BS: Indoor camping

Subject: BS: Indoor camping
From: MBSLynne
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 06:33 AM

Going to Banbury festival where the only camping on offer is indoor. I've never done this but the idea doesn't really appeal to me at all. Any comments from those who have done it? How does it work? What's it like?

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 06:46 AM

Normally it means sleeping on the floor indoors, in a hall with alot of other people. Sleeping bag and roll mat/airmatress is all you need. Earplugs are also useful.

It's not great, but it's quite bearable, and it does mean you don't have a wet tent to put away at the end of the festival.

I've done it for a few years at IVFDF

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 06:54 AM

Indoor Camping?

I'm just walking away from that one...

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: AggieD
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 08:50 AM

If you have one of those very small tents, put it up & stake your floorspace with it. It helps to give you a little bit of privacy & is useful to leave your stuff in.

Earplugs definitely, so you can't hear the snores of those around you.

Oil of Lavender to help you relax while those around you are snoring & to cover up some of the smells of humanity at the end of the day.

Torch so that you can climb over bodies in the dark without stomping on them.

Large bottle of your favourite tipple, so that you can drink yourself into oblivion when you can't sleep.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: buttonbox
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 09:30 AM

the trick is to get sufficiently pissed to enable you to go to sleep quickly before the orchestral snoring and farting commences!.It is also a good idea to drink just enough to send you to sleep but not enough for you to need a nocturnal pee as once awakened the all night s & f orchestra will prevent a return to the land of nod

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: MBSLynne
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 10:20 AM

Hmmmm...still doesn't appeal to me at all. So I wonder what I should do about Banbury? I could sleep in my car, but that would be a tad crowded with all four of us......

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Crystal
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 11:54 AM

It has the advantage of being warmer and less damp than camping in a tent, especially now that the dew has started to fall heavely. Also you don't get drunken prats snapping your guy ropes in the middle of the night!

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 01:07 PM

During his high school years, my son was a member of an all-star marching band that went, via chartered bus, on a national contest tour during the summer. For two months the band's sleeping arrangements consisted of sleeping bags on high school gymnasium floors. He is still alive and seems to have suffered no permanent physical damage other than that odd-looking flat spot on the right side of his cranium.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: R. Padgett
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 02:59 PM

Rubber tent pegs needed to pitch your tent on wooden floor

Nose plug, headphones strong bladder
comfortable matresses, nice pillow, (strange man!! optional)

Could make indoor camping bearable!!

Works every year at Barnsley Folk singaround at Easter


Ray

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 03:01 PM

I've camped this way at many a festival and it's not so bad.... concrete floors are a bugger but thankfully they are rare. You have to weigh the pros with the cons. The Pros have been mentioned already, shared warmth, dry, loo within staggering distance.... There is the pro of the probability of a good party in the kitchen... but then there is the con of a load of noisy buggers partying in the kitchen when you have to get up early to drive the bastards home.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 05:28 PM

"Indoor camping"

I think they call that Squatting, don't they?

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: GUEST,Rattler
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 07:14 PM

There are 2 indoor camping sites at Banbury - Quiet & Noisy. Even in the "noisy" there are smaller, quiet rooms, well away from the late sing in the dining hall. Good breakfasts served in the morning too. Try it! Using this idea extends the festival season to virtually 12 months!

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 11:14 PM

Look to the current situation in Saint Louis, USA.

Super Doom, Astro Doom, anything indoors smells of doom.

Cancel quik if outside facilities are not available - there is no innoculation for Tuberculosis.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: s6k
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 11:37 AM

oh my god indoor camping. i cant believe how ridiculous this is. and imagine, a hall full of people, AT LEAST 3 of them will be snoring, no no no, this is all wrong.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 01:53 PM

Guest - yes there is you tit. Everyone in the UK has it at about 14 years of age (unless they're already immune).
S:0)

P.S. Get a name or Foxtrot Oscar. In fact Foxtrot Oscar anyway. Foxtrot Romeo Oscar.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 01:57 PM

Second thoughts, don't Foxtrot Oscar, just get a name and stick around. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: MBSLynne
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 02:03 PM

I'm not really bothered about the noise, it's the lack of privacy...it's taking my contact lenses out before I go to bed and having to have people SEE me with my glasses on! And this may sound silly, but it's the idea of people seeing my asleep when I don't have my guard up...I might be the one snoring, or with my mouth hanging open dribbling on my pillow, or farting, or any number of awful things I have no desire for strangers to witness

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: lady penelope
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 02:14 PM

Get one of those wee pop up beach shelters. Should give you just enough cover for being speccy in and will give you a bit of privacy without taking up half the hall. Big tip, do not park your bivvy in the way of the route to the loo, some sod always falls over you at 4am.......

