I took Celestial Fury on Thursday to install it at Carfest, then had to come home and load the van for camping. It was not too bad as it was only 20 minutes each way. Installation went well, no problems. As Silvi had to get home for a Friday afternoon appointment, she took her car. She managed to get back just in time to see Seasick Steve.
We both chose not to drink that night especially as it was £7 a drink.
From the perspective of being an artist, being told we would get coverage and be on the website, Facebook, and have professional photographers taking pics, none of this happened. There was not even a footnote in the program, nothing on social media, and all exhibits were scattered about the festival. Nobody knew what it was about, and nobody knew about the voting for best in show unless they were able to scan a tiny QR code on a sign beside each sculpture. And as there were so many people there and you are in a field in the middle of Hampshire, internet was not the best, and when you could get a signal, it was very slow. Dimitri, the guy who organised this and was our contact, said on Sunday that 400 plus people had voted so far. I have not managed to find out how many attended, but 400 is a small percentage.
Thursday night we met up with some friends at the bar, had a good catch up with them before heading back to the campsite.
The festival itself—where do I start? Well, as festivals go, it was not our type of festival: way too big, way too many people, and very expensive. Glad for my little VW pop-top camper van, which we had stocked with plenty of supplies for the weekend. We even came home in Silvi's car for a shower on Saturday. Came back and popped over to see our friends had a couple of beers and Saturday just snowballed. We did not make it back to the van for food then we managed to hook up with some other friends and I also bumped in to quite a few people I know one of which I had not seen for about 15 years. Saturday turned in to quite a long expensive day. Sunday we were not feeling so good.
Camping in the van was okay, and the exhibitors' campsite was okay. Long walk to the toilets and showers, though. The bands were not great but enjoyable enough once a few pints had been consumed. Seasick Steve was very good. The Boomtown Rats were disappointing, even after several pints.
Come Sunday, Silvi and I had had enough and decided to head home, unload the van, and come back for Celestial Fury in the morning, rather than come home in the morning and then have to drive back to get CF. I was there at 7:30, no traffic, straight in, dismantled and loaded, and home by 8:30.
