Friday 11th September
It was quite a tight turn round from packing away AITG to going away to The Lindisfarne Festival on Thursday morning.
George had to be cleared, cleaned and reloaded with supplies and clothes for a festival on the NE coast where the weather may require T-shirts and shorts or woolly hats and jumpers! We had pre- made 3 evening meals to a) save money and b) prevent us eating take away food all weekend.
We set off up the A1 to the Lindisfarne turn off 30 minutes away but the traffic slowed way before that. We assumed it was the high volume of traffic turning right across the flow but as 2 police vehicles sped past it may have been an accident. We never found out and after a lot of stopping and starting we finally turned down the road to Beal which includes a railway crossing which was also slowing things down. Having been directed onto the site we joined the queue to have our tickets checked and receive our weekend pass wrist bands.
There were plenty of motorhomes and caravans already on site despite it only being open since 11am. We went into our set up procedure with cooking and the fridge all running on gas and the electrics on the Leisure Battery. We unpacked and put up our windbreak and bunting and our Northumberland flag. We had a cuppa and relaxed as we couldn’t get on site until 3pm. We had some drinks before wandering down the track for the 10 minute walk to the gates. The queue to enter didn’t take long and we were in.
The Festival is relatively small with 2 main tents and several smaller venues with lots of the usual food vendors and stalls. We wandered around the site for a while and sat in the sunshine before settling in the main tent to listen to some bands and have a few drinks. The headliners on Thursday night were “The Pretenders” who we had seen before in Chesterfield and we decided to stay on site until we’d seen them so this meant a visit to the food stalls for some tea. The tent filled up for Folk Rock bands “Talisk” and “Tidelines” who were great and was packed for “The Pretenders“ who were also great.
Afterwards, We headed back to George for some supper and bed. We decided to, on a whim, to try and get Dylan to come on Friday and bring Luna. Unfortunately his car was in the garage but he managed to get a 3 day insurance on our Honda and he managed to get a day ticket for Friday.
In the morning, we went down to the site for a coffee and a wander around. I love that time when the site is quieter with no bands and few people. We headed back to the motorhome for breakfast and to wait for Dylan. Dylan arrived and we sat behind the windbreak for some drinks before heading down to the site to watch some bands. It was very sunny but the wind was really getting stronger. We didn’t want to sit with Luna in the tents so we sat outside and eventually Natasha took her back to the motorhome as we thought it was too noisy.
Me and Dylan found a spot to sit in the main tent. You weren’t supposed to take chairs in the tents but people did and sat around the edges. The security and stewards didn’t seem to care. When Natasha returned we watched “The Everly Pregnant Brothers” a Sheffield Comedy Band who changed the lyrics to well known songs and were very funny and then one of our “must see” acts “The Red Hot Chilli Pipers” who had us all jumping in the packed crowd. Afterwards, having had plenty to drink and feeling hungry, we decided to forgo the headline act “Razorlight” and retire for our curry. Dylan managed to massacre 2 Greek kebabs instead and had the intention of going back to meet some mates but fell asleep. We decided to go to bed as well.
Despite Dylan’s “Friday“ wristband, we managed to sneak him in on Saturday morning for some breakfast. The wind had caused some devastation with some casualties amongst the tent campers and one of the venues had closed with its roof blown off or removed for safety. Our windbreak had suffered with several snapped poles. It was still very windy with no sign of it abating!!
Dylan had a friend staying on Saturday, so sadly returned home with Luna. Natasha and I went back on site and in the main tent saw a very young band called “Swindled” Ray Keith and then the crazy 90 minutes of “Bongo Bingo” which had a packed tent bouncing. After nipping back for our chilli we returned to the Viking Brew House tent to see a local band with a rock chic female lead “Blistered Molly” who were fabulous followed by one of our favourite bands “Ferocious Dog”, Who we had seen twice at “Northern Kin Festival “ and literally had the t- shirts. They announced this was their last Festival gig as they had decided to stop performing after this year. They are a band from Warsop but play Irish rock punk and even though we were crammed in like sardines , had the whole tent jumping. We were pretty knackered and decided to head back without seeing “Heather Small” ,”Colonel Mustard”or headliners “Faithless”.
Fearing the mass exodus on Sunday morning I had packed away the outside stuff including the shattered windbreak and was determined to get off early to beat the rush. Much to Natasha’s dismay I was up at 6.30am and after tea and closing down duties and with a promise to stop on the way home to cook breakfast, we set off and got away without any problems.
We stopped at the beautiful Budle Bay on the trip home. We watched the wildlife whilst eating our bacon sarnies. It then began to rain. We reflected on how lucky we had been with the weather. 3 days of sunshine despite the high winds. The site was bone dry a godsend for the campers and for fields with heavy traffic. The heavy rain which followed justified my early exit but was a cruel shame for all those in tents who had perfectly dry conditions and would now be packing away wet tents! As we unpacked George at home the rain was torrential! We emptied the gear and cleaned the cabin. We then had to drive back to the farm where George is parked and drive back home in the car. We were very tired that night.
Lindisfarne Festival won the “Best small festival “ last year. We understood why.
The toilets (at least where we were) were clean, the site was cleaned every day, the “pilgrims” as they are known were friendly and good humoured and despite the copious amount of drink consumed there was no trouble. There was plenty of variety of bands with tastes for everyone. The food and drink was “festival expensive“ but not outrageous and access was easy with no long queues. We had seen the bands we wanted to see but as is inevitable at festivals, missed a few we wouldn’t have minded seeing. We were very pleased to be staying in the motorhome as our camping days are over especially in gale force wind. We like our creature comforts too much.
We enjoyed ourselves and will go again.
We weren’t finished yet though. On Monday morning we drove down to Ashington to pick up my new car. A small SUV with 4 wheel drive. We need at least one 4 wheel drive car here in Winter to enable Natasha to get to work.
It’s been quite a heavy 2 weeks. I have a few residual jobs from AITG but I’m looking forward to getting back to painting.