Just driven past Leedsfest on the motorway. It raining that kind of relentless, hammering it down, aquaplaney sort of rain. Poor kids! My eldest is there too.
Several years ago my daughter went to Leeds Fest and took a budget biodegradable tent with her on the Wednesday before the festival started my wife dropped her off. After a very wet night we received a phone call from her on Thursday morning asking to borrow one of my tents. My wife duly drove over with it. It rained on and off all day. On the Friday my wife dropped me and my son off just after lunch because we had day tickets (a buy one get one free offer) and it was a quagmire and drizzling lightly with a cold breeze. Furthermore, I'd smuggled a 3 litre bladder of wine past security by tucking over my belt at the back while wearing a very loose fitting coat and it had slipped inside my trousers made it's way down the left leg and lodged around my ankle. This made walking in the mud a nightmare with my modified gait. We missed Frank Turner one of the acts that we wanted to see because getting to the stage involved wading through mud and trying to make our way down a treacherous muddy hill without falling over - it took ages.
The acts between Frank Turner and Elbow were unappealing - my son and I bought a couple of camping chairs from a stall because there was nowhere dry to sit and tried to drink our way out of the misery. Enter Shikari's set added to the misery and we both set there determined not to let each other down by deciding to go home until, an hour after arrival, with five or six hours to go before Elbow coming on, we looked each other in the eye's saw the suffering and my opening gambit was: 'Do you fancy going home and having a takeaway' which was met with 'Hell yes! I didn't want to let you down dad after all you shelled out for the tickets'
My wife had only just arrived home when she received the 'Rescue us' call. She took some convincing that it wasn't a wind up and bless her she came back for us. Getting out of the festival itself was more problematic than getting in. The muddy hill that we struggled down was even muddier and more treacherous on the ascent. Two more days of rain ensued with some sunshine but we were very happy with our chicken Jalfrezis.
My wife returned to the festival on the Sunday to retrieve our daughter and some of her friends.
None of us has ever returned to Leeds fest nor do we envisage doing so in the future. My wife has made it clear that she will never get involved with transport logistics to the site ever again.
I'm sure that this weekend's festival will be a tad dryer and enjoyable. For many youngsters it's a rite of passage and is their first encounter with a large festival. It will be an unforgettable experience no matter what the weather.
