tom’s fabulous weblog

green man

Have just returned from a fantastic weekend at the Green Man festival near Abergavenny in the Brecon Beacons. In attendance were Brother Al, Neil S and Brother Jim, Tom P of the Yellow Jacket, the psychological improviser Alex F, Jude the straw hatted, Steve W the barefoot mystic and various marvellous friends of Neil and Jude.

The setting for this festival, in the green hills of Wales, is really stunning, the feel of the place is cosy with only 10,000 tickets for sale, the aesthetic is hippy faerie village and it’s all very family friendly, with loads of children running around the spacious site. Friday was sunny and pleasant, but it bucketed down on Saturday, literally pouring for hours and hours. We spent the day in our tents, playing card games and role playing games. The place was turned into a mud bath, but still retained its cosy charms.

There were a marvellous range of bands, supported by an OTT festival programme with graphic descriptions that somehow conveyed huge amounts of information without actually telling you what the music was like. I was very impressed by Richard Thompson, The National, Pentangle, the Bowerbirds and Beth Jeans Houghton. Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir provided a nice growly touch. Lightspeed Champion were extravagant and inspiring. During their performance I also met Toby from Reading, we had free love festival sex (though quietly, the trouble with thin tent walls is that everyone can hear you come) on Sunday night while Alex had an MDMA bop in the dance tent, before he was grabbed by a gabbling middle aged woman who made him sing early morning Welsh songs and accompany her to her tent before we reunited for bed around 3:30am.

There were experienced campers among us, and so we had lots of well prepared cups of camping stove tea, cheese sandwiches, cooked breakfasts and boiled eggs. The toilets were cleaned out every morning, so sanitation issues rarely became too extreme. On Sunday morning Steve and I went washing in the river. On the way in my legs hurt so much I thought I might collapse, but then they went numb and I started to enjoy myself, actually submerging myself in the freezing Welsh waters at one point, and emerging all refreshed and invigorated.

All in all, a great weekend. Long live rock n roll camping!