TTFN Lady P.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 04:15 PM

And we know who that sod is don't we Lady P!!!!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: My guru always said
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 05:12 PM

Hey this sounds like fun, just like a huge sleepover and most of the people there are good friends too, Fab! And of course at Banbury there is the late night partying in the Refectory, port, cheese etc. etc. etc. Feeling better yet Lynne?

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Noreen
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 05:21 PM

Lynne, indoor camping doesn't come any better than indoor camping at Banbury Festival. We can't be there this year but I have always used the indoor camping facilities at Banbury and have had no problems at all. I have always stayed in the college, where we use the carpeted floors of the conference rooms and have the use of tea and coffee making facilities in the kitchen upstairs, and the use of the refectory room downstairs for late-night singing and breakfast with singing on the Sunday morning.

My advice is to get there as early as possible and stake a claim for you and yours in a secluded corner of one of the rooms, where no-one will see you let alone trip over you or notice you dribbling! Nobody sits around up there surveying people- they go there to sleep, then get up and go out when they wake up!

If you really can't face it, there are always B&Bs in the Banbury area which i'm sure Derek and Mary or the local tourist board can help you with.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Noreen
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 05:29 PM

Yes, I forgot to say that too, Hils- most of the people indoor camping at Banbury are familiar faces from other festivals (as they will be to you too, Lynne), so it's not like 'letting your guard down' in front of strangers.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: SharonA
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 07:15 PM

Hardwood floors? Concrete floors? I'm thinking an air mattress would be useful.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 07:19 PM

RING NEW ORLEANS THEY WILL TELL YOU

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: SharonA
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 07:20 PM

...as opposed to sleeping bag only. And I love the idea of the "pop-up beach shelter".

I'm assuming that this is a music festival, yes? With people lugging their instruments around? What sort of security is there at these indoor campgrounds -- can you store your guitar in a separate room similar to a coat-check room, and claim your instrument with a ticket? (I've seen that done at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance weekends.)

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 07:39 PM

Bring nothing, and search for a lassie (or laddie depending on your sex or Wilde side) with a bag to share.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: R. Padgett
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 01:54 AM

Agreed Guest, flippin fuss where's yer sense of adventure!

Ray

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: MBSLynne
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 03:15 AM

Unfortunately (sorry epn!) I will have my 'laddie' with me...not to mention my two children! Besides, I can't imagine that you can get up to THAT sort of thing in indoor camping!

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 03:39 AM

Its worth a bloody good try

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Moses
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 03:56 AM

I did indoor camping at Banbury last year and survived. Sleepig arrangements not a problem. The rooms are classrooms and usually hold 4-6 people. If you get there early you could probably bag one furthest away from the routes to the loo that would give you a bit of privacy. Bring an air matress as the floors are carpeted but hard - but lack of privacy (no showers only hand wash basins in the ladies) could be a problem for those who like to perform their ablutions in private.

Having said this there is indoor camping and indoor camping.

Nothing on earth would persuade me to do it again at Bedworth in the Scout Hut where my mattress was used as a trampoline by a load of drunken, noisy, inconsiderate arseholes on their way back and forth until 4.30am when they finally took themselves off to bed. Admittedly
this was the 'noisy' area but noise is one thing - I can do earplugs - but someone jumping on my bed is quite another.

Good luck whatever you decide.

I'm only going up for the day this time.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: MBSLynne
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 04:28 AM

Well a room that only holds 4-6 sounds bearable...I was imagining a large room packed with people. We went down for the day last year, but we want to go to things on all days and running backwards and forwards with the price of petrol being what it is, is not really a viable option. Will discuss this and see what we think.

Thanks a lot everyone for the comments

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Morticia
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 06:30 AM

Actually, the rooms are a bit bigger than that....last year there was something like 12 in ours and in all the others that I saw......it usually opens about 6pm on the Friday which means you get an awful lot of people all arriving at the same time....bagging a space not en route to the loo's can be a bit of a problem.It isn't awful but I don't really want to do it again.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Hopfolk
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 07:22 AM

It's a lot cheaper than the alternative.

I have three tips...

1. Place your sleeping bag and roll mat (essential) with your head next to a wall (You won't get kicked in the head that way). If you are there early, other people will follow suit and hopefully leave a space for loo-runs.

