BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?

Subject: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 10:44 AM

Well we now have caravan and hope to take in some small UK festivals this summer.

We don't have loads of money and our travelling window is during school holiday.

Any suggestions welcome.

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 11:06 AM

Ooh, I feel so chuffed for you two. Have van will travel!
I think you'll find a few weekend fests dotted about East Anglia for easy access starters, and for some of the longer far-flung events don't forget the stewarding option to reduce costs (I think most of FolkMob could advise here).

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 11:08 AM

Fylde would be my number 1 recommendation apart from it may or may not be in school hols - Depends when your school goes back. Enjoy then all anyway.

DeG

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: Rasener
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 11:14 AM

The Gate To Southwell Folk Festival

http://www.southwellfolkfestival.org.uk/tickets.htm

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: theleveller
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 11:14 AM

The Festival on the Moor Festivals are brilliant. We'll probably be going to them all.

http://www.festivalonthemoor.co.uk/


Also the Moonbeams Wold Top Festival is totally brilliant - there's a thread on here somewhere.

Hope to see you there.

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: Rasener
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 11:17 AM

Why is this BS?

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: theleveller
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 11:21 AM

Link to Moonbeams

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=92478150308

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 01:08 PM

oooo - jealous. astro's on an academic schedule, but I'm not. Someday we hope to be able to do the vanning-about-festivals thing. Need a van, too.

What kind of caravan?

~ Becky in Long Beach

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 01:16 PM

Don't know why I put this in BS.


Would like to go to Pigs Ear, if it is happening. Last year was on the late May bank holiday in Kent which is nice and near to home. Their web site The Pig Sty has not been updated since December.


The Gate of Southwell and Moonbeams, I think are same June weekend as Knockholt.   

Problem is we are in Essex. TSO is a lecturere. Not keen to pay for 3 day festivals at which we can only do last half of Saturday and first half of Sunday.

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 01:19 PM

an old 2 berth with toilet/shower compartment. We've yet to use it and needs some work doing to it this spring.

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 02:17 PM

The foreshortened hours you give for free time at weekends, seem unduly pessimistic. Why so?

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 02:25 PM

Piggy is 4 to 6 June. If the field is wet it is not an ideal introduction to caravanning!

I don't know what is on the late May bank Holiday

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 02:40 PM

Giok

It takes us 3 hours to get from Chelmsford to Stratford upon Avon, when we are not towing a caravan.

We would have to get to storage site, get the van hooked up then hit the road. Likewise coming back we need to get her stowed before dark because there is no lighting at the facility.

This makes the long distance festivals un-doable until TSO retires in 5 and a bit years. Then we can take off on Friday and we can take our ease coming back as he doesn't have to be in class the next day.

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 02:44 PM

Richard

Is there a new website or are the Rule family myspacing now?

Is it camping in a field like Knockers? Wouldn't the Focus pull her out of mud?

I thought Knockholt was early June? am I wrong on that one too?

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 02:54 PM

Aha, storage, that's your problem. You either need to find somewhere nearer, or park it in the road like others do ;)
I sort of assumed it was outside your home.

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 03:03 PM

we are in a flat and parking is scarce.

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 03:12 PM

Check

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 03:12 PM

Knockers Summer Solstice June 16-20.

The top few feet of the Piggy field are only a few degrees off horizontal. After that it is downhill apace away from the gate. Worse, the grass is often allowed to grow and cut or flattened only immediately before folkie arrival. Yet worse, there is nearly a natural spring near the top of the field - enough to add water to the ground. Getting out unless there is a heatwave is the Brian Rodgers Annual Bog-Towing Trophy, named after the occasion he drove in and promptly stuck, and only got out by uncoupling and then using the motor movers on the caravan to extract the van.

The normal extraction procedure at Piggy is to hook up, go to the bar, look helpless and ask for a man with a 4*4 to give you a tow!

Don't forget to take the battery pack home for a week before first expedition to make sure the battery is fully charged.

Subject: RE: BS: Have cararvan will travel UK festivals?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 03:50 PM

battery is in our kitchen, still waiting for a trickle charger. Will shop for it this weekend.

you are scaring me re the Pigs Ear festival field. Stop it.

Summer Solstice Knockers - how could I forget that?

