The Green Man Festival. highs and lows of camping in Wales. in Summertime, and the living is easy... 2015

General observations. The Freedom of kids was lovely. Allowing them to go and play around the site, to go to the portfolios alone. Seeing/hearing behaviour of other kids makes me proud of my own. Constant whinging and screaming of kids in next tent.

Day one. Mon 17th Aug.

I woke up for an early run before we set off, running 6 miles in a really decent time! Most of the car was packed already so just the last few items to stick in and we left by 9, on our way to Wales. Almost two hours later we arrived at the site, only a couple hundred people before us (out of 20,000 in total).

As is usual for festivals, parking and camping are in different fields and a tent renting out large trolleys was in the car parking field. We loaded our stuff onto it and found a good spot under a tree. As Rich and Talaia went to return the trolley, Lila and I began to construct our home for the next week. There was an almighty crack, a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach and an investigation led to the discovery of a snapped joint in one of the tent poles… Now, as seasoned campers we keep spare parts so rummaged through the little baggy in the tent bag and there was a spare joint but with no pin to hold it together. We tried to extract the pin from the broken joint to no avail, the plastic that willingly snapped a few moments before wasn’t giving way at all now. Time to diversify, a Krypton Factor effect, if you will. An Apollo 13 square peg in a round hole issue. A spare guy rope, that was the answer, threaded through the pin hole and tied, several times, nice and tightly. Job done!

It is not possible to get up at 5:30, run six miles and travel, put a tent up etc… Without needing a rest. As soon as the airbeds were up and the sleeping bags were in place I tested the facilities, i.e. had a sleep. And what a good sleep it was, the kind of afternoon doze where you’re vaguely aware of your surroundings but in a deep state of relaxation. When I gently came to I felt wholey rested and for the rest of the day.

Although the festival didn’t start officially until Thursday, there were a few entertainment tents set up, a cafe tent, Some crafting areas and a music venue tent. It was to the latter that we wandered. Listening to folk songs sung in Welsh was a beautiful experience.

Day two. Tue 18th Aug.

This was a day for exploring the locality, a drive through the Brecon Beacons with stunning views as we reached summits of the hills, heart stopping corners and drops at side of the road. We turned a corner to be met by an entourage of female cyclists coming down and through my open window, carried on the wind, was the sound of manic laughter, laughter built on unadulterated fear, joy and adrenalin while cycling downhill towards the most amazing scenery!

Wales being the wet place it is and the Brecon Beacons being the mountainous place they are, streams, rivers and waterfalls are the norm. Waterfall walks are mapped out and abound, we bought our map and set off to discover four of the falls on an 8km walk. The path sometimes travelled along at water level and at times soared above it, the water having cut through the rock creating a deep gorge. There were no fences nor barriers between the path and drop into the rushing, rock filled water and yet, I was okay with it! I did have to stop the girls from skipping and turning around as they, invariably, moved diagonally when they did but - heights + water + narrow path without fences. Conquered!

I cooked. Rich’s idea of camping cooking involves heating up water and adding it to pot noodles whereas I wanted more substantial food. We have an excellent health food shop in town and I had prepared with healthier versions; rissotos and flavoured rices without the chemical additions. So I cooked up pumpkin risotto, meatballs and made a salad. All cooked under a tree, on the grass, surrounded by mountains. You don’t get much better than that.

We went up to the music tent again, some more great, folky music was heard, and the girls and I went back to the tent to sink into sleep.

Day three Wed 19th Aug.

Being Wales, the rain had to start at some point. Utilising an umbrella I managed to create breakfast, cooking porridge in the rain, we stayed in the tent but our tent, however large, can create a whole can of stir crazy so we put on the wellies and rain coats that we had brought and set out to walk to Crickhowell at 11ish.

Crickhowell is the nearest town and has an old world feel, nowhere were there any chain stores nor a supermarket but there were three butchers, a grocer store, cafes and corner shops. It was approximately three miles through rain and puddles, along fields next to the River Usk. Where small streams ran into the River we played a game that Rich named the Dip of Doom! As the mud became slicker, the tread of our wellies more clogged with sodden soil rendering the grip useless, we would hold hands and run down one side of the stream bank, using momentum to get up the other side while shouting “DIP OF DOOM!” And our jeans became heavier and heavier.

