Bristol Community Festival Piccies

The weekend started like so many Ashton Court weekends before it - with a long trek up the never-ending hill.


Thankfully Bevan & Rosie's mission to push Josh was the perfect excuse for us to have many stops along the way, for some essential cooling down.


The Saturday afternoon was more of a family orientated affair this year.



Not only did we have Josh...


But Naomi also brought Josephine along for a couple of hours.

It was great to see Naomi for the first time since her wedding over two years ago. Somehow she managed to avoid my camera though. She basically looks like an adult version of Josephine (but with a full row of teeth).

Of course, apart from the price, the festival was exactly the same this year as it is every year.





With the usual queues for the portaloos


And people everywhere


As the afternoon rolled on some more familiar faces arrived. Benny only managed to stay for a couple of hours though as he had a housewarming party to go to, and Chew also headed off in the late afternoon for his school leaving do. Why do people arrange things for Ashton Court weekend?

Anyway, just for a while, we almost had a group going.







When Kim arrived, I mentioned Jonny's request for us to build a shrine to his and H's memory. As you can see, we went to a lot of thought and effort...


All of a sudden it was dusk.


We watched Blowpop vs. the Beat Monkeys on the WKD stage, which turned out to be breaks vs. rock. The highlight was Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the name of" followed by the Timo Maas remix of Azzido de Bass' "Doomsnight", which went down a treat.

Ultimately though, the combination of music was very odd, so we made our way over to the amphitheatre stage to see Dreadzone. Unfortunately they were also rubbish, although they did play 'Little Britain' for their encore, which has no relation to the hit TV series, but is used as the theme tune for the Nationwide League highlights on ITV. What a way to finish the Saturday!

Sunday brought more clear blue skies, and on the journey to the site Bedminster was looking as stunning as ever (it's over there between the field and the sky, honest).


I met up with Bevan, Rosie and Josh at the summit of the hill, who after yesterday's nightmare journey had sensibly taken the bus all the way to the gate. Sunday was typically altogether more relaxing, and I spent the day lying around in the sun and nursing my hangover with a bottle of wine.

We briefly wondered over to the performance stage...

And then spent the afternoon at the main stage, listening to a mixture of dodgy ska and rock.

Unfortunately, no-one else made it up there on the Sunday, so I made the journey home with B, R & J as the sun began to set.

As I wondered down the hill, I contemplated that it had been a cracking weekend, but that so many people were noted by their absence. Jonny & H, Em & Chris, Sam & Moe, Mark & Wendy, Mike & Ella, Richard, Ali, Will, basically all of the usual regulars were definitely missed.

I think this was the first Ashton Court since my debut 13 years ago that I had not been with a big group, and it did feel different. It was still a really enjoyable weekend, but there's just something about being in a group that makes it even better...