As two of our shifts are in the Pit or Backstage on the Main
stage we had to go to a special briefing in that area. We were instructed on
how to lift distressed persons from the front of the crowd into the pit. Nick
got to be one of the people lifted and they managed not to drop him on his head
so it’s all looking quite promising.
We did our first shift in the Box Office on Friday night.
One flustered but cheerful lady bounced in really late in the evening and
declared ‘VW vans are crap!’ I said ‘don’t say that, we’ve just bought one!!!’
She replied well they don’t keep going when they’ve run out of petrol!’. A long
chain of events including deciding to take the second exit to Cheltenham ‘but
there wasn’t one!’, resulted in a very late arrival. Seems she wasn’t much
bothered though. We saw her and her group the next night, she’d just got
engaged and was even more bouncy than the night before.
Our second shift was backstage on the main stage, basically
stopping the Press and VIPs from getting into the artist only area. And try
they did. Obviously there were a few artists floating around, the most
recognisable being Badly Drawn Boy. He’s not the prettiest of artist but most
definitely very talented.
There were some teens hanging around who looked like sons
and daughters of performers. One looked just like the guy on Almost Famous
which made it all feel very rock’n’roll. Following our shift we went around the
front to see Fun Lovin’ Criminals who were great. Even better than expected. The
following morning we had a very quiet shift mostly chatting to the PR people in
the press office. Then we were free to enjoy the rest of the festival – African
Drumming, Celtic music, Festival Special Ale, chips and gravy etc. The next day
was Andy’s birthday so we also helped him celebrate a little!
