For the love of it...

Last Thursday evening I was sitting in front of the regions having a biffy whilst the rain was hammering down monsoon style and im thinking to myself, if this was any other event than the horse drawn they would have pulled the plug for sure but I dont think that was even discussed as an option, the crew just asked people to hang back a bit to give the water a chance to drain off after the storm which everyone did. A commercial festival would have folded in those conditions but the horse drawn excelled and overcome the challenges laid down by the weather. I remember chatting with Pete that same Thursday evening, I asked him how it was all going and he said to me inna Brummy accent it all be alright chief, we gotta a couple of landys coming tomorrow and the land owner's a nice man who can help out towing people in if we get stuck, he was smiling and just going with the flow in what was quite a situation, he handled it so well. I had no doubt cause the horse drawn camp community is a strong one, the crew is small but people know each other and help each other out. There is no hierarchy here the bands, crew and paying guests all sit and chat together and thats one of the things that makes it so nice here. The land rovers came as promised and pulled people in with chains, winches and if that didnt work people would start pushing as well. At one point I see 3 land rovers chained together all wheel spinning in the mud as they pulled the bigger vehicles on, they were having great fun and there was a great sense of community.

On Friday morning as I was navigating my way to El chipos through the thick mud and Annette was coming towards me with her horse, it was pissing down but she was smiling and as she passed me she shouted out for the love of it chief for the love of it, I smiled back and replied fuck yeah, for the love of it indeed. Thats what its all about at the end of they day innit doing things for the love of it ❤

Once everyone was on the field the party started and the orrible stage fired up blasting out wkd music all weekend, so nice to hear some good live music its been a while for me. The weather wasnt that bad over the weekend either, the sun shon bright at times except of course when it was time to leave, then it pissed down again lol.

It was the third time we have attended the horsedrawn camp but it was the first time we took the regions which was set up next to the orrible stage. We had our teenage youth helping us run the businesses, was really nice working alongside Ivy n Milo again. At the other end of the field we had El chipos, its the first time we been seperated as a crew were usually together but Nath did amazing with the help of Soul and his mate Cockren who worked with Nathan in Chipos over the weekend, they all worked really hard and kept going all weekend. 

El Chipo's was next to the very excellent Sangers horse drawn stage which is the only one of its kind in the entire world, as is the man himself. Dave Sanger is a direct descendant of the famous showman Lord Sanger who took the world by storm with his amazing travelling shows in Victorian times. The shows he put on were legendary and are still talked and written about the world over to this day, he also founded Dreamland in Margate over a 100yrs ago. Dave keeps up the family tradition walking the country with his Victorian travelling horsedrawn solar powered stage show.

This weekend also saw the birth of the Nether regions, a space for the puppet shows which was hosted by the very excellent puppeteer and childrens entertainer Lisa Pizza. Its great to see the marionettes moving forward, an ever evolving world of creativity, story telling and puppet magic unfolding before our very eyes. 

For thousands n thousands of years people have come together to celebrate the turning of the seasons and have followed the cycles of the sun and moon its one of humanities oldest traditions, and for many of us these traditions are still very important to this day. The horsedrawn travellers live under canvas mostly on the verges and are still deeply connected to these cycles, they also have a deep connection to the land, animals and nature and thats why no amount of rain n mud would have stopped this gathering from happening cause it aint just a little festival inna field, its part of a way of life and I cant think of anywhere else id rather be to celebrate Beltane, what a brilliant start to the summer great vibes, great atmosphere.

Big love to the Delany family and the Beltane bash crew, its feels so nice to be part of this gatherings we all really enjoyed ourselves, see you at the next one 💚