Late to the Party - My First Ever Festival!

August bank holiday weekend was very exciting - my first ever sleep over festival. I used to look at Glastonbury tickets, back in the day, and often thought it would be fun, but had come to the conclusion that I was probably too old for it, and there were never enough artists that I knew to justify the cost. But Huw was off to the Long Road country fesitval and offered to get me a ticket to join him, so of course I accepted. It is held at Stanford Hall in Lutterworth - a beautiful old house with three stages set up around the grounds, food and drink stalls, merchandise and Americana. We would be staying on site in his camper van for three nights. The weather was looking unsettled and a friend had told me that things were temporarily postponed the following night due to a thunder storm.

We got the van and awning set up, had some lunch and then headed over to have a wander round. It was really nicely set up, with everything country themed. It had a great atmosphere but didn't feel too crowded. We went to listen to some music in the Interstate stage tent but within a few minutes we heard a rumble of thunder and everything was paused - even bar service. But after a short break things were back on and we had a few drinks and moved between stages listening to various artists. Huw bumped into some people from last year who all remembered him (must have made an impression!) and they were all lovely, hugging me and inviting us to join them. One of the best acts for me was The Shires, as I knew a few of their songs, and towards the end of the night we went to Buddy's bar for Countryoke, which ranged from terrible to really good, but always lots of fun and we had a bit of a dance.

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We had a look at the small selection of American cars, pick-up trucks (Huw would like a truck) and motorbikes, one of which belonged to someone we had been talking to and he told us that it had been signed by one of the bands, Midland. Very cool!

The Front Porch stage was a cute little country house used for small bands and acoustic sessions and had hay bales set out for a small audience.

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Saturday I got up at 7.15am for the loo and decided to shower while there was no queue - hot and powerful, I was pleasantly surprised! And then went back to bed until we ate breakfast at about 9am and then another snooze until about 11am when we got dressed, had lunch and a couple of pre-festival drinks. Saturday was a very wet day and the site quickly turned into a mudbath, so I got the full festival experience! My clothes survived but my legs were spattered, and I'm glad I took my walking boots... Huw wore his outback hat, which passes for a cowboy hat, and I was seriously tempted by a cattleman's hat on the merch stand - one with a wide, flat brim, but it was too big.

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Huw had got us VIP tickets, which alllowed us into the VIP enclosure that had it's own bar and slightly more upmarket toilets, along with it's very own stage for intimate acoustic performances which were lovely. We got sofas to sit on in the bar tent, fire pits in the evening and garden chairs and tables for a good view of the main stage. I felt quite spoiled, but also it was nice to be able to sit down towards the end of the day when my back and knees were starting to ache!

Saturday night's headliner was Ronnie Wood and Imelda May as a late addition since the original headliner had pulled out, and he was OK but not outstanding and we headed back to the van slightly early, just in time to avoid a torrential downpour.

Sunday was my favourite day - the weather was much better and straw had been put down to minimize the mud. I managed to finally catch up with my friend, Helen, who I had been struggling to contact due to having no internet service during the day when it was really busy, so that was lovely.

I will have to look up some of the artists we heard over the weekend as I really enjoyed some of them. Kezia Gill, Oliver Hazard and Jonny Morgan and the Moral Support were all brilliant and a lot of fun. The performances today were much better for me - upbeat and fun and a couple that I knew quite well - Emmylou Harris and Maren Morris, who closed out the event with the fabulous My Church.

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The end of the weekend saw the facilities starting to show the strain under excessive use - we had to move back from the main stage as we could smell the porta-loos when the wind gusted in our direction, the showers on the camp site were giving up the ghost and people were not looking after them, and we had to borrow a phone charger from the lovely people in the next door van to charge my phone which we were using to pay for food and drinks in the festival. It was all cashless inside so Huw gave me enough money to cover the costs - he's quite old school like that.

So, on Monday morning I sprayed in some dry shampoo and we drove back to Charlotte's to get clean there! I guess this is farily standard festival experience and it was brilliant!