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 06:51 PM

Fule!

Unplug TP12 pack (the bulgin plug and the standard 13A plug) and take it to the kitchen too. It's a very sophisticated charger (for its age).

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 04:08 AM

arrghh!   just had to call TSO back from his trip to Halfords. He was enroute to pick up reserved charger.

Now walk me through this. Are you saying that that we should have brought the whole box the battery was sitting in?

What's a TP12 pack? Google is bringing up everything from toy police cars to contraceptive patches.

what a palaver!

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 04:19 AM

don' you call me no fule.. ah nevah played caravan befo.

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: My guru always said
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 05:34 AM

Hey VT, if you'll PM me your email addy I'll send you a spreadsheet with some festival info on it. You'll have such fun!!

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: Acorn4
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 10:31 AM

We keep our van in storage but bring it home the night before to mains charge the battery.

Have a look at:-

Moira Furnace Folk Festival

Small, friendly, cheap with plenty of van space.

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: theleveller
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 10:35 AM

Re batteries - I'd look up maintenance instructions for leisure batteries on google. You need a proper charger for leisure batteries, a car one won't do the job. I've managed to completely ruin 3 in the last couple of years.

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 11:39 AM

Acorn4 That looks very doable and I see that My_guru_always_says is in the line up.

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: naughtyforty
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 04:08 PM

There is a festival near Hastings on the late May Bank Holiday - the Black Horse Music Fesitval. It isn't all folk though but it is being moved to a new venue with camping this year. www.blackhorsemusicfestival.org.uk
if you are interested.

PS see you tomorrow

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 06:13 PM

Tam - you really should go to the White Horse folk festival at Grove (Wantage), which will be 13-15 August. Dartmoor (South Zeal)is good too - that'll be the weekend before, 6-8 August. Very friendly, great atmosphere.

Kitty

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 08:35 PM

Yes, the whole plastic box the battery is in. The instructions are with the caravan paperwork.

If all else fails - RTFM.

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 08:37 PM

In case of emergency, bring it Sunday and I will put it on charge until you go home again.

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 02:58 PM

Don't forget that in the Summer it will still be light until nine or later so getting back on a Sunday shouldn't be a problem. Once you get used to hitching up it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes or so. We regularly take our van to festivals the average travel time being about 2 hours. I particularly like Warwick not least of all because it usually falls at the end of the Summer term so we can stay until Monday. Takes us about 3 hours but if we set off around 6 we miss the worst trafic and get on site for 9ish in time to get set up and still see some music.

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 03:32 AM

Yes I had forgotten about the light and long days in British Summer. Silly me.

Naughtyforty advised Warwick to me, last night at folk session. If we are not on proper holiday in Scotland or elsewhere, then that might be do-able. TSO is a lecturer, and college lets out a week before schools so we like to get away before the roads get choked. But maybe on the way back we could stop a Warwick. Added advantage, TSO's parents live in Stratford u Avon.

This is going to be so much fun!

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: theleveller
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 03:59 AM

Just beware of mud - some festival sites can get very 'clarty'. At the Hardraw Gathering last year we got stuck and had to be towed out and also slid in a narrow entrance and tore a hole in the side of the caravan on a stone wall - didn't make much difference to our caravan as it's so old we just repaired it with some metal sheet and Plastic Padding. It's a good idea to get carvan insurance, though.

As a result we bought a 4x4 to tow it.

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 04:01 AM

done a search and will list other threads re UK festivals here for my (and any others) reference:

Free Festivals UK

UK Festivals 31/7-2/8 & 7/8-9/8 ???

Friendly Intimate Folk Festivals? UK

Where's a list of 09 folk festivals?

All the little goodie festivals we know about

Caravan friendly Folk Festivals

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 04:17 AM

thanks theLeveller

Yeah mud could be an issue. Even though it is a very light van, our car is only a Ford Focus 1.6. Ours is also pretty old.

We will just have to cross that adventure when we come to it.

Subject: RE: BS: Have caravan will travel UK festivals?
From: broadstairs-jen
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 10:35 AM

VT - i too am a camping virgin having recently purchased a campervan on eBay - will try to catch u at the GI so we can learn together! i'll give you a pull out of the mud when my van aint stuck!

jen