Mud, Mud, And More Mud

Little tiny Van Morrison

Long time readers will know that I work for the bars department at the Green Man Festival each August. Because I'd been so busy (read crap) these last few weeks I hadn't had time to write up the event so I thought I'd do it now while I was on a roll.

It's an understatement to say that I'm not much of a festival-goer as I hate crowds, mud, and public toilets - which I stay in a little cabin called a BunKabin during my 11 day stint. This is a little diddy cabin with a coupla beds, a desk, a loo, a radiator, a sink, and a shower. It's frankly a godsend and I would refuse to go if I didn't get one! 

Last year was lovely and sunny but, as in 2010, this year was a mudbath. Oh yes, whilst the rest of the country sweltered in a mini heatwave, I was up to my arse in stinking mud. In fact I had to endure BBC articles asking "how do we sleep in this unbearable heat?" when I was being rained on. Well it was Wales after all.

Apart from the mud which smells a bit fishy after a few days (who knew?) the festival went well. My job went very smoothly as usual and the event itself was a resounding success. Van Morrison headlined this year which was actually a bit of an anti-climax. 

Sadly he just hasn't got it any more, so when you're hearing him blandly sing "The Way Young Lovers Do" from Astral weeks when you've heard him energetically belt out the original, it's a bit sad. He hasn't got the lungs capacity to give it what it needs any more so he's just singing the song rather than feeling the song if you know what I mean?

I also had a really infuriating intern who couldn't somehow understand how to do an inventory. He over-complicated everything and got completely caught up in the details which you can't really do in events - you have to pick your battles and keep any eye on the big picture otherwise you go off chasing after fluff and the whole thing goes tits-up. 

He kind of got it around halfway through but at one point I thought I might actually kill him. Luckily  my colleague who works with the staff took him off my hands most of the time. He has much better people skills than I do which means he can handle people's nonsense better than I can. Saying that, my colleague did at one point tip everything out of all the crates in to one big pile and started hurling things in to demonstrate how to do the bloody inventory.

Clouds across the arena

Wales is very lovely though and Brecon really is something. Often the clouds were tumbling over the top of the Sugarloaf Mountain and actually floating through the main arena in the morning. Wales is notoriously wet as well and it lived up to its reputation this year. Strange really as the UK isn't that big compared to other countries, but the weather really does vary from one end to the other. We get the best of it in the South East luckily.

So overall the festival was great. It's my 4th year of doing my job there so it runs pretty smoothly now. It went really quickly but I have to say that I was really happy to come home. 3 days before I was due back I walked into the catering tent and exclaimed "get me the FUCK back to Brighton". I do love this festival but I am always, always very glad to come home.