We took Burt to his first proper VW weekend festival. We arrived at Plymouth VW Festival on Friday afternoon, to find the campsite was already pretty full. Keen to cram as many VW's as they could in the last bit of the field, we were lucky to be given some extra space for the awning. However once we were parked up the cans of beer in the cooler were calling to us, and the awning never left it's bag.
Instead we got chatting to our neighbour, a navy guy, who had a T25 Autosleeper. (How much do I know about VW's? Are you worried?)
Instead we got chatting to our neighbour, a navy guy, who had a T25 Autosleeper. (How much do I know about VW's? Are you worried?)
We spent the weekend eating and drinking in the best weather of the year. Better weather in fact than the 2 weeks we had in Cornwall in August last year. It made the camping in a field an enjoyable weekend, despite the nasty portaloos and the scary rave party.
Burt and his new buddy.
The bands playing the festival, were to be honest, not the reason we were there. And after a few too many drinks, anything could have come on stage and we'd have watched and continued drinking.
So when the Sex Pistols Experience came on we had to go down to the moshpit. A gentle, family style affair, where the fallen were helped up and the moshpit halted until they were back on the feet. And yet I was there all of a minute before I was covered in some guys pint, purposefully tipped over my head. Nice. The smell of beer was to follow me around until Sunday, when I decided to try out the showers.
Tim and our neighbour trying to coach me back into the fray.
The Sex Pistols Experience, surely at the Crewe Limelight in the not too distant future.
The headline acts over the weekend were the classy Stereo MC's, Dreadzone and Hazel O'Connor. It was like the early 1990's all over again. We caught all but Hazel.
How we missed Hazel is one of those stories that can only happen when you've been drinking all day at a festival. We were making our way from the van to the music tent, when we came across a man hurtling along the path on a unicycle. He was somewhat unsteady and fell as he approached us. The unicyclist said it has taken him 2 weeks of riding along his hallway at home to get to this point. Justin, our navy guy, proclaimed he knew how to ride a unicycle, he learnt a few years aog and it's like riding a bike, boom boom.
Now it seems it's not like riding a bike, as we watch Justin launch himself off on the unicycle only to spin round 3 times on the spot and crash to the floor. I am in hysterics, as Tim decides, in his infinite wisdom that a few drinks down that it can't be that hard. He befell a similar fate, only with the gripping spikes on the pedals digging in his leg on the way down. Over a week later he still has the unicycle scars, and I still can't stop laughing.
We did manage to spend a little time looking round the vans on show. One of the things everyone does at these things is go round the campsite to look at the other vans around. Our other neighbours were keen to tell us that the original owners of Burt had been by asking after us. Being as Burt was from near Taunton, we thought they might be around. There was a sticker on Burt's back window suggesting they'd attended the year before. Unfortunately they passed on the news they weren't happy with Burt's wheels, which we hadn't cleaned. Oops. (They're clean now!)
The owners weren't the only Burt fans, others from their local VW club came to look at their old Camper. Another VW owner came over on Sunday recognising Burt's orange outline. He'd worked on him back in the day. We began to feel like Burt was a minor celebrity.
This is one of the best VW's we saw, a Rat Van, complete with toy rats, though you may not be able to see them here.
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