the crowd, all at his advanced age.
As he finished we went and got the van, to drop off the box at the stage door, and re-park. then the waiting game began. he was about to go, not quite, just coming, etc... after a few jokes about being Rolf groupies, we were taken pity on by the head of gate security, who allowed us to wheel the box down the track, and the reality was he was still chatting ..
The blockheads were playing as we unpacked all the kit and got ready for the change over. A quick glance down the press pit, showed we would be in for a bit of a bun fight... photographers everywhere, and the hose cameras in three of the slots. We would have to be persistent and work our way into the key points.
As the Blockheads got towards the end of their set, Sue and I went to set up the FoH camera on the lighting stage behind the sound stage. I also ran a small sound recorder, not from the desk, but just picking up the atmosphere. Back at the press pit Sue and Karen had two cameras each and were finding slots to run them. I placed the cross stage ones then nipped on stage and began placing the drum, and keyboard cameras, as well as one for the audience.
So we were all ready for the performance, and waiting for the line checks to be completed.
Most of the show I was running around checking the cameras, changing tapes and batteries, etc.
At the end the place emptied very quickly and we got on with the packing up, by now the back stage area was easier to get to so I could run the van down and we ran the trunk into the back.
The run back was relatively simple and pain free and we were home for 2 am, the weekend was over
