Friday 17 August 2018

Get off my land!

Written in 2016

I am still angry. It's been over a month and I am still very angry. Why you ask.  Well after I tell you, I fully expect to get virtually lynched for daring to go against the general opinion on how wonderful the event is and that I must be wrong/making it up/out to get money.  I'm not wrong, I'm not making it up and I am owed money!

Farmer Phil's festival is considered as one of the best festies to go to, amongst my musical friends. I had spent all summer working my butt off at other events and decided that Farmer Phil's was the place I needed to be to chill out and let my hair down.  So Friday after work, I came home, got ready and headed out from York (area) to Shrewsbury.  The journey was easy going and I had great tunes playing. I was so hyped up for this weekend of fun with my friends, especially as I hadn't told them I was going.

I arrive at the farm entrance and think 'oh my god, I'm glad I'm not pulling a trailer up this road' there's a huge dip off the main road and I reckon a few traders had problems. But I wasn't trading, I was there for fun.  I drive up to the very nice marshals and they tell me to park on the right so I can get my ticket. I was then sent to pitch up on the fields to the left.  I drove through the gate, which was lined with rocks (to prevent people getting stuck in the mud), around the field - nope, no spaces. To the next field. Big dips, bigger rocks and bigger ruts to navigate. I managed it at a careful pace around field two. Nope, no spaces. To field three, massive dips and rocks in the gateway, I'd go as far as saying that some of those were boulders.  I steer carefully to the left around the worse of it and travel down the field. Deeply rutted and not so easy to get the car to navigate, I chose the spot near the tree.  It was nearly dark, I then battled to put the tent up in the wind.  I tried to text my son to say I'd arrived safely and no luck there, the whole area is a signal deadspot (except Beth's phone for some reason lol).  I got changed and headed up to the arena.

At this point I should really mention that I have chronic arthritis in my knees and my back is fairy fubar'd.  I don't let this stop me though and have worked in my food van at festivals and events.  These comprise of standing up for 12-18 hour days, having 4-5 hours sleep and then doing it all again the next two days.  Sure I get tired and I suffer afterwards but I can still manage as long as there's a co-codamol.  It's dark, I can't see where I'm going, there's no lights but my mobile phone torch.  I get to the first gate, legs are aching. I carefully avoid the big ruts hidden in the grass, nearly turning my ankle a few times. I face the boulders and navigate them. I find a least bothersome path and walk along the path through the next field.  Next gate, not as bad but still hard work trying to walk on it without turning my ankle and falling over.  Along the field path to the next gate and smaller rocks.  I stop knackered at the bottom of the hill.  Shit! That's a climb.  I take a slow but steady walk up the hill.  Legs are killing me, nothing to grab on to so I keep going.  Aha! Security guys and a security fence to lean on.  Have a chat with them while I recover and then head off in to the arena.

It's all new to me. I've never been here before. I'm looking for familiar faces. I find them in the Cheezy Vinyl bar - I love that place, it's so cool in there.  There I stay, sipping port, eating cheese and singing along with Brian Stone until about 2am.  We all head back down to the campsite and it's a repeat battle through the first two fields.  I watched the meteor showers with Brian and then after an hour, we both headed to our own beds.  That star gazing was the highlight of my weekend by the way. Standing under the stars, feeling so small and in awe of the vastness of space above us as bits of it fall on Earth... mind blowing stuff and very cool.  I managed to get back to my tent without falling in a hole and got into bed. Boy did the wind howl that night, glad I'd used extra tent pegs.

Saturday morning.  I wanted to get up early enough to catch Brian and Doozer on stage, as I was doing photos.  I got dressed, put all the stuff in my bag that I needed too and headed up.  In daylight it was only slightly less dangerous.  People were carrying their kids and buggies over the gateway obstabacle course, they didn't seem to fussed by it to be fair, they seemed to be used to it. I wasn't. I was in pain.  I saw Kate who said her wheelchair battery had run out from the steep climb up the hills. I saw a guy with no legs below the knees, walking along with crutches. I wish I didn't have knees at that point, he seemed to be doing better than me!