Shivering into Crickhowell at lunchtime meant we had one, immediate, aim. The local bakers had hot pastries, we chose with anticipation and took them under the shelter of the old court building, never have hot pastries been relished with such gusto!

There was a practical reason for our visit, Lila had woken on the hard floor two mornings in a row so we went to the local camping shop. A tiny shop that contained everything you could possibly need for outdoor life. We found a new air bed for Lila and shoelaces for Rich, the lace in his hiking boot had snapped on the first day. The drizzle still drizzled and we couldn’t face the walk back without a rest and a hot drink which we found at the tourist information, followed by flapjacks at a local shop before the walk back. Thankfully the rain had stopped, making the walk far more enjoyable, making us look up more, to enjoy the view. By the time we arrived back at the tent we were more damp than wet.

However, we didn’t make it out that night and spent night in tent due to Rich’s wet hiking boots (he doesn’t do wellies)!

Day 4. 20th Aug. Thursday

I got up early for a run. I went around the camp site and back along the path towards Crickhowell, although not leaving the festival site. The grass, however, was full of pot holes and my ankles and feet were really starting to suffer. I reached a point where I had two options; run back the way I came or try to go through the (currently) crew-only areas where the festival was still being set up, trucks and building works going on. There was a pubescent guard on duty so I told him my problem and begged to be allowed through the gate. He told me that he couldn’t allow me through, but wouldn’t stop me if I chose to. However, if anyone asked, he hadn’t spoken to me. Heh heh, love the conservative rebel! I ran much faster than my usual pace and figured that I should run where I’m not allowed far more often to get some good speed training in! No one stopped me, or even looked. I had a couple of glances but one thing I’ve noticed over the past 30 years is that people don’t notice runners. Obviously they see someone running but they’d never be able to pick them out in a line up, no one looks at your face. I have often run past people I know well to find that they just don’t see me. The other thing is that people rarely question the motives of a runner; just like dog walkers and people in high vis jackets. Your very actions or accessories make people feel “That’s okay then.”

It was cool getting an early view and being able to pass on information regarding what was around!

I was ravenous by breakfast and it takes an age to cook anything on our camping stove. Eventually I was able to have porridge and chill out.

As this was the official start of the festival there were lots of new people, tents popping up everywhere, within a small amount of time, all our tent access was blocked so we had to battle with other people’s guy ropes every time we left.

New areas had opened up, although still not the main arena, there was a stall selling French Toast and one selling bubble paraphernalia. This was most popular! It was constantly pumping out bubbles and some of these were smoke filled. I loved popping them, the smoke stayed in a perfect sphere for a millisecond before escaping the constraints of the shape, reaching out tendrils to explore this new world and dissipating rapidly to become part of the air.

The arena still wasn’t showing signs of opening despite whispered promises that noon was the time, hunger pangs were taking hold and, quite frankly, there was no sign of French toast being available yet. We lunched at the tent then returned to the arena which was finally open. Talaia was excited by a second hand, vintage, clothes co-op tent. She and I went around looking at all the clothes. She wanted to know what I would have worn as a child, the sort off things that Nana Ann (my mum) would have worn. We found sparkly things, bright things, brown, orange and swirly nylon things. It was all so amazing! We visited Einstein’s Garden, an area run by university students. The girls made Rockets and aimed them at the moon, firing them using compressed air and we had to order Russian dolls by weight which we got totally wrong!

We found the Green man himself, built each year at festival, filled with wishes and dreams of festival goers to be burned on the final night of the festival. Talaia wrote “I wish I could go to Green Man whenever I wanted” and Lila wrote “I love having freedom”.

Back to tent for chilling and beer.

Day5 Fri Aug 21 (tally wrote today’s entry)

It was raining too hard even for my umbrella/camping stove set up so I had to forgo my porridge. Breakfast consisted of bread and honey.

Another thing on site was a cinema tent, most of the films were politically based but at 10am each day was a kids film. We made it by 9.15, were given sheep ears on entry and settled on the floor ready to watch Shaun the Sheep. It was a fabulous, fun story. Rich didn’t last long claiming pain in the hips.

