Bongo Fury

Hello folks!

We're off to the Cropredy Festival later this week - taking my nephew (9) and niece (6) so 4 of us in the Bongo... should be fun!

I know that Jillygumbo is hoping to be there, but any other Bongonauts going? I seem to remember seeing a fair few Bongos in the camping fields last year.

Anyway, if you see a green Bongo flag with a Cumbria flag below and penguin above, feel free to come and say hi!

Sue (and Nigel)

Nope - will be at Bongo Summer Camp

We're at the summer bash too. Would like to go maybe next year though. Is it kiddy friendly? This year we did Wychwood and Womad, so too expensive to do a third.

It's always seemed pretty kiddy friendly (lots of littlies around, there's a kids' area near the top of the field, and also this year Hugh F-W's River Cottage Roadshow is due to be there with stuff for children to do), but we've not taken any young uns before so will report back!

Enjoy the Summer Bash - hope we have good weather all round!

Sue

Yeah! I'll be there! With a group of buddies from the combi camper forum - although I'll be in the bongo with the quechua. Watch out for my flag, roofraisers. Hope we meet up. I'll be there Thursday morning onwards.

I will be there as usual. Civilised camping since I gave up the tent for the Bongo. This year I have a vampire bat spinner, so if you see a green tin top with a vampire bat on a pole, it is probably me.

No mad dogs or Morris dancers for once. I will be there on Thursday and will look out for any Fury stickers. Last year I was in a row with three other Bongos and they came close to VW's in numbers.

Anyone got back from Cropready yet? Not up to a wet Glastonbury, but a 6 on the scale.

Bongo got out of the field OK but that was at 7.10am. I needed the LSD all right.

The guy in front of me out of the field had a trailer and no idea how to handle mud. He kept slamming on his brakes and I thought he was going to jackknife the trailer in the gate. Last wet Cropready I was at someone did that with a caravan. I just parked the Bongo and went to the pub for the morning.

Awesome festival, though the Saturday night thunderstorm for Fairport was not the best applause. A hot shower and a couple of Jack Daniels later all is recovered. All I have to do now is dry out the tent and chuck everything else in the washing machine.
Final touch I stopped at the services on the way back and four priests in full robes stopped next to the Bongo for a fag break. Off to Winchester cathedral for something serious no doubt. Me I am just listening to the dub version of Sergent Pepper, what three days in a wet field does to your mind.

Hi there. I'm back too. This was my first Cropredy. Do you think that was why the weather did what it did?

Lovely festival. Saw a couple of bongos. Arrived at silly o'clock to meet up with friends at Tescos and we then convoyed to the Festival. We were in Field 2, the nearest to the arena area. Brilliant spot. Could sit under our canopies listening to the music without having to sit under umbrellas! But we did that too, of course.

The homemade canopy and the Quechua withstood all His Almighty threw at them but the canopy had a fine mist coming through at it's heaviest! Lowered one corner so the rain could roll off and it kept the area outside the side door and in front of the Quechua reasonably dry. I heard there was a tornado in Field 7? Anyone else hear that? Or was it kids trashing their tents?

I had the Quechua level with the back of the bongo, sort of corner to corner. That way I had the canopy to the side covering the sliding door and one quechua door, and the rear bongo door as a canopy for the other Quechua door. I then had a choice of door depending which way the wind was blowing

Did see you once Mary on Thursday night. You were walking across behind the standing area and in front of the seated area - I was in the seated area but too far away to get your attention. Didn't see you after that!

I'm now the proud owner of a leather hat, a purple and blue poncho, a brilliant cycling jacket from Go Outdoors (thinking ahead I was, you see ) and several other bits and pieces.

The atmosphere at this friendly small festival is great. The food stalls were brilliant and the way the village joins in is fantastic - cafes all over the place, raising money for the village itself: the school, the church, the cricket club, the canoe club - really cool. Saw a Bob Dylan tribute band at the Red Lion as part of the fringe event. My favourite bands were Leatherat, 3 Daft Monkeys, Bellowhead, Breabach and ahab! Cool! I'm off to find some of their music to listen to.

I was up in field 7 , no tornado that I saw and its not the sort of festival where people trash tents. Just very wet, as its an exposed site being high. Usually its a lovely site, narrow boats, the canal and very quiet. Only bad bits are getting over the canal bridges each night and the narrow track out.

My Quecha survived it all fine. I got very damp though as there was no way you could listen inside a tent from that distance. Biggest pain was the weather forecast beforehand. Supposed to be fine with a few showers Even on Saturday morning it was being forecast to dry out. I only took the medium wet weather gear, not the absolute deluge kit.

Still a fantastic festival, one of the best. The village is amazing and given fine weather like a stage set, with the canal boats. I have always wanted to see the Quo and now I have.

This is the fourth time for me, two wet and two dry so far.

Well we're now back in Cumbria after staying last night at my parents' house in Worcs - may as well decontaminate ourselves in someone else's house

Had a great time despite the weather, I think the bairns enjoyed it too (well they said they didn't want to leave!). Thank goodness for ponchos... light showers my a**e... My nephew asked on the way back to the Bongo on Sat night "who was it who organised the thunder and lightning when the music was on? Because that was really good" (during Excalibur) - I had to explain that it was most probably him upstairs and wasn't arranged!

Also really enjoyed Leatherat, Braebach and Rick Wakeman, thought Martyn Joseph was a tad boring, loved Swarb's impromptu takeover of the Fairport set, and unlike my dad thought Excalibur was ace. Also the food (and 6X) was great as usual, our niece (6) enjoyed the children's activities but her 9 year old brother thought he was a bit old for that kind of thing. They both enjoyed Quo! Went down to the Village Hall as usual for breakfast on Fri and Sat, then the school for a Breakfast in a Bap on Sunday morning before packing up (we think the village hall is better value, and has the advantage of clean, flushing toilets!!! ) I first went to Cropredy in 1993 (when I was just out of nappies ) and have been numerous times since (have lost count), it's Nigel's third time but the first time for Ernie the Bongo.

It was our first experience with 4 in the bongo, and apart from a very unfortunate experience on night one (will write more in another thread...) it seemed to go very well - we delivered two very tired and rather grubby but happy kids to their mum yesterday. The awning was essential for storing things out of the rain and drying things overnight whereas with just the two of us it's not so vital.

Oh yes, I think we saw your setup Jilly, but don't think you were in. We were on 7c which was the furthest away we've been, a bit of a pain with the kids but they have legs... and now know how to use them

Well roll on next year, and hopefully it will be a dry one!

Sue and Nigel

I forgot to say I was down the front for Quo. They were fantastic!

Roofraisers - shame I missed you. I did see a flagpole in Field 1 with a penguin on it, went rushing over to look and found it was a 6 or 7 metre flagpole with 5 or 6 things attached. The rest of the pitch was a small car and a tiny 1 or 2 man mountain type tent! I suppose they had to be able to find the tent in the dark