So you get the idea, I was tired, in pain and not having fun because pain kinda blocks that.  BUT I park my butt in front of the main stage with my mates and watched some great bands.  I appreciated the good sound quality and good stage management. I watched everyone around me laughing, drinking and having fun.  It wasn't a very big area but that made it more personal.  I had a little explore around the arena and found the Cantinas food place.  Great food! I love the fact they had all that variety and it was all good quality stuff. Those things are very important to me, and it's the business model I follow for my own catering business.  I was conned into buying ickle Pixie child a replacement lolly and we meandered up the slope, pass by the fantastic rhino sculpture, worked our way through the circus area with kids having a great time on unicycles and the performers showing them how to do neat tricks, to the sweetie van.  That was great, I thoroughly enjoyed that area, wish I'd seen more of the arena.   I watch some more music and it starts getting chilly, I'm wearing shorts.  I walk back down to the campsite with some friends, stopping at theirs in the first field (the nice flattish one with no rocks in lol), have dinner there and then head to my tent so I could get changed.  Well that was the plan. By the time I got to my tent, my legs were ready to give way, I was in a lot of pain and in tears. I have a high pain threshold and I'm not a weepy kinda girl.  I sat on my bed to rest, it was about 8pm, I could hear Gaz Brookfield wrapping up his set.  Next thing i know, it's midnight and Dreadzone were on.  I lay there, pissed off, still in pain and didn't see the point in getting up when it had all effectively finished. All my friends would have been well lubricated by that point and it's not like I could call any of them as there was no signal.  I thought about Sunday, repeating the same journey and knew I couldn't.  I thought about missing Ferocious Dog, a band where you will find me in the mosh pit.  There was no prospect of that happening. I fought the urge to go home there and then.  I convinced myself to sleep on it.

I woke up at 7am, my back was killing me.  I knew the disabled and normal loos were at the top of the field and I knew that they were utterly disgusting.  Did I also mention I have IBS?  This was not fun. I was pain, I was fuming and I was packed up and gone by 7.30am on Sunday morning.  Driving out of the field was a nightmare. One of your marshals dropped off a drunk woman near my tent as I got in my car, they were on a ATV and they struggled over that gate/field.  As I wasn't driving the same path as I came in, there was a huge dip and boulder in my path, so I had to 3 point turn the car around and head out of the gate, like I had coming in.  Crunch, ground, crunch, swear, fume, crunch.  Did I mention I had just spent a lot of money that week fixing my car?  Next gate, not as bad but still awful, next gate and I said bye to the marshal and got out of there.  That dip by the top... how the hell do you lot do that onto a main road with fuck all visibility?

Now I accept it's a working farm. It's not going to be perfect. I accept it's beautiful countryside and great music.  I accept there were problems with the people who were supposed to be maintaining the loos. But I do not accept that you did a proper risk assessment. I do no accept that there were fucking boulder and brick sized rocks in the gateways. I do not accept the lack of lighting to help people not hurt themselves over these dangerous areas.  I do not accept my car being damaged because of your slack attitude to customer safety. I do not accept that your risk assessments covered those points I've made and if they did, I'd like to see a copy of that!  There are no warning signs, there are no declarations about not being liable for damages.  Deerstock and Wistful, both working farms - not dangerous.  I've organised biker rallies, I know about risks and reducing them and having public liability insurance to cover your arse if anything goes wrong.

Nearly 20 years that festival has been going?  No hand wash or sanitiser in the toilets in the arena. No towel or dryer. There was an old abandoned birds nest in one towel dispenser!  There were no bins in or near the toilets, so people were throwing their used tissues (for drying their hands) in the sinks, on the floor.  The only bins I saw were the big recycling crates (kudos for that).  You can't blame a company letting you down on that, that's down to the committee to sort out the moment it becomes a problem. I was told by several people that if the environmental health had turned up on Thursday night, you'd have been shut down as there was no running water for the loo's etc etc.

