This is a little late in publishing as I forgot to do it in the run up getting ready for my USA trip so my apologies.
Chatting over lunch revealed some friends had developed the itch to go to a music festival. During the conversation it seemed that the way to scratch this itch was to all go together.
Bikes & Blues?
It was week long blues festival & required camping. If truth be told my hubby didn’t like the sound of either & I needed a suitable incentive. Going by bike with the promise of beer sealed the deal. The forecast was for the warm spell to continue & the event sounded fun.
The festival tent is so light weight & compact it went into the top box with ease. We loaded up the saddle bags with enough for the weekend. However it became I would melt in heavy bike gear.
So began the internet trawl for what turned out to be the most expensive pair of jeans I own. To be fair they are specifically for biking & made of some sort of special fabric. This fabric has been skid tested to provide protection if you are unlucky enough to come off.
As a former nurse I can still recall a biker brought into the operating theatre. The shredded leather clothing literally having saved his skin from the same fate.
My helmet is pretty cool too as it has a built in tinted visor & the comms system enables me to listen to my favourite music as we blast along.
Breakfast Heaven
Wandering into the town to catch a few sets dotted around the various venues seemed like a a good idea. Then we spent a really lovely evening sat drinking in both beer & the music.
As we were ‘camping lite’ it meant we didn’t have a stove between us. So the next day we set off we in search of breakfast. After a short walk we found a tiny place that served the most amazing bacon butties & mugs of tea.
Fully repleated we pitched ourselves in a shady place to listen to the bands we had earmarked as worth a listen.
Not Quite Roughing It
As festivals go for it was a bit of a change as for one I am normally working as a steward for part of it & the conditions considerably rougher.
Neat rows of camper vans & fully functioning ablutions instead of the higgledy- piggledy mess of criss crossed guy ropes & dodgy toilets.
The other slightly weird thing was instead of the normal crush of people at the main stage they were all sat around in their deck chairs.
Still we opted for a spot under the nearby trees where we could enjoy the music but still chat.
Like other festivals there were some tents supplying food & whilst not vegan I have found this to be the infinitely better option as its less greasy & usually contains vegetables.
Unlike other festivals the local historic flight did a fly by which considering the age of the aircraft was quite impressive. Use link below to watch short video clip.
Prior to the festival I was aware of blues music but if you had asked me to name a blues band I would have struggled & I certainly was unfamiliar with any of the artists mentioned in the programme.
Still the musicians were really talented people & it was fascinating to listen to the various groups. I am no music historian yet it was evident how this style of music underpins so many other genres.
Basic Blues & Guitars
Strangely as someone who loves rock & punk I have found playing the blues style pieces given to me by my guitar teacher the easiest and most enjoyable to play.
Now given the somewhat genteel feel of the festival & one of the bands were playing in the local church the chance of being close up & personal to a fight seemed somewhat remote.
The closest I have been to a fight at a festival was in the crowd at Transmt but to be fair it was in Glasgow ! So was totally unprepared for the fracas that broke out near us when a bloke lifted what he thought was his backpack from the floor.
Fight Fight
A middle aged woman launched herself at him, grabbing the backpack & yelling to give her bag back. Fact is often stranger than fiction as what were the chances they had identical rucksacks & hence the confusion.
Unlike the Glasgow fight in which the security appeared like ninjas to quell this relied on a lot of pointing & eventually embarrassed looks to resolve.
So for the righteous judgey folk this was an example of those old enough to know betters turn to take a leaf out of the younger festival goers books about behaving in a crowd after clearly imbibing more than was good for you.
Use link to discover more about The Upton Blues Festival & the Malvern Area