The Levellers Play Doune the Rabbit Hole
I find it hard to get my head round the fact that this is the little festival Jamie started nine years ago with a group of his schoolfriends and the money from an endowment life insurance I took out for him the day he was born. 2018 was the year Doune the Rabbit Hole finally attained critical mass, and everything went right.
As the years go by, I have become more rather than less involved in helping run the show. I also have got older. I find that I am still capable of working like crazy for the week before and during the festival and averaging only three hours sleep a night for seven days. But what I can no longer do is recover easily from it. I have effectively been out of action for the last ten days, having come down with a sore throat and cough on the Festival’s last evening that simply will not go away, coupled with exhaustion. It is a hard thing to admit we are past our physical prime and on the slope towards extinction, but there we are.
I know some readers resent my taking time off from blogging to run music festivals, because some readers write and tell me so, but I am afraid it is an important part of what keeps me going, and while I am extremely grateful indeed to those who pay subscriptions to keep the blog active, it does not purchase any part of my life. Regular readers will recall that finally in December I got paid years of arrears for work done in Ghana. Well, I quixotically invested much of this – a six figure sum – to keep the Doune the Rabbit Hole and Eden Festivals going, both of which share the philosophy of being non-commercial with no sponsorship, no advertising and no rip-off pricing, and both of which were in danger of going under. largely due to 2017’s appalling weather.
Amazingly, the Scotsman got precisely what we are trying to do, in a four star review of DTRH 2018:
The atmosphere was, as ever, bohemian and laid-back, probably more akin to the free festivals of the 1970s than the corporately sponsored affairs which draw large audiences nowadays.
While this review from eFestivals picked up on an atmosphere which precisely matches my description before the Festival of why it is important to me and why I find renewal there (and no, I don’t know the author):
The reviews from people who just went along to enjoy have a similar vibe:
As a seasoned festival veteran (albeit I had not been at one since 2005) I have to say that I was totally blown away by this festival due to the intimacy of it all. Far removed from the commercialisation of big festivals, this was right down to earth, you could freely chat to most of the bands and it was easy to get up the front of crowd without having to maintain your position for the entire day!
The vibe was nice and friendly and as the festival goers were there to see the music rather than want the kudos of a Glastonbury Facebook check-in it was a lovely atmosphere…But, there is so much more to this event than simply the music. The boys (8 and 10) had a ball in the kids area, the free deckchairs that were scattered about sporadically were a marketing masterstroke and the bar sold a nice selection of cold local ales. (Added to this the free drinks for the children – a lovely touch)
We sang, we danced, we chilled. I even took in part of the World Cup final with the Levellers! What a memory that will remain. (again to highlight the intimacy of the event, the bands generally mingled with their fans rather than being penned in to a huge backstage commune far from the madding crowd)…
The support of local bands, up and coming bands and the sheer variation on offer meant it was a brilliant weekend loved by us all and we cannot wait to return in 2019. It was a triumph and I thank the organisers for a great show in a beautiful setting.
Doune the rabbit hole is an experience I would recommend to everyone.
What a fantastic weekend! Never have I seen so many happy people!
A super family friendly atmosphere. There’s lots for the kids to do. There’s showers if you don’t mind paying a little. Lots of space to lay about in the sun and relax.
The music was amazing, you are guaranteed to be dancing all weekend. There’s something for everyone.
The estate is beautiful too, so many trees to lay under or lounge around in deckchair.
I had such a brilliant weekend!
First time at this festival and it was absolutely brilliant. The toilets were always clean and never without toilet roll or hand sanitizer! the variety of seating available in the main arena was unlike any other festival I’ve been to. Great variety of music and alcohol available as well as food. Absolutely loved Pyroceltica and loved the night time camp fire. Fantastic atmosphere, everyone seemed friendly and it was a wonderful festival suited to all ages. I can’t wait to go back again next year!
