On mainstage and off

King Creosote, were excellent as were My Morning Jacket, although with the latter I'm afraid you'll never win over an audience largely unfamiliar with your work if you don't engage with the audience. Or as S put it, "not talking to us is one thing, but playing with your back to us...". Personally I loved it, the music washed over my tired soul - truly beautiful.

Opinion on Nizlopi seems devided. Although can we all be clear that they didn't play the JCB song at all did they. Cos bands like that always save their one hit for last right? Hence they certainly didn't play it the second we sent Nick off to get chips, did they...

Surprise extreme delight of the weekend was a sunny Sunday afternoon with a large crowd watching the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Classic covers, that just made everyone smile.

I knew Michael Franti and Spearhead were going to be good, but wow! Simply stunning - perfect festival band and totally explored the festival and 'got it'. Lovely, lovely man also visited the Escape to Safety exhibition and talked about asylum and hugged some of S's visiting Namibians. He then even gave a shout out re the food collection fro the stage that night. When I caught up with him post gig to pass on their thanks, I got a huge hug in return.

Hmmmm thinks I - being hugged by a tasty man - lovely. Then my nostrils responded and I realised quite how sweaty he was.

So after a week of manic attention to personal hygiene I end up smelling of man sweat. Hey ho.




All in all some fabulous sights on the lovely new mainstage, but a better barometer of success for me is to stand in the pit on the back of stage and see a sea of happy, engaged faces.



Just like if you want any reassurance that all the hard work is worth it, there's nothing like standing on a grandstand balcony and seeing the campsite stretch as far as the eye can see and further.

I only wish I'd taken a photo.