I’m in The White Hart, a pub local to the festival. They have WiFi. The crowds have come to Chalke now and I had an important email to send. No point trying to use phones on site anymore, the exchange will be flooded from now until the end of the festival. Still I’m pretty used to Festivalling these days. What I had forgotten is how much joy it gives me, living outside on these long hot summer days, and getting involved in what is always such a rich and varied exchange of craft, ideas and passion.
Toby Capwell started my day with a smile, teaching me more than I thought there was to know about English Armour and radiating charm and passion while one of his jousting buddies sat stoically by in his (modern functional) horse armour to provide visuals.
Then a potted history of the loo in England with David Musgrove. Again more information than I really thought there was. I went to look at horses. They have a very beautiful destrier and a palfrey and now I know how to tell the difference. Gorgeous calm creatures, clearly very well loved, not spooked by all the banging from the artillery and the rifles of the WW2 lot. The world wars occupy a disproportionate amount of space in people’s thoughts when it comes to history in this country.
This is a really gorgeous thing to be part of, this festival. It wakes up all the little geeky bits of my brain that love to dig into myth and history and connections.
As the festival progresses, every few hours there is a team showing their work in the “Remaking History” area. “Discover the Guillotine”. Some practical and thoughtful men and women are building a working guillotine from scratch. It isn’t finished yet. I went and listened:
“I spoke to the health and safety guy this morning. He asked me if the blade was sharp. I told him it wasn’t and he said ‘It needs to be sharp’ so we will be sharpening it up.”
The guillotine will be finished tomorrow, I am told, with the blade fresh sharpened.
Michael Gove is speaking at this festival. Not about an area of expertise. Just a puff piece about himself.
Sometimes you wonder if circumstances have brought you to a place where something begins. It is a terrifying and hungry looking thing, a guillotine. There are strange energies around the construction of it, even.
I’m happy here. Going to drive back on site soon and see if I can get into Al Murray.
AlBarclay 