My first time at DTRH and I was only there for the Sunday. I had a fabulous time though. Love that dogs and kids are welcome, love all the fun stuff laid out to entertain kids – and mostly for free. We took our son to Belladrum last year and everything cost extra money once you were in there so it was lovely to see it was only face painting and hugging an alpaca that cost here. I saw lots of very different bands and loved several of them. Lovely laid back vibe around the place, nice size of arena for the number of people. Hope to come back, with my son, in future
Felt like one big happy family in a field for the weekend. Great mix of music. Young & older, shoulder to shoulder sharing unforgettable festival experiences. Perfect introduction to festival life for our young daughter who had a whale of a time. Doune the Rabbithole put a lot of effort & imagination into the weekend resulting in a laid-back, thoroughly enjoyable time. An absolute treat of a wee festival
First time at DTRH which is surprising as live right next to site ! How to describe this wonderful little festival .. . Well as a late 30s gent who gave up my festival going after some fairly poor experiences at other events ( and a belief that I was getting on a bit and passed it ) my love of getting away from it all and listening to some good music is restored ! Doune is a family friendly ( and dogs so many lovely mannered four legged friends ! ) festival small in size but jam packed with character. From Friday to the Sunday night the stages offered something for every music taste or opportunity to create your own jam in one of the many tents dotted around the site where you could sit relax or get your groove on. Hammocks filled with giggling children or glorious deck chairs were a fantastic addition and offered somewhere to watch the unique and interesting characters that passed by or to fill bellies with the awesome food on offer notably the haggis man truck and gastro gorillaz ( seriously this was one of the best meals I’ve had at a festival ! ). We spent the majority of time between the campsite and main arena easily within walking distance and drama free throughout the weekend. The behavior of all in attendance was as chilled as the atmosphere. Never had an issue or witnessed anything concerning or that would have ruined your weekend ( and the toilets weren’t awful either ! ) In short will be back and highly recommend anyone who loves the festival atmosphere of old but without the drama to attend as you’ll definitely find something at DTRH that will bring back those memories of how good it used to be and can apparently be again ! Great job
There are many more, but I trust that it comes across that this event is about the people and the way they interact socially – in a “pop-up society” that is kinder than our normal one – and thus it gives a glimpse of society’s potential. This year it felt like we succeeded in doing precisely what we set out to do. I am extremely grateful to the readers of this blog who came along to work as volunteers with me in the bar or elsewhere, or just to take part in the festival – I was approached by scores of people including from Moscow, Warsaw and Berlin! Happily everyone seemed to “get” that it was about lifestyle not about political analysis.
I should love to be able to tell you that bands react to the non-commercial nature of the festival by charging us less than their full commercial rates, but sadly that would be untrue, and the artists always hide behind their agents. Supporting musical talent is of course a key aim, but I have to confess I worry sometimes that we have people working many hours – often weeks – for love of it, while some chap turns up, strums a guitar for 45 minutes and walks away with thousands of pounds. But I suppose that is the nature of talent. On the positive side, they do almost all react by chilling out and joining in with everyone else when not performing.
So, for those wondering why articles are few and far between lately, there is your answer. I continue to live a very full and varied life. I just need to pace it a little better!
.
You’re a good man Craig!
Sounded absolutely wonderful!
Yes I echo that Maureen. Your blog is important Craig but this other thing you do is equally so IMO. Festivals have never been part of my life alas, but this sounds as if it was great fun and a really positive contribution to the common weal which is what I guess most who read your thoughts and express their ideas here are about.
Sorry you’ve not been well though – perhaps it’s time to delegate a bit more and next year concentrate on just enjoying it – perhaps you could sit in a tent and read fortunes!
Right on Craig.
Music festivals are an important counterbalance to the sturm and drang of politik UK.
As a subscriber I approve wholeheartedly and hope to attend one day.
We, the people, can achieve a lot. The political class want us to think that they solve our problems. The business class want us to think only they can provide work.
“while I am extremely grateful indeed to those who pay subscriptions to keep the blog active, it does not purchase any part of my life.”
Quite right too! And I write as someone who doesn’t often share your take on matters.
The “terms and conditions” (so to speak) of the recurring contributions idea should have been clear to everyone. By suggesting those contributions you were not suggesting you become the hired hand of those who chose to contribute.
