We Are All Trees

This weekend James and I went to We Are All Trees festival at Fell Foot Wood in the Lake District.

My sister's band was playing there with her band, Salford Media City. Incidentally, this blog is named after one of their songs: Doing Stuff is Fun by Salford Media City
When we got there, I was expecting to be directed to a big car park and from there be shown where everyone was camping. I knew it was supposed to be in the woods but I guess I sort of thought there would be some sort of a clearing in the woods where the camping would happen. I was wrong. There was camping in amongst the trees all over the woods, and everyone was allowed to pick their own little campsite.
As we wandered around the place, we kept seeing little settlements of 4 or 5 tents. It was much more homey than your standard 'here is a field and everyone has to camp here'.

When we were putting up our tent it was raining. That was a shame. So as we were stepping about the thing the ground got more and more soggy. And then the inner tent got rained on as we were pitching the outer tent. And then the porch was full of mud before we'd finished with it. And, amazingly, we managed not to get the inside of it wet at all.
We put a double duvet on the floor of the tent (which was an incredible idea! If you have room in the car to take a duvet camping - TAKE ONE!) and we had pillows and blankets as well as our sleeping bags. That tent looked pretty awesome once we'd finished, in spite of the puddle of mud just in front of the entrance. I wish I'd got a picture of it. Next time I go camping, I'll make sure to take pictures of the tent for you.

We got to camp with Sadie's band in SalfordMediaCitysville. It looked like this:

And those tyre marks are from Scott's car, which spent most of the weekend parked next to our tents. I think at the time this was taken that he was off on a 'ralley' ride with it.

What I learned for my next camping trip:

• Pack your stuff so it's organised - that way you can find what you need when you need it. 

I thought of this when I realised it would have also been a good idea to unpack things you might need to find easily (such as your paracetamol - don't want to have to hunt for that when you need it).

• Take burns cream - there are always hot things (such as gas stoves and barbeques) at festivals.

This did not come from personal experience. But we did know someone who got a nasty burn on his hand - something very hot fell over and he caught it (I believe to stop it from hitting him in the face). The person in question did carry burns cream (which, come to think of it, could show that he is somewhat prone to this type of injury - but I must admit that's speculation). Anywho, I will maybe remember to take some next time.

• The extra effort to take little luxuries like duvets and blankets is well worth it.

Honestly, when you are protected by the elements by nothing more than a sheet of nylon, things like blankets are pretty much essential. Never again will I be too cold to sleep when camping. The duvet was a little stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. It wasn't so much like sleeping on the floor. I have slept on those camping mats before - no good. Get a duvet.

• Take too many beverages (by which I mean soft drinks) but leave half of them in the car.

We took way too much fruit juice. And too many fizzy drinks. I knew it was too much when I packed them - I would rather have too much than not enough. But we should not have carried it all to the tent only to carry half of it back again. It's heavy, you know?

• Check beforehand if there will be drinking water available. If you've not confirmed that there is, take some with you.

There was not drinking water available. We made tea with stuff that we found in a container labeled 'NOT drinking water'. So we didn't have many teas. Just in case. Next time, we'll make sure to have lots of safe water.
It was a really nice atmosphere at the festival. We went for a walk all over the woods (it's quite a small woods). We found a really good spot where we could see all that was going on.

Well, WE could see it all, through the trees. It's not so obvious on the photo. That's the stage, slightly left of the middle. And you can see Lake Windermere from here too.

And we went and sat on the grass on the Saturday afternoon and watched the things going on.

There were people playing with hula hoops.

And there were hula hoops everywhere so anyone could play.

And there was a drum workshop happening.

Here's Salford Media City playing:

We had a fun night of drinks and dancing. And with that, I guess I've run out of things to say about Saturday, and the weekend as a whole.

The end.