Post Picnic Blog Post

I've a backlog of posts to get through, a few lovely projects I've been working on over the past month. So I'm going to do a quickie post on the Picnic.

 As ever, the sun was shining, the Greencrafts area fabulous. 34 different craft stalls ranging from woodcarving, stone carving, slate and willow work, to a range of textiles, felt knitting, crochet to macrame.

This year I brought the child, so it was rather a quieter, (more sober), early night affair, but nonetheless we had a fab time. For the first year, due to my amazing crew, I was able to take time off during the day to check out Soul Kids, Science Gallery in Minefield, the Fairground, the Circus, (Fossetts circus are now the longest running circus in the world!!) and other fun places for kids. The child came back with a huge bag of handmade goodies, from  DIY lava lamps, willow fish, coper leaves, and a new Mexican outfit.

I've posted a load of pics onto Flickr but here are a few of my favourites

This is what the majority of my photos look like. A certain little elf kept leaping out, every time I tried to take a picture.

The sculpture in the Greencrafts excelled this year, and in my opinion was far better than any in the Body and Soul or Main Arena areas. I found the 'artwork' in the rest of the Electric Picnic a bit boring. The same pieces used over the past few years re-hashed.

The fireworks just before FatBoySlim were amazing, but the cynic in me could help feel the 15,000 grand or so worth of fireworks (yes they cost that much!), could have been put towards other areas. The festival was good, but certain of my favourites were missing. Over the past 2 years This is Pop Baby and the Village Hall disappeared. My all time favourite The Gramophone Disco left a huge gaping hole this year. We got all dressed up, vintage style, and had nowhere to go. Hearing someone had died from dodgy pills, left a real sour taste in the mouth, but that could have happened anywhere, and the response by EP production was great. There was lots of warnings on social media and announcements before bands warning people not to take any pills. But the level of drunkenness and the rubbish piling up was worse than any previous year. Hence lots of early nights, as I didn't want the child to see that side of the festival.

Maybe I was just looking at the festival from a different angle because I had the child there, maybe I'm just getting old... Talking to other crafters there, they said it's nice to take a break for a year, so maybe next year will be my break. Though I say that every year. I love getting to meet with friends I never see except for the festivals. Each year, I have new neighbours and get to know them a bit better. Maybe next year I'll be a bit more organised (I say that every year!!) and the recovery time is less. What makes the festival worth working at is the people. The highlights for me was teaching a boy to make braids, that never does any crafts. A lady who wanted for years to learn how to crochet, but never got it together. To be in the company of fellow craftspeople. No talk about money, economy, recession, just about tools, techniques, materials, whats for dinner, and the best music that evening. The music is secondary now. Which makes me believe there is a gap there for a new kind of festival...There has been plotting going on among my fellow craftspeople, maybe next year....

Because we are not allowed electricity in the Greencrafts area, I love seeing how everyone comes up with new pedal powered tools! This is def my fav of the year. a fret saw made from a Singer Sewing machine pedal.

The Belfast Rain Skirts girls were back again, with their lovely singer machines

My lovely neighbours this year, with their beautiful willow sculptures

I don't post much about books on the blog, apart from craft books, but I'm a total bookworm.I love anything from mainstream fiction to sci-fi and fantasy. So, naturally, I've read the Game of Thrones series. I'm obsessed with anything medieval, so a medieval fantasy, yes please! I spent most of the GoT tv series oggling the beautiful embroidery and oh my, the fantastic banners. I adore banners! So, I made a little Stark Banner for the festival. I have to admit I'm a bit disappointed by how little people noticed it. I though I'd be bonding with multitudes of fantasy fans, talking medieval stuff, battles (and costumes!), but alas no. Maybe I had it to discreetly hung. Still it looked nice beside my tent, and I plan on making more banner style decor for a certain mad festival coming up shortly...