There is a basic illogicality in the minds of the critics you say have written to you: whatever the theme of any new post of yours, it does not take long for most of the regular contributers to go off-topic and sound off on their usual hobby horses; in that case, what is the difference – for those regular commenters – between a regular series of discrete posts, each of which attracts, say, 300 comments, and more infrequent posts each attracting over 1000 comments?
It took a while Charles, but you eventually posted something I can agree with!
Maybe the start of something positive in your world view but it’s probably a false dawn.
Best wishes, honest.
Ingwe
I endeavour not to disappoint….
But seriously, back to the question of recurring donations and some people apparently expecting Craig to punch a time card.
my opinion on this is as follows.
It is clear that this blog provides a relatively safe haven for many who have been barred, for various reasons, from commenting elsewhere and in particular in MSM newspapers. The liberal moderating system has the effect of spreading ownership of the blog, in that everyone can post more or less what he wants. Furthermore, the previous function of the blog owner is likely to lend, as far as our more impressionable brethren are concerned, a certain credibility to the comments sent in by the regulars; a credibility which would be entirely lacking if the blog owner were, let’s say, Chris Spivey or Thierry Meyssan. And lastly, the echo chamber aspect of the blog (as evidenced by the hatred with which contrary opinions are received) must surely provide valuable assurance and encouragement to the regular commenters.
In these conditions, it seems to me that
– readers of the blog who make recurring donations hold no mortgage on Craig’s time and the frequency with which he posts;
– regular commenters should feel morally obliged to make recurring donations. As it would be impossible in practice to devise a system of “pay as you post”, but on the basis that one should pay for one’s pleasures, regular commenters’ donations should be far above the minimum level of £2 per month – I would suggest that they be somewhere between £50 and the £100 maximum.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
While I”m on this subject, could I offer a word of advice to those who, when the question of recurring donations first came up, said – not without a certain degree of pathos – that their financial position would not allow them to commit to a recurring donation and that they would therefore prefer to be able to make occasional one-off contributions. Now there is of course absolutely nothing to prevent them from sending Craig the occasional cheque despite Craig’s stated preference for recurring donations; his postal address is well-known (and if not, can easily be found). So I would strongly urge those well-intentioned but perhaps financially-challenged readers to do so!
This will be good news to CM, as he should be expecting a minimum several hundred a month from your good self, for the very reasons you state. And indeed, anyone posting under multiple identities should make a contribution for each. 😉
Glenn
You used to post quite sensible comments. What happened – is it the Dutch air?
Seriously though, I hardly think I – or you, for that matter – am more than an occasional poster, in terms of either frequency or length of posts, when compared to the likes of Loony, Hatuey, Giyane and several others. Just look at the last couple threads with their 1000+ comments if you don’t believe me. It’s denizens like that who should be contributing generously to Craig’s blog because, by God, they are certainly occupying most of it.
Don’t you agree?
It’s nearly 100 degrees in the shade here right now, maybe that’s made my comments less sensible, but surely you haven’t lost your famous sense of humour? I thought the above was a reasonably gentle jibe.
I do agree that massive amount of off-topic posts, “breaking news” that we could certainly do without, and using this blog as a personal sounding board/ diary/ outlet for any manner of personal musings is rather abusing the privilege being extended by the host.
There should definitely be a premium rate for posters who were thrown out by the bouncers and then snuck back in wearing a rather obvious false beard.
Does your maniacal obsession with any criticism of your favorite democracy in the Middle-East qualify as ‘hobby horse’?
Definitely not. Just rebalancing a little on the basis of inconvenient facts.
Sounded great. Festivals are important, people getting together & getting on.
& yes, The festival spirit of old, when it’s just a bunch of people in a field, some play music, etc. I remember some good ones in wales with my “travellers” friends. One was just a music system in an old stone building. No big separation of audience & act..
(we’d basically just party until the police came, as they always did)
It’s like bowie said, the future is the grey area between artist & audience.
It’s funny when you think about it, the artist is meant to be the shaman, waking up the executive, Now it’s all a bit confusing who’s who. Good to hear mingling went on.
