Cropredy Day 3

Yesterday (Saturday) was the final day of the Cropredy Festival :(  

Before we watched any of the acts we took a walk around the village to take some pics of the other activities going on, plus to show how a few of the entrepreneurial locals make some cash!

First up, a private house with a Thai restaurant in the driveway ...

The Brasenose pub had an outdoor beer tent and bands playing in the garden ...

This was my favourite, they were doing a brisk trade washing and drying festival goers clothes ...

A lady selling toiletries, although I don't think antiperspirant sold very well!

Loved this one!  The lady running it (who was about 40) has had this horsebox since she was a young girl and she has converted it into a mobile coffee bar!  It was an outstanding conversion ...

The coffee was pretty good too. ...

The dogs kept piddling on the straw bales - bad dogs !  

Here is El posing in her best wellies ...

The graveyard was doing a brisk trade with  drinkers from..... 

.....The Red Lion across the road !

They also had a bar and bands playing in the rear garden ...

Stalls in the local little park ...

Dream catchers on the lock ...

The local shop had expanded out onto the street ...

The main street had plenty of stalls ...

We went back to the main arena at about 17.00 to watch Toyah blow the audience away ... that is, apart from the die hard folky CAMRA members, who hated her ...

We thought she was fantastic but our pogoing was crap as we both have dodgy backs! 

Nearly naked hippy ...

Dog-carrying, red-hat-wearing, Toyah-loving hippy ...

Red Indian Hippy ...

After Toyah we went to the back of the arena for a rest, a couple of beers and a falafel roll ...

This chap didn't have masses of pubes ... it was his girlfriends hair!

We also took in a bottle of red ...

Me and my hippy chick headed back to van later in the evening for a bit of a rest and to dump off our chairs and rucksack so we could go back to the moshpit for the final act ...

Elaine dressed up in her Christmas lights and Happy Hat!  The bubble coats were also worn as the night was pretty cool ...

The closing act was of course Fairport Convention, who came on at 21.30 ...

They played till just after midnight ...

They were also joined by various friends who joined in throughout the night ...

Not sure of her name but she played a mean fiddle ...

By the end of the night there were thirteen musicians on the stage ...

And that was Cropredy 2015 folks!

What more can I say?  It was just absolutely fantastic and if we are around next year we will do it all over again!

Today (Sunday) was pack up and go home day, except we don't have a home to go to!

Instead we packed up and made our way towards Dover.   We dropped in at Elaine's sisters place at Maidstone to have a quick chat and a cuppa on the way.

We then carried on to the outskirts of Charing where we have stopped in a pub carpark ... which also happens to have 240v, water and an elsan, so all is well!!!

Tomorrow we will stop on the outskirts of Dover ready for a early ferry on Tuesday morning.

LOVE PEACE JOY and HAPPINESS xxx

Cropredy Day 2

It absolutely hammered down with rain on Friday night. On Saturday morning it was misty with a very light drizzle, but at least it wasn't cold. 

We headed to the main arena in the afternoon, where we soon spotted the hippies of the day ...

Amazingly we bumped into Elaine's sister in law Jill.  We had only just heard that she was here and Elaine literally bumped into her - not bad in a crowd of 20,000!

Conehead in the crowd ...

The first band we watched was Judith Owen, who we had never heard of, but she was an incredibly talented lady and a brilliant vocalist.  She was joined on stage for a couple of songs by her husband Harry Shearer, who was in the comedy band Spinal Tap and is also the voice of many of the Simpsons characters including ... Mr Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders and Rev Skinner to name a few ...

We then took a break from the arena and took a walk down to Cropredy village with Jill.  The last time we were here was two years ago on the boat.  They certainly turn it on with various street markets and stalls, the pubs have bands playing, it is a really great atmosphere.

We bought a beer in the Red Lion, but went across the road to the graveyard which was a bit quieter!!

Elaine wanted to have a chat with Jill and catch up on all the goss. 

Having a beer on a gravestone!   (Not very 'pc' I suppose, but it is accepted in this cemetery.  All the stones are very, very old - felt kind of nice to give a bit of 'life' to the place for a while!) ...

Comparing muddy wellies ...

Back to the arena we caught the end of Skerryvore, who were brilliant, and happened to be Scottish.

Next up was Fish who also happened to be Scottish.  Once again, a great performance!  He was the lead singer for the band Marillion.  His real name is Derek William Dick so was pretty keen to find a nickname early in his career apparently! ...

He really got the crowd going ...

20,000 people ballet dancing ...

Scottish Hippy ...

In the evening yet another Scottish band...The Proclaimers.  They were good but not brilliant, they just seemed to go through the motions and not interact with the crowd ...

The evening sky was a cracker and hopefully a precursor to a sunny Saturday ...

The Proclaimers predictably finished with 500 miles ...

Last up for the night were Level 42 who came on stage at 22.30 and blew the audience away!

We watched  and listened to the last few numbers from the comfort of the van as we were getting a bit weary and chilly.  This wrapped up another brilliant day at midnight!

As the red sky predicted today is a cracker lets hope it lasts!

Today's thoughts on Cropredy ... if we are in the country next August we will definitely do it again!

PEACE - LOVE - JOY xx

Cropredy Day 1 Continued

We are actually camped in a medieval 'ridge and furrow' field here at Cropredy, so parking on top of the ridge keeps us nice and level and if, or should I say when, it rains we won't get bogged....I hope!

More signs ...

Fairport Convention started the festival with a short acoustic set.  They sat down as they are now ageing hippies but they hope to stand for a least two hours when they play on Saturday night to finish the festival ...

The crowd had built up nicely.  The majority of the crowd, by far, are ageing hippies with a smattering of middle aged hippies and a few young hippies ...

The beer tankers had taken their positions ...

Old hippies don't die, they just get around on mobility scooters ...

 Some old middle aged hippies no longer have long hair ...

Some old hippies buy dogs that look like themselves ...

Some young hippies wear wigs and wear stupid t-shirts to pretend they are real hippies! 

Old hippies need a lot more rest ...

Old hippies wear happy pants and drink lots of real ale ...

But these were our favourites by far - so much like their dogs! 

More signs ...

Then it rained, and my god it pissed down ... 

These girls were fantastic, they are from Norway, they play fifteen instruments between them.

They are called Katzenjammer,  they were our favourite band of the day ...

The night finished at about 23.30 with the final band being Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell.  We aren't really fans of country type music so we bailed after three songs.  We would have stayed until the end but we were getting pretty wet as our waterproofs are no longer waterproof! 

This morning's view from the dunny!  It is wet and looking pretty grim weather wise.

However we will nor be deterred, we will go and buy some waterproof gear and go and watch some bands along with all the other various happy hippies. 

Thoughts on Cropredy so far ...

• Incredibly well organised.
• Plenty of food options and all reasonably priced, the same with the booze.
• Most people bring chairs, umbrellas etc and sit in front of the stage, but they cannot put chairs right in front of the stage, so there is a really big area where you can stand and watch, which is what we did. They have got large screens so you can see from all parts of the field, but you can't beat getting close to the front.
• Its not too crowded.
• The toilets are excellent they even have paper!!
• Security is tight but not over the top.  You can take your own food and booze into the arena.
• They supply you with garbage bags then come around the camping area everyday picking up the full bags.  This is done by the volunteer scouts, who are doing a brilliant job.

I can honestly say there are no minus points from what we have seen so far.  The weather is crap. but hey it's England you get used to it!

PEACE and LOVE