Festivals

For anyone who might be interested in music festivals and wonders if they will be able to manage, xx

Hi Mel

Welcome to Able Here

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Karl

Hi Karl, Oh dear I sent it as attachment yesterday - must have done something wrong - bear with me I'm not entirely sure what Im doing xx

why dont you copy and paste it into here?

bu mystic mel user

Having accompanied my son and daughter to Leeds Festival for several years I was made redundant from the role 4 years ago when they became old enough to attend without me. Grudgingly accepting that my festival days where now over I had given up even thinking that I would get the opportunity to enjoy the festival atmosphere again. That was until whilst chatting with my friend and fellow MS sufferer Lorraine one day she told me how she would love to go to Glastonbury. The seed was sown and it seemed like a good idea to go together. That was until we realised niether of us could drive so how would we get there? Then we heard about Tribfest the 3 day festival featuring the best Tribute bands from home and away and located at Sledmere House near Driffield.

So on Thursday 15th August we set off for a weekend of fun. Pre-booked onto the disabled camping area we passed straight through the queues and where escorted to a pitch a stones throw from the entrance to the main arena. After putting up our tent my husband and son drove off leaving us to our own devices for the next 4 days.
After a brief amble round the site we found ourselves being escorted back to our tent by the head of security - no we hadn't misbehaved - he was just one of the many staff and volunteers who were on hand to ensure everyone had a safe and enjoyable weekend.
I must say it was not a comfortable night, it was cold and hard and there was an overwhelming fear of losing the tent due to the number of late night revelers tripping over the guide wires!! – sorted the following day by securing a St George Cross flag to them and ensuring they would now be seen and avoided.
By far the most difficult aspect so far was getting out of our sleeping bags, not helped by the fact that whilst attempting this if we looked at one another in the process we simply ended up in a hysterical heap again! So, after several attempts we were ready to face the next challenge of exiting the tent - only after first checking no one was watching (especially the nice security men!) this proved to be even harder than getting out of the sleeping bags.
Friday am and after a bacon butty cooked on our camping stove (which caught fire in the process due to the gas not being fitted properly and causing us both to move quicker than we ever thought possible). After assistance from neighbors and enviously noticing their range style BBQ and making a note to be more prepared next year, it was time to make our way to the main area once again to start watching the bands.
Day One Mainstage - The Doors, Pet Shop Boys, The Who, Oasces, Kings of Leon, Pink Floyd. This was a day for "people watching" and "finding our feet" so to speak! and taking notice of how many of the crowd where activly taking part by getting dressed up in "wigs, glasses and taches" - When we eventually made our way back to our tent at after a fantastic day it was almost midnight and we decided that tomorrow we would fully embrace the party atmosphere by looking as daft as everyone else.
After another uncomfortable night’s sleep and not feeling quite as adventurous as we had hoped a few hours earlier we had a brew before seeking out the shower cubicles - £3 charge and a queue of about a dozen bleary eyed revelers! so we decided on the baby wipe option and ambled back to base. After our makeshift wash and brush-up whilst making breakfast this time out-side the tent and with correctly installed gas! a mobility scooter was driven past by a very tall man with long hair and beard who about 5 minutes later returned on foot.!
On seeing him walking past we immediately asked where he had been to make such an impressive recovery, after a rather stern ticking off for being judgemental we explained that we had mobility problems ourselves and where not ‘micky’ taking. Then he noticed our sticks and walker and told us the scooter was his wife’s and he had taken it to the battery chargers located just near the entrance to the main arena for a top up. This was something we had not been aware of and meant the event would be much more accessible to other people we know. He then handed us some leaflets informing us that he was Professor Fiddlesticks the children’s entertainer and balloon sculptor extrordinare and invited us to his performances.
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After our rather eventful morning we made our way to the arena. As the event has zero glass anywhere on site policy and allows no food or drink to be taken into the main arena everyone is searched at the gate. But we soon discovered that being slow and having walking aids (and having made friends with security) meant we were generally waved through!! which was nice. Once settled we were ready to watch tributes to Joy Division, then The Smiths performed by a fantastic 'Morrissey', followed by The Arctic Monkeys and The Blues Brothers, after a nice sunny start the rain started whilst watching Adele. So we decided to leave our chairs and wobble back to our tent for our showerproofs. By the time we returned to our now sodden seats we were feeling anxious as the rain was now much more than a shower with the occasional crack of thunder and flash of lightening. By the time Muse finished their set it was obvious that the rain was not letting up so already well soaked we settled down to watch the headliners Badness. By the time the first song was over the crowd was all on their feet and stayed that way for the next 90 minutes singing and dancing to all the favorites from the 80's. The atmosphere was brilliant and nobody seemed to notice the rain.