I am sorry I missed it this year but will definitely make it along next year. As a member of a band that had its 5 minutes of fame back in the day I can vouch that bands often survived in a famine and feast manner…..mostly famine in our case! The ones that ‘make it’, rather like sportspeople, have to make a decent nest egg when they can, and more often, they can’t. As Hunter S Thomson once said “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” With the demise of the ‘record industry’ musicians must rely ever more on live music. Great for the festival scene, and it hopefully will encourage the honest and talented musicians to work hard.
What does concern me is the apparent like of a ‘culture’ in music. The 80’s and 90’s spawned many off the back of punk and new wave. We had hip hop (the good stuff…not gangsta), electronica, rave and even Brit pop! Never before has society needed it’s social conscience, its emotional heart to start beating. Where are the pied pipers of social justice tilting at the windmills of avarice and fear? We need fearless warrior poets not media whores and industry lackeys without voice or insight.
As the great comedian Bill Hicks once said…..’I want might rock stars to play from the fucking heart!!!!’
The proof of the poor state of music is to be seen in our youth. I have taught in many schools and over the years have seen a decline in ‘school bands’. Pupils no longer congregate in dinner halls to mash chords and words together as they once did, instead choosing to ‘download’ and ‘like’ their artists passively. They are waiting to be ignited by some precious spark. Where are the new heroes? Where is the next Jimi Hendrix, the next Joe Strummer the next Chuck D? Have the masses been placated so completely that even these crucial voices would have remained silent had they been making their way today?
I long to wake up one night from a slumber in front of the TV and hear some orgasmic, electric howl emanate from the speakers, like a Wolf made to sing its hunting call through Rage Against the Machines Amp stack. Twisted and contorted with overdrive and delay pedals, contorting and scraping like claws down a chalkboard. Looking out in the street I would see the curtains drawn back at last to see neighbors wiping their eyes and listening to something real for the first time in decades. Something without syllables or immediate meaning but with one message. ‘Wake up, its time to hunt!’ And with that cry the enemies of nature and its harmony would know the balance had swung back. And begin gathering their things for the long retreat, back into the dark wilderness from whence they came……
…aghh, one can but hope….hehe.
Great final para Goatboy. The call to revolution has been a long time coming.
I don’t think we will see a Hendrix again in that guise. The reason they were so prominent was part of the system that killed it.. They where part of a movement, like jesus, and we celebrate the individual, Hendix didn’t.
..I feel the next thing will/should be more distributed. The sprit is fine, but myself I don’t want to “make it” It only hampers the creative process & your relationship with it.
It should in fact be better, I know there are exceptions but in the main the first album syndrome illustrates alternative possibilities.
Wouldn’t it be be nice to go to a festival where people bring stuff that’s totally unknown? Where it’s not about a lineup but what “ordinary” creative people can bring? That’s what I enjoy more than seeing “Top acts” …like tourists. Spontaneity, participation. etc, That’s where magic happens, That’s what brought about “Hendrix’s music”.
I share your concern Goatboy, there seemed so much music innovation up to and including the 90’s. I suspect much of my disillusionment is down to age? Recently it all seems to (me) be about gangsta rap and big female superstars. Is there still a youth counterculture in music?
That’s an observation the cultural critic Mark Fisher often made. He attributed the innovation in popular music between the sixties and nineties to the working-class self-confidence and creativity of the social-democratic golden age, and saw its demise as another symptom of neoliberal culture:
“Imagine any record released in the past couple of years being beamed back in time to, say, 1995 and played on the radio. It’s hard to think that it will produce any jolt in the listeners. On the contrary, what would be likely to shock our 1995 audience would be the very recognisability of the sounds: would music really have changed so little in the next seventeen years? Contrast this with the rapid turnover of styles between the 1960s and the 90s: play a jungle record from 1993 to someone in 1989 and it would have sounded like something so new that it challenged them to rethink what music was, or could be. The 21st Century, by contrast, is oppressed by a crushing sense of finitude and exhaustion.”
Thank you Anthony, an interesting theory. I have never heard of Mark Fisher before, and now I learn he died last year. Sad news.
Yes, a sad loss. He had a very acute eye for the big patterns of modern life.
People have got to chuck away their smartphones first, @Goatboy.
I don’t have a smartphone. Device of the devil.
