Greenbelt '05

2004's GB kind of passed me by without registering, and the only bit of the festival I can really remember is watching No More Horses on mainstage. And some great alcohol-lubricated conversations. This left me feeling quite sad/depressed/drained at the end of that festival.

This years was sooooo much better. Its was greatly helped by the wonderful community, laughter and friendship within the ops team, especially the interrupting cow (which also works quite well as a knock knock joke), and countless moments of mirth shared with truly fantastic people. If only I could remember why some of them were so funny at the time....

There were inevitably some low points too, for me the loss of the bandstand was the worst, as it didn't feel as if there was a central focus to the festival anymore and quite a few other people shared similar sentiments if truth be known.

The lows were swiftly brushed away by the highs though, and the absolutely best bits of the festival for me personally were (best first):

1. Becoming so totally immersed in the music whilst Emiliana Torrini sang on mainstage that everything and everyone else around me faded completely into the shadows. I could easily have spent the rest of my life just listening to her infectious voice.
2. Juliet Turner playing two songs just for the ops team in the white room.
3. Making new friends. Martin (who I have known since Dean Park days), his wife Sally, Becky, Zoe, Anthony and Dave (again known him from the Bandstand days at Dean). They came as early birds and helped myself and Stick with sign putting up (and moving about), and were really warm, friendly and welcoming whenever I joined them later over the weekend (normally in 4))
4. The Organic beer tent. Spent way to long in there, so much so that I only drank 4 of the beers I bought with me
5. Seeing old friends again. Met up with Gayle, Steve (now "Orc Walker" for some reason?!?), Mark and others I went to school with. Its great to see them again after all these years, and to catch up with them again.
6. lots of other little things too numerous to remember, or too personal to share.
7. and this kind of made me smile to, when the girl I had spent most of the weekend trying to get to know better revealed that she was actually more interested in the cute barmaid in the Org Beer Tent. Typical :|

Again I felt very sad as tuesday morning dawned over the last morning, although this time is was mainly regret that it would be several months until I saw some of those faces again, and almost a full year before we return to that priceless little corner of Cheltenham.