Thankfully the showerproofs had kept us dry enough to have a reasonable night’s sleep - it had been an exhausting day so somehow the ground didn't seem so hard (till the morning anyway)
Day four and with the sun shining but feeling rather grubby and smelly it was definately time to spend £3 and sample the showers. The little white boxes where excellent with a little seat/shelf, washbasin with shelf and mirror and reasonably powerful shower with plenty of hot water, it seemed like luxury after 3 days of babywipes, - unfortunately the towel had been left in the tent so it was a case of drip dry!! good job it was a hot day and another note to self not to forget towel another time!

With the weather on our side, feeling clean and full of bacon and eggs today we were gonna really have fun. The previous days rain had meant our matching blue showerproof capes had been as adventurous as we had been with our clothes. Today though we intended to let rip, so after a plastic cup of wine for courage dressed in retro and wigs off we trundled leaving our campsite nieghbours putting the finishing touches to their banana costumes!!
After finding a spot to leave our chairs off we went to each get a cool airbrush tattoo. Today the weather was glorious and we sang along to Blondie, Genesis and even did the Time Warp with Meatloaf. Feeling slightly uncomfortable in our costumes we decided to take a break and go back to the tent for a nap and to get changed into normal attire before returning to watch Thin Lizzy and Green Day.

The dress code for the grand finale was “oneseys” and as we were unlikely to be seeing anyone again after this evening we decided to get changed yet again. So after another trip back to the tent we re-emergerd once again this time as a leopard complete with painted on whiskers and a pale faced spiderman – until upon finding a childrens face painting artist when the pale face was transformed into a mask of spiderman himself!!

There were some amazing sites to behold as we watched the penultimate set from Green Day. Individuals where dressed in every style and shade of onesey imaginable, from young children looking cute to men in babygrows and groups in matching gear. There where plenty of other sights to see as well, including couples as the 118118 duo, Cheryl Cole dancing with Pierot, Shrek searching for his Fiona, Alice Cooper complete with severed head on a pole and snake on his shoulder and a whole tribe of cave-men and scary looking cave women. The atmosphere was electric by the time Freddie Mercury and Queen closed the evening and weekend with a massive firework display lighting up the magnificent Sledmere House and gardens.
Whilst all the tribute acts had been on the mainstage there had been other acts taking place in various small stages and marquees around the site including a comedy event and a stage dedicated to new young performers including the very talented but noisy punk trio ‘System Paralysis’ who we watched along with all the youngsters as the guitarist is my sons mate and we went to show our support and be his ‘groupies’ – haha –lucky he has a sense of humour!! There was a number of acts we did miss in the V.I.P area where for an extra charge on the weekend ticket price the entertainment continued each evening into the early morning but maybe next year we will purchase these tickets. Though I understand there could do to be some disabled/wheelchair accessible toilets in this area.
Hopefully for next year we can get a small or large group together and go to Tribfest 2014.

I've always wanted to go to a festival but got put off by the fact my wheelchair and mud do not go together! But reading what you have wrote has given me new hope! Just got to convince my other half, that's the hardest part!!