Good on you! 🙂
The way technology has gone…
You can get 128 GB on a tiny card about 1cm square, enough to store all the words in my entire hardcopy book library, but it’s practically impossible to find an audio player that weighs about the same as a nice old radio, that you can store lots of audio files on, that you can carry about the house, that runs on say 4 D size batteries for at least say 20 hours so you don’t have to keep recharging them all the time, and that EITHER powers an MP3 player, if that’s where the audiofiles have to be stored, OR has decent navigation if they have to be on an SD card or flash drive. The nearest is a huge worksite radio. Everybody I ask says “that’s all done with smartphones nowadays”. How about if I want to do it without getting microwave irradiated and tracked?
Ask on most techie forums and some smartarse is bound to “explain” that it’s “efficient” to “separate functions”. What’s actually happening is that more and more activities assume the use of one particular device that won’t do anything unless it tracks the user.
The usefulness of communications technology has pretty much run its course now, mobiles are such a menace to society. Always being online appears to be make people desperate to respond to everything without thought or delay. “First reaction” is the order of the day. Hence the FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out, if not constantly checking and responding.
The lazy assumption that everybody has a mobile, and is equally keen to use whatever blasted app is foisted at them, is getting to the point where one receives a blank stare if you say, sorry, I am not going to ‘Like you on Facebook’ or book through your app, or scan this Q-code for directions.
More to the point, why should Google and so on be privy to every last part of my existence, such that it is? Know everything I’m interested in, everything I do, everywhere I go, everyone I have the least contact with… even the Stasi didn’t keep such records.
Glenn
Agree with much of what you say!
But, you know, the Stasi kept pretty detailed records of persons of interest to them – and even persons of little or no interest.
The interesting thing is that it was very labour-intensive for want of today’s cyber-technology. Of course, it was also a way of ensuring (entirely fictitious) “full employment” – much the same as Labour created great swathes of “jobs” in certain parts of England and Scotland, which also had the advantage of creating a loyal voter base.
well done craig, but you have to delegate more and bring on the youth to carry it forward, this is vital, festivals can lose their edge when ‘managerial’ roles become sinecures, and out of laziness, lose their capacity to innovate and stay current one one hand, but also respond to the maturing preferences towards more intellectual stimulus and because some of us cant dance around for 48 hours solid,
Sounds great. But dogs on a festival site? Uggghhhh
??? Ave it!!!!!!
Craig, very glad to hear it went so well !
“I just had toooo, let it go”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVXR2LYeFBI
Don’t we all need that. Have a good day Craig & co.
Llongfarchiadiau, congratulations, the festival sounds like time well spent and enjoyed.
Everyone needs time away from politics. The fact that you have taken it only serves to prove how genuine you are Craig.
Mr M, you really are bringing the good name of the FCO into disrepute by promoting peace and goodwill all over the world.
How can British diplomacy bringing entire regions to their knees if avaricious two-faced lying is not at the heart of all we say and do?
I have had words with Andrew Parker of MI5 and he has assured me that a few of his alcoholic reprobates will inflitrate DTRH in 2019, despite the difficulty of most of them being raving homophobic bovver boys. And that is the ones considered too ethical for Salisbury…at least this lot come with proper Scottish accents and a penchant for heavy and dram chasers.
If you are not careful, I might require you to answer questions for the Foreign Affairs Select Committee investigation into Scottish terrorist breeding grounds. Scotland is now foreign affairs in Whitehall eyes and almost every Scottish political activist is a terrorist because London has already bought all the sound ones who sell their soul to the highest bidder. And anyway, anyone much to the left of Donald Trump is a terrorist in the eyes of sound judges these days…..
Now if you agreed to become an FCO consultant slipping a few kilos of smack into Glasgow through your outsourced diplomatic bag, I might be able to pay you 10% commission in tax-free readies. Then you could fund your writing therapy without imitating the homeless with begging bowls and all that.
We do after all consider that reconstituting Woodstock is an excellent spook cover: endless opportunities for surreptitious money making in beer tents after all.
Please post an article next week tearing into Netanyahu if you are up for all this. For clarity, posting one supporting Juncker is new diplomatic cover for saying GFY.
Hopefully you will send out white smoke signals for the fixers.