I'm fairly sure that large ponds shouldn't be blue - that kinda suggest it's blue algae which is highly toxic to people and dogs swimming in it.  There were so many little things, that a well established festival crew should have nailed down to perfection.  I was told that Chris twisted/broke his ankle there last year and so did Farmer Phil... you tell me that isn't true and that Phil just twisted his ankle after falling on wet grass.  Like that makes it all ok.  Those little things ruined my weekend.

I drove home with my car clonking over every small bump in the road. I had anxiety attacks most of the way home. I will spare describing what those were like, not had them that bad for a very very long time.  I missed seeing my friends, my fav bands and to top it all off, when I went back to my mechanic on Monday, I'm told that my suspension coil has snapped in two. Oh and if that had popped off when I was driving home, I'd be dead!

I waited ages before I messaged your admin team. I waited to calm down. I was first met with concern and sympathy. Then the replies got decidedly curt.  I only asked for your insurance company details so I could put a claim in for damages to my car.  No company name, just a contact name and a phone number.  He was rather curt too, I already know that putting this claim in will be an epic pain in the arse.  What is worse, is being made to feel like I'm not allowed to complain about the festival, especially as so many enjoyed it, and so they should, it looked awesome. BUT not for me and I know I'm not alone in overcoming these difficulties.  I do not want money for personal injury, I want the money I spent fixing my car, that your festival and lack of care, caused, it's only about £150-£200, it's not like I'm trying to rob you.  Such small things to get wrong, with such massive impact on people like me.  I won't be going back. I know a few others who won't. I know many will because they love the atmosphere and revelling with their friends.  I think most of them would have a good time regardless of where they were lol.

Rubble = size of your hand.  Rocks = brick size(ish).  Boulders = a foot across!


Two years later.  I didn't publish the above blog at the time. I had already been given the cold-shoulder for confiding my bad experience at this festival, it deeply affected friendships for quite some time. I don't know why they had to take it personally, it wasn't about them. Reading it again, made me feel a little bit sick actually. The rude guy on the phone wanted photographs of the conditions, which I couldn't supply because I hadn't thought to take pictures of the carpark, I just wanted to get out of there. I searched hundreds of your pictures to try and find some. Nadda.  So I allowed my anxiety to win and I just gave up trying to fight a losing battle. It took me about two months to get over that. Gods, I sound so weak when I say that but those who know me, know I go until I drop. I cannot remember another time where I've felt like that - even after 20 hour days catering festivals!

So why publish it now? Well, Loogate has kicked off after this years Farmer Phil's. A lot of people are not very happy. The event organisers have stated they deliberately didn't put a disabled loo at the top of the arena so that people up there had to go down to the main part and watch those bands. It's in writing, it's not hearsay.  I could point you to the discussion threads on the festival chat page, but the admin are censoring posts they don't like.  Yay for screenshots!  I feel kinda vindicated at last.

It is very sad because this site had the ingredients to be great. Slack attitudes to the needs of their customers and little regard to anything other than making money. Many within my festival friends only went there this year to celebrate a friend's wedding. I think the bride and groom are wonderful people and I wish I could have been there... but NOTHING would have got me back to that place. Thank grud for Facebook videos of the service. It was lovely. By all accounts, many didn't leave the confines of their camps in the car park very often.  A festival is as only as good as those who attend it... and my dear Phil, the very best of those will not be coming back. They were loyal and loved that festival for many years... but I think it's fair to say, you've shot yourself in the foot with both barrels with Loogate. You can stick your head in your hands and deep sigh and lament away... the glamour has lifted.

Saturday

p.s I've shut down the comments on this blog because I choose not to deal with your abuse.