Hello from a campsite in Sidmouth! I’m clinging to the side of a reasonably steep hill in the Devon countryside. If it tips down with rain here I don’t know how anybody is going to get out

Unfortunately, things aren’t going well. Firstly I went to the Bulverton Marquee on Friday night, which is just a climb from the campsite. I was there to watch/photograph the excellent Mawkin, a band I met back at the Cuckoo pub back near Chelmsford. The programme was supposed to start at 8pm, but didnt kick off till 8.30. Which was lucky as I took ages to climb that hill

I sat with a beer as they kicked off, thinking to myself “I’ll just have this then I’ll go and take some photos”. Three songs later, the power went. To give them their due, Mawkin didn’t miss a beat, came down off the stage, pulled up some chairs and played acoustically amongst the audience. I did take some photos at this point (which will be up when I get back on a broadband connection), but they aren’t great, at least 3 stops underexposed with the camera on 1/60th, F2.8, ISO 3200. Well they had no lights, except for the emergency lights that as I got them to sit in front of them at least gave a little hair light effect.

After half an hour or so, the power came back on and the bass player could finally rejoin the band. But the set was over, and they got a well-deserved round of applause for both being very entertaining, and carrying on in the face of adversity. Next, instead of the billed Adam Wooley, we were treated to a sub-Chemical Brothers DJ set. For 90 minutes. Mawkin only played 45 minutes and they, like, actually played their instruments. I don’t come to a Folk Festival to watch ‘DJs’ (they were using CDs by the look of it) just play pipes over standard dance loops. I mentioned the Chemical Brothers back there, and the comparison sticks. Just because they used an Arabic style sample, doesnt mean they should turn up at traditional Arabic music festival. Oh and I have a great photo of an almost empty Marquee as these guys were playing.

And the price of this? £8. Doh! Whilst looking around for somebody to complain at, I found somebody else already complaining. So I complained and got the usual ‘im just the venue manager’ and look of utter disinterest. After this chap went off to be complained at by somebody else I got chatting to the lady who was complaining before me. She had been coming to the festival for a few years and was furious, not just at the fact that we weren’t seeing any folk, but that also that there was security everywhere. She was not wrong, there were lots of bomber jacketted folk about and they were treating it like a Friday night in Southend. Granted, one or two were friendly but the rest just scowled around. Of course it’s really needed at folk festivals, why legend tells of that riot back in 94 where 2000 bearded middle aged people went on the rampage and stole all the herbal tea from the health food shop….. or not…

Through some wangeling that had already been done by my co-complainer’s friend I ended up in the late night session watching Tickled Pink (photos to follow) who were again good and got the now burgeoning crowd dancing around. I’m a newcomer to this and surprised that at 1am that a) anybody could stand and b) they didnt smash into each other.

So to today (Saturday). The campsite is a five minute bus ride from the centre of Sidmouth and a bus service is laid on. Today when coming back the bus driver tells me that camping-only ticket holders have to pay to use the bus. £1 each way or a week’s pass for £18. Yeah that makes fecking sense, if you went into and out of town every day for a week that would be ….. £14. Nowhere was it mentioned that the bus was extra. You could not buy bus tickets from the website, nor was it on the order form. Nowhere did it say that season ticket holders get it for free. It seems to me that this is a bait and switch situation. I spoke to a woman at the site camping office, got a lot of sympathy but no action. Nobody seems to have any bloody authority here or who to call in a problem. The best I got was “Would you like me to write this down so it isn’t a problem next year?”

“Is this going to fix my problem now?”

“No”

“Then really I couldn’t care less what you did”

Why would the cost of the bus not be included in the camping tickets? Do they want their entire town filled up with traffic as everbody with a car goes “£18? you must be fecking joking”. To me here, £18 represents a night out. I couldnt afford a season ticket and to be honest I dont think I want to shlepp about in town every night. This extra expense means I will not go out very much at all and instead of going into town regularly for supplies (some really nice bakers/delis/butchers in town I have already bought from), I’m going to pay to take the bus to Waitrose and spend my money there in one lump, which is really going to have no benefit for Sidmouth.

Part of the reason I came here is that the camping is not linked to buying a season ticket. I can come along and basically do what I want, spend where I like. The cheapness of the camping would mean that I could go and spend my money in town. With the £18 on top that brings the total for staying to £58. Well I could spend a week back in Southend in my motorhome WITH ELECTRICITY for £49.

Soon I will be going to Bideford folk week, the season ticket with camping comes to a tiny £60. I’m also off to Bunkfest for a measly £15 camping fee for 4 nights. That has a free bus and free entertainment in the town, unbeatable value. The feeling I get here is that the whole setup is to fleece the punters, wheras a good festival should be non-profit making to see the local businesses make the money. Put the cost up too much and everybody is going to stock up at their local supermaket before departing.

Also there appear to be problems holding everybody at the site. The campsite has been extended twice now and it’s easy to overhear the stewards talking about people buying camping tickets then not finding a place to camping.

I must say I doubt if I will be here next year.