2. ALWAYS kick inconsiderate people who sieze corridoors as their own personal dormitories, thus blocking off entrances/exits. They will get the message, move, and the world will be a nicer place.

3. Giggle loudly when people fart & snore. It is school, after all, and there are certain conventions that need upholding.

Cheers & see you there.

John.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: MBSLynne
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 07:34 AM

Hmmmm.....can't really see why there is no outdoor camping at Banbury. It can't be colder or damper than camping beside the river in March at Miskin.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Snuffy
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 10:12 AM

Airbed, futon or campbed are essential. Banbury is definitely the "upper crust" of indoor camping: about 12 to a room in the "noisy" college, and 4-6 in the "quiet" Junior School, and lots of facilities laid on.

If you've spent too many nights in cold draughty village halls with 100+ morris men, then even the Bedworth Scout hut can appear positively welcoming.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 11:37 AM

OOOh.... a cold draughty village hall with 100+ morris men... sounds like bliss!!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: MBSLynne
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 02:17 PM

Not with some of the morris men I know........

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 06 Sep 05 - 05:20 AM

Naah . . . one morris man (provided you get to choose which one) is fine, but 100 - forget it. Even a dozen could be overdoing it.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Crystal
Date: 06 Sep 05 - 05:33 AM

100+ rapper dancers is worse! They are noisier!

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Splott Man
Date: 06 Sep 05 - 07:57 AM

And as for Appalachian and Clog dancers....

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: open mike
Date: 06 Sep 05 - 02:12 PM

s & f orchestra---ha!

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Houston_Diamond
Date: 06 Sep 05 - 07:01 PM

Only Lynne could get sooo many mudcats chattin' about camping indoors!
(Admittedly my sad or mad logic saw Lynne's name and Indoor camping soon become the vision of certain London night clubs :S)

Don't ya worry Lynne, just take Kodak or other fine tankard (with contents included) and down enough not to care (you'll probably wake up in the hall or loo though!!!). lol

Have a good time whatever. Sounds like great fun to me though (No campsite to set up or take down!!!)

Luv Houston. x

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: MBSLynne
Date: 07 Sep 05 - 04:43 AM

Well yeah, I guess you're right Houston...no pushing cars out of the mud either! However I'm now intrigued by the idea of Indoor camping at London Nightclubs....have to try THAT sometime!

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: el_punkoid_nouveau
Date: 07 Sep 05 - 02:14 PM

WITH WHOM??? (Angry/jealous husband wanders up and down waving fist!)

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: MBSLynne
Date: 07 Sep 05 - 03:20 PM

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Folkiedave
Date: 08 Sep 05 - 03:42 PM

Years ago Sheffield City Morris indoor camped at the Edinburgh Folk Festival. Other Morris guests from down South arrived at some unearthly hour. The Earls of Essex - for it was they - then did a stick dance around everyone. Which was quite funny - they did it blindfold.

Indoor camping can be homely or awful......some happy memories.......


Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Blowzabella
Date: 08 Sep 05 - 04:06 PM

Many years ago....at a re-enactment event, my friend and I , who had been kept awake by amorous advances from a group of gentlemen, got our own back by letting their tent down earl-i in the morning-o!!!

Happy memories....

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Sep 05 - 04:00 AM

Don't get overwrought Ted the sort of 'London Night Clubs' alluded to will prove no threat to your good lady, as they are camp in the Julian Clary sense, so limpness rather than stiffness is the order of the day.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Cluin
Date: 09 Sep 05 - 04:21 PM

Indoor camping...

Let's just plunk that into the OXYMORON box till garbage day.

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Sep 05 - 04:11 AM

Folkie Dave - you have a long memory! That incident happened considerably more than 20 years ago!

LTS - related by marriage to two former Earls.....

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: Chris Green
Date: 10 Sep 05 - 05:53 PM

Actually, Lynne, the organisers of Banbury let me and my mate put tents up last year. Maybe if you ask them nicely they'll let you do the same!

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: MBSLynne
Date: 11 Sep 05 - 04:38 AM

Thanks Chris!

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 05 - 05:25 AM

Does it not harm the floors when putting your pegs in

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: JennyO
Date: 11 Sep 05 - 07:48 AM

Oh yeah - must have pegs, uh - in case they blow away...

Subject: RE: BS: Indoor camping
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 05 - 09:40 AM

Always wear protection when putting your pegs in