The Diary: July 2000

An important month on the bar calander- our festival. Much of the month (and before) was spent preparing for this enormous event- but we did not stop drinking beforehand...

A Bar Night
- Music playlist available
A night not long before the festival- with advert posters up all over!

A busy bar scene.. Linda hands in the air, Mat serving a drink (well logging tabs on our till sheet) and some other hand in the air!

Sarah & Rachel are happy people in the bar! 

Linda & Paul in front of the sound to light & Terminator lighting effects

More lights- the Wild Blaze, with stares from Ian, Julie and, to the rear, Jones.

Mat is near the bar- you can see one of our festival advert posters! 

The Wild Blaze light along with our 'door bulb' which lights up when the door bell is pressed!

Laura & Rachael near the door at the bar night 

A truly scary picture! Linda & tongue!
 
 

Then, right at the end of the month- the biggest event we'd ever organised...

The Bottesford Festival 2000
- Music playlist available
Well over 3 months of planning and work came to fruition on 31st July 2000 and right through the night. A massive operation involving obtaining a field from a farmer, selling tickets, organising food, drinks, tents, playlists....

So now on the morning... it rained! We feared the worst....

The most important bit- the Bottesford sign! It goes to all parties we run- seen here held by Laura. Mat's dad's van is currently being loaded up with festival gear...

Laura again- looking chilly in the rain! John is inthe garage assisting the mass transit of stuff...

We arrived at midday and were shown to our field. It was down a long, very rough track. The field itself was on a hill (so the rain had drained away!) and had a water supply- perfect! Well almost... it was covered in thorns and cow patts! Oh dear.. so some clearing work was the first job!

Luckily the rain did stop and the sun came out! Setting up went on over the next few hours- I'm sure we carried over a ton each!

The completed setup from the front- speakers, lights, computers, Bottesford sign!

And from the back- we began wrapping cling film round the area to keep any rain out- what a mess! 

Now another big operation- getting nearly 20 people here by car! A well coordinated effort between John, Mat's mum and my parents. We avoided bringing people up the track as the cars were grounding! So they all walked the 1/4 mile track... And it was certainly a sight... We could see them all coming up the hill in a big group- a 'magic moment' for sure! 3pm we kicked into life with music, drink and the barbeque!

Frying up some meat! Nick (topless), Laura, John (at bbq) and Carl.

The impressive view from our field of Radcliffe-on-Sour power station! It did look wicked by night...

John & Linda dwarfed by the power station...

Looking the other way up the hill... With Carl & some tents!

DJ Nole- live trance music mixing! Some top new tunes were rolled out...

Nick & Martin do some drunken dancing! Martin hold his 'coke' bottle...

None stop till very late night we danced, drank and had water fights! A throughly super night!
And after a sort of nights sleep we crawled out into daylight once more...

Breakfast! The newly lit barbeque provided Jones with a sausage sandwich!

Process in reversal- we begin to dismantle the set up...