Your dear loving Dickie
Rhys
Your post was irrefutably ironical, savagely satirical and powerfully persuasive. Please keep them coming!
With respect and admiration,
Charles
Well done craig!
I couldn’t make it this year but I am certainly bringing the family next year.
Well done Craig, it looks like the gig is going from strength to strength. Pace yourself and delegate a wee bit more in future, but overall enjoy yourself, you’ve done well laddie. ?
Good to hear again that it went well! Some things are more important then posting on the Internet, well almost everything is.
I notice that early bird tickets are already on sale for the 2019 event, £75 sounds very reasonable for the whole weekend + £15 for a parking space.
https://dounetherabbithole.co.uk/2019-tickets/
The CEO of the Badger Trust has just been speaking to Sky News. A new licence was issued at the beginning of the month where cages are set and badgers are trapped. In this heat they either die of heat exhaustion and stress or are shot when the operatives arrive later on in the day. sometimes later.
This is a cruel outrage against one of our very beautiful native wild animals, a protected species. The CEO said that £50 million has been spent so far (76,000 per animal) and there is no evidence that the cull is reducing bovine TB. His organisation vaccinate the animals for a fraction of the cost of the cull (£90 per animal) and they are released back into their own environment. He said that Gove is not responding in any way to their pleas to stop this cull happening in the SW of the country.
A Sky report last December. https://news.sky.com/story/almost-20000-badgers-killed-in-2017-cull-to-wipe-out-tb-in-cattle-11180719
and the Independent
Badger cull operation cost taxpayers £76,000 per animal
Blood tests were inconclusive, prompting claims the money was wasted
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/badger-cull-wales-tuberculosis-bovine-tb-farms-blood-tests-a8450301.html
Government accused of allowing caged badgers to die of thirst in heatwave, as cull continues
Activists want Michael Gove to cancel cull over fears animals suffering slow deaths in cages without water
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/badger-culling-cage-die-heatwave-michael-gove-uk-government-a8460586.html
Slightly on topic. Brian May of Queen –
https://teambadger.org/41-recent-posts/310-statement-from-dr-brian-may
https://teambadger.org/about
Meant to say well done Craig and all at Cardross. Lang may yer lums reek.
Isun’t the issue factory farm conditions?
It’s nothing to do with our behaviour what so ever. We don’t need to change. Just shoot things. Kill. War.
They see things purely as they want for their own ends. Same with the ruling that animals don’t have feelings. Can’t feel pain, etc. Because the grave train. And they dam we’ll know it. Depraved backward shits.
They have no sense OR feelings.
Central government was a RALLY bad idea. Or just government. They are just as our ancient oppressors have always been, a long line of warped aristocracy.
And people vote ….FOR them.
Absolutely disgusting…..The Tories and their useful idiot supporters should be ashamed, but they won’t be because they’re too stupid and nasty. (Apologies for the unparliamentary language but this cruelty is very upsetting)
Life without periodic re-creation is just a salt mine. Well done!
What the Latest Mueller Indictment Reveals About WikiLeaks’ Ties to Russia—and What It Doesn’t
By Raffi KhatchadourianJuly 24, 2018
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-the-latest-mueller-indictment-reveals-about-wikileaks-ties-to-russia-and-what-it-doesnt
No mention of Craig here.
Yes – I had a long dinner with Raffi about a year ago and told him a great deal of stuff, which he appears to have completely ignored.
A more detailed report on that should be interesting.
Your dedicated army of commenters keep things going rather well from one blogpost to another so don’t worry about it.
If you are intent upon plunging into the madding crowd I suggest you try to boost your immune system. People, delightful as they are, tend to exude germs. Take Vitamins C and E, with more sleep where possible.
And D in the winter.
Wear a mask and oxygen tank next time you go to Henley or Glyndebourne, @quasi_verbatim.
Rich coming from a poshboy like yourself!
And just for you (eat your heart out! )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvMDjT45XVE
Congratulations!
And you shouldn’t worry about “those wondering why articles are few and far between”. It’s obviously much more important to promote the sort of “pop-up societies” that you describe – or rather, demonstrate.
Well done.
Good post, glad to hear Doune the Rabbit Hole was a success.
