So far the Outer Regions cafe has spanned over 3 decades, our last post looked back at the naughties and today we are looking back at the decade that followed. I mean what is that decade even called? I wanna say the 10's but that sounds a bit shit..
Anyways, as the '10's' started to evolve so did the Regions and it's crew, the cafe has always been a family cafe by day but in this era it also picked up quite a reputation as a late night jammin spot where the party continued after everything else shut down. We would turn off all the outside lights and put the front covers down to trick the security into thinking we were shut but it never worked, they would come and grab a chai or a coffee on their nightly walk arounds and hang out for a bit, its a truly inclusive space is the Regions.
In 2012 Norch and Daily mail astrologer Jonathan Cainer started the Tibet village area at Sunrise festival to share Tibetan cutlure and highlight the countires struggles. It was a lovely area and looked amazing, seeing all the Yeti boys n girls and their children there was a beautiful site. By the end of the 2013 season the Regions crew went their seperate ways for a bit but we still worked together from time to time. Norch and Robin had started the Lovestar tipi cafe selling bargee's n chai, Donnie started working for Mousa on the lanterns and Bob was freelancing for a bit along with working alongside Norch and the other Tibet boyz at Tibet village and Wildheart festival with the love star tipi. Bob also continued to work for the Regions for much of the decade and I think he even cooked for Asterix down at Pacho mumas at Glasto one year if I remember. Although we were working seperately for many of those seasons we were nieghbours a lot of the time which was great, each of us doing our own thing but supporting each other like.
We did some great festivals in that era, Sunrise, Sunset, Sunrise off grid, Blues n Roots, Santosa, Oneness, Beatnyx picnic, Avin it, Buddhafield, GEA, Field view festival, Into the wild, Over the moon, there's to many to mention. Robin had also got the ❤️⭐️ tipi into Glastonbury festival and it had a few memorable years there. Was always my favourite place to hang out back in the days when I used to do artist liason for Urban Sedated Records, never a dull moment lol. It was also the place I got to know Tara and the tipi crew properly, Robin had introduced me to Tara on my 40th birthday back in 2013 as we shared the same birthday and are the same age. Since that time we had become friends.
So big ❤️ to Robin Lovestar, his unique magical wizardry and cosmic intuition laid the foundations for what is the amazing set up and friendships we have at Glastonbury today🙏.
Back at the Regions in those times me n T pot were inna relationship and we were running the cafe alongside Olivia from Bolivia and long term crew member crypto Chris. It was a beautiful era and a much more chilled and relaxed environment, less party'in and an all round more healthy vibe away from the festival booze n drugs scene. Ive got such great memories of those times, T pot brought new things to the cafe, more vegan options, cakes and homemade munchies which always went down a storm and set the foundations for the amazing vegan munchie selection we have today.
Over that period we also had a pop up cafe on Chilkwell St in Glastonbury over the summer of 2014, we all lived there together it was great fun and a great experience. Sharmoni and Dougal had arranged for Nik Turner from Hawkwind to come and play on the opening night it was amazing, so nice chatting and sharing a few biffys with him he came across as a really nice fella. I love a bit of Hawkind specially the Turner era, it was a great opening night.
Once the pop up cafe was up n running Olivia used to regularly blag her way in to Chalice well, intercept Spanish tourists and intice them into the cafe. We had a real mixed customer base there, along with the Spanish tourists we had builders from the building site next door who would come in for teas and we also had tourists, locals, travellers, festival crew passing through and back packers would hang out there also. We used to give free teas and our leftover food to those that slept out or had little money and we allowed back packers to stay upstairs for a small donation. It was a hot summer that one and we would sit outside blazing n chatting long into the evening, it had a real nice community vibe that place. We also put on our own festival in Glastonbury that year called the Oneness gathering which was also a very beautiful and memorable weekend.
Over the years that followed staff would come n go in the Regions, we continued working together on and off and we did crew food gigs at the very excellent Field view festival pretty much throughout the decade until it stopped around 2018. We also worked at into the wild festival in Sussex together, Buddhafield and we did a crew food gig for Pony and the Small world crew in 2017, along with gigs nr Glastonbury on the land presently occupied by the Crops not shops crew. We had some great parties there over the years.
Looking back over the '10's is crazy for me as the heartbreak, grief and trauma was immense at times. I had some of the best times ever but I also had some of the most challenging in my life. For me that decade started with a break up which left me inna not so good place for a bit and I also lost many good friends to drugs n alchohol in that decade. I lost my father and for a while there I lost my way for a bit as I succumb to the old festi party lifestyle. It was great fun (for a while) but looking back I can see I was just trying to blank out stuff that was going on in my life at the time (that dont work btw).
The only constant in my life through that decade was the Regions and my kids, they kept my focus and always gave me the drive and determination to push things forward. I truly believe if it wasnt for those 2 things I could have ended up like many of my friends did, pushing up daisy's. They say what doesnt kill ya makes you stronger and its true in some respects, in my experience anyway.
But yunno what, through all the drama, through all the trials, tribulations, break ups and personal challenges we all faced over that decade the Outer Regions cafe somehow continued to shine through it all ✨️
By some miracle a derilict scrapyard came my way at the end of 2014 giving the Regions a much needed base, it was a God send which allowed us to take things to the next level and its still our base to this day. From 2018 onwards the cafe pushed on moving forward with new faces, new gigs and new menus. Towards the end of the decade we were back on top form and I was in a much better place than I had been for a good few years. The icing on the cake, we got offered a pitch at Glastonbury festival in 2019.
None of us though, and I mean none of us were prepared for what was coming as we approached 2020 😷🐔
Im loving our anniversary so far, looking back at the pics over the last 20yrs has been quite emotional at times. It has also reminded me how far we have come, and more importantly what we have overcome. It also reminds me what great times we had and how lucky I am to have lead this blissful life in the festival fields of freedom.
Big love to all the Regions crew past n present, thank you so much for the very excellent memories 🙏❤️