The girls wanted ice creams, there was one vendor of the cold, sweet stuff. It’s run by a company called Shepards of which I had just read. It’s sheep milk ice cream and run by friends of Chris Stewart (the author of my favourite series of books based on the true life adventures of their life on an Alpujarran farm in Andalucía.) It had been mentioned in the latest book (which I had just finished reading) because his daughter, Chloe, had spent a summer travelling the festival scene with Shephards the summer before she started university in Granada. I was a little worried about Lila’s reaction as sheep milk has a very strong taste and she has a reputation for not liking any food that isn’t utterly bland. I guess the sugar helped! Lila had strawberry flavour and Tally had peanut butter and choc flavour then we watched a band called Hunck. Big bubbles wobbled past the stage add they played.

Had lunch.

The afternoon was spent in the tent, Rich sleeping, Lila playing, I was reading and Talaia played with my phone.

Day 6 Sat Aug 22

There was a strange ball of fire in the sky, I was able to make my porridge again..! The weather in mountainous areas is famous for its changability, and change it did as we started a hot, sunny day. Rich was starting to suffer a little with his constant drinking and I went a run so we were running later than previous day for the kids cinema but we couldn’t miss it; this time it was Paddington which we saw and loved (all four of us) at the cinema when it came out. Because of our timing we ended up wedged into a small space at back and to the side, sitting cross legged for the length of a film when you’re in your forties - phew, tough call!!

The movie was worth the agony though, it is one of the best kids movies in years!

Our picnic rug had taken a massive hit in the rains of the previous day and was utterly soaked. There was no where to dry it as bringing it into the tent would have just caused a damp atmosphere. However, we had a spare ground sheet with us and took it to the walled garden; this was a garden with the potential to be a secret garden, surrounded by walls and with a doorway through one. However it lacked all the plants, tangled roses and trees. We saw two bands, a British based guitar playing girl and an Icelandic band called Vök. Personally, I was more interested in a relationship that was playing out in front of me - I will do a photo entry after this and explain more then.

There was a forty five minute break between the two bands so I got ice creams for the girls. Everyone else had the same idea though (not to buy them for my girls…), and 40 minutes later we made it back to the ground sheet when Rich legged it to the bathroom with a bursting bladder!

Rich had got into an 18 year old at a festival state of mind, he’d forgotten he was there as part of a family so the girls being bored of bands was a matter of frustration, I stalked off with them in a huff, leaving him to go and watch a gazillion more shoe gazing guitar bands. The girls were saying that they wanted to go back to the tent, which I couldn’t face. It was damp and uncomfortable so me and the girls wandered in a direction we hadn’t been before, the crowd thinned out and sun shone. Before us, in all its muddy glory, we found a pond. There were signs suggesting children weren’t left unaccompanied while children splashed and played in the water. My girls removed their socks and shoes, rolled up their trousers and were in that water before I could say “of course you can darlings.” They paddled to their hearts content until… Thunder started. Oh course the girls were having too much fun to notice or see the other children leaving. They were out of earshot because of the music from the Mountain Stage so I was frantically beckoning, in their rush to get out one of them fell in the pond - Rich guessed correctly later. Obviously it was Lila who fell, she managed to dunk herself all the way under the water and was soaked. We had plans to go tentwards but needed food, the new thunderous rain put an embargo on cooking, once more. Tally had churros, they smelled so good in their sugary, cinnamony, chocolatey goodness, I had a cheeseburger with the most divine onion marmalade dressing (i accepted the sugar content as a one off) and Lila had pancakes with melted white chocolate buttons… I asked at each stall if we could have an extra food container to cover the food and everyone was compliant :-)

We came back to tent to dry off and get onsies on. We’d put all the towels and rug out to dry when we left in the morning which now, obviously, were soaking once more. There was one, very small, tea towel that was almost dry. Lila got first dibs since she was soaked from head to foot, we set out the ground sheet then ate food. It was very, very good and appreciated.

The tent became our refuge for the rest of the evening.

Day 7 Sun Aug 23.