On a lighter note, and totally off topic, I read today that the Investigatory Powers Tribunal reruled that GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 engaged in indiscriminate and illegal bulk cable-tapping surveillance for 15 years – and has once again refused to do anything about it:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/23/investigatory_powers_tribunal_gchq_15_years_illegal_surveillance_no_penalty/
The news was greeted By the BBC that it was nothing we should be worried about, so that’s fine:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44936592.
To add some continental flavour, I salute you.
What a way to make a lasting name for one self — the festival and your blog.
It’s all an endeavor to greater harmony.
It is an honour to be able to comment on this blog, and I hope you’ll be able to continue running it, and the festival, with pleasure and satisfaction for a long long time.
Always suspected that you’re loaded.
Yet something else you are wrong about.
6 figure sum on a pop concert. Man the food banks, Murrayistas! We have a man who can’t afford to defend himself against the Zionists!!!
What a mean and petty remark.
Seriously, get a life Anon1
You must care very little for yourself…Really.
Anon1 AND Bostockk – Don’t move your markers, wait for the check!
How’s the dog these days?
Yes, that did seem to go very well, and it’s ngreat to see such good reviews.
The BBC’s profligacy with the licence fee payers’ funds continues, let alone the obscenely large sums of money being paid to their employees and ‘stars’.
First the cost of the ill advised intrusion into Cliff Richard’s flat filmed from a helicopter with the approval of the police. Then their legal costs defending Cliff Richard’s case. Then the amount awarded to him. Now payment of his costs – £850k. Yet they are seeking leave to make an appeal! WTF? Into £millions soon.
BBC agrees to pay £850,000 in legal costs for Sir Cliff Richard
The BBC agreed to pay Sir Cliff Richard £850,000 in legal costs as it seeks permission to appeal against a privacy ruling over its coverage of a police raid on the singer’s home.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44963548
Who is in the driving seat at Portland Place? Lord Hall or Fran Unsworth?
That’s good. A judge has knocked the BBC’s leave to appeal on the head.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6867294/sir-cliff-richard-paid-850k-by-bbc-after-landmark-legal-win-following-televised-sex-assault-raid/
Some of our regulars just can’t stand that we are having fun Craig. I enjoyed being showered in best Fallen platform c beer whilst spilling the barrels, hope the crew managed to get the dregs of it. Second everyone of those comments, to add, the few food stalls must have made a mint, especially the two pizza ovens, they were great.
I also felt the festival linger on for some days, despite not being that much involved in serving this year. Great to hear my lugging was appreciated.
Should we have a special tent for Charles and Anon next year? Or don’t they make them in see through rubber, a take on Victorian freak shows, they get all the attention they ever wanted and we will feed them….
Much thanks to Clark and Allan for sorting out the WiFi on site. Add to that, we had full on 4G on site….in the middle of nowhere/the universe. Thanks to all that helped making this year special, my son liked it tremendously and he’ smitten by the Scots, their accent and, of course, the gals……
great write up. the feeling you describe and the opportunity to show how community can work in a better world, is why i feel so strongly about glastonbury festival. of course its massive and a little bit corporate (tho not very, really) and you have to deal with hordes of posh kids who couldn’t behave communally if their iphones depended on it, but at the end of the day it gets everyone together in this open, welcoming space and forces people to raise their game, think on their feet, accommodate others and be open to new ideas and experiences. a good festival can be a transformative experience. so happy to see DTRH doing well and i hope to visit one day.
The Levellers are a fine band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASXg-9O0s9w
Musicians may have a high hourly rate, but they don’t always get many hours.
Agree, …And Agree.
And they carry a lot of history,
I think stepping back and saying hey, this is the system the way it is right now is fine. We all have to find a way to navigate it while resisting & giving alternative visions & striving for alternative ways of life. & that community attitude does translate to many actions.
I recall it wasn’t till around then the environmental wasn’t really regarded as an issue. But it was part of a very back to nature movement.
Land reform. We should be able to lives the lives we want, how we want.
I wonder what Labour thinks about that?
I don’t want a job, or a fucking house.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0S8RNkL5Wg
They certainly are…see them every year in glasgow. Its one big drunken party.