We woke to pouring rain and thunder, at 6.15 Lila climbed into our bed, the rain battering the tent scared her. Although I understood her emotions, for me it wasn’t fear but utter fed-upness. Not only was it wet again I was feeling as though Rich was having a holiday as a single 18 year old while I was having a holiday as a single mum. When he was with us he was drunk and his idea of helping with anything the kids wanted was to say “ask what mum thinks.”

I didn’t want to get up, I didn’t want to have to take responsibility for what my kids wanted, just for a day. I wanted to do whatever I wanted, just as Rich had been doing. But he couldn’t see that he was doing anything wrong, he was enjoying the festival.

This is what I wrote at the time. “No motivation. Can’t face being wet again. Just want to be warm, dry and clean. Bread and honey for breakfast. Listening to Green Man radio as we sit in tent. Girls playing nicely in their rooms.”

There was a conversation from the next door tent:

Girl: mum, mummy? When do you think you might get out of bed? …Mummy? I just wondered when you might get up?

Mum: uggghhhhh

Girl: mummy, I just thought I would ask because I would like a cooked breakfast?

Mum: uurrrrrgggghhhhhhhhh.

We went back to the festival site, sludging through mud, to see a band in the Far Out tent. Once more the girls just weren’t into it. It was lunch time so the girls and I got pancakes at the Mountain Stage. Rich went down to be closer to the stage while I sat at the top of the hill and the girls raced up and down the grass. Rich grabbed a lentil soup once the music finished and we agreed to meet in a couple of hours as the girls didn’t want to listen to more music. He headed to the Walled Garden, me n my girls went to Einstein’s garden again. There was so much we hadn’t seen before. We learned about stem cells and how they’re the future of medicine. We made our own stem cells using sim cards, wire and electrical tape before linking it between the brain and arm of a skeleton. We studied skeletal parts from a local long barrow in the archaeology tent, working out how many bodies there would have been. We made solar cells in the solar energy tent, making solar cells with biscuits, fluff, nutella and jam. They may not have attracted solar energy but they gave the girls’ energy a boost mid meals! We created a cloud in a bottle, using white spirit and compressed air, it was well cool! And Lila matched the poo to the animal. My child got every darned one right!! She is a poo expert..!

We met up with Rich but it was another band that sounded the same. The girls were bored with it and wanted to explore. I allowed appalling snacks! Chemical laden crushed ice for Tally and a foot long strawberry and banana sweet for Lila! We chilled in the tent, reading and playing but the call for food had us back at the arena at about 7 to buy food - pizza for Lila, pies from Pie Minister for Tally and me (if you haven’t had them, you haven’t lived!) Rich was at tent when we got back. The next singer on was one that both Rich and I like, but I didn’t really want to go on my own, so he went to see Courtney Barnett, apparently she was excellent. I recommend you look her up. Me and girls went to bed.

Day 8 Mon Aug 24

I woke to the sound of neighbour’s alarm and got up a few minutes later when I registered a lack of rain on the canvas. It was 6.30, Lila was awake and cold so I snuggled her up with her quilt. I risked an early trip to the toilet, usually a disgusting affair as they were still reeling from the previous night’s festivities… but the cleaners were there already! I thanked a very unresponsive toilet cleaner as the toilets have been clean all weekend.

Then I started packing up, trip after trip after trip to the car, carrying bags and boxes. Rich and Talaia still sleeping and Lila reading in bed.

Eventually everyone was awake - good news really since I had to take the airbeds and bedding, take down the bedrooms and eventually the tent. By 10.45 we had finished, we had all had a banana but nothing else. Due to all the rain the car park was a quagmire, especially down the main route out. We took a side route, avoiding the majority of mud and, due to a breakfast plan, also zipped out of the queuing traffic, up over the mountain.

We drove for half an hour to Wetherspoons, they stop serving breakfast at 12 noon and it was 11:46am when we walked through the doors. The order was placed by 11:56 and I got my breakfast wrap. Sausages, ham, fried egg and hash browns in a wrap. It was utterly divine, the epitome of heaven at that moment in time.

We were dirty, smelly and grubby so we made use of the facilities. We must have spent five minutes just washing our hands with water and soap - no more antibac hands gel :-)

And then we drove home, the only sound that of the sat nav.