Sunrise Celebration 2010

Sunrise Celebration Second Arena @ Sunrise Celebration

We hit the ground running, with Squeak heading to site with Hamish that afternoon. We had been given control of ‘Little Poland’, an alleyway of the farm, with Caravans, lots of vehicles and a lot of crap. It attracted this name due to the large number of Polish workers who had previously inhabited it. We were to rename it ‘Little Australia’. We had been given a large caravan with lounge, kitchen and  double bedroom, as well as ‘Terminal One’, an old racetrack officials building to base our operations out of. We were getting quite a good setup.

Our Awesome Site Ute (Peugeot 306 Hatch) @ Sunrise

My task for the day was to clean out and order these two new buildings, and what a task it was. Neither had power or water or gas, I of corse started with the power, finding quite quickly that it was fruitless and the professionals would have to be called in.

The next day, we moved onsite to Sunrise Celebration, a hippy style festival, located near the very cute and quaint little town of Bruton. We joined Greg and Gabbi (The Hungarians), and Mattia (The Italian). We had 9 blocks of loos, totaling 50 cubicles, spread throughout the site. Our gear was delivered by Sid (the farmer) and one of his workers Leshek (a funny Polish guy) using two Tractors and very, very large trailers.

Unloading the Tractor trailer @ Sunrise Celebration

The previous year, Sunrise Celebration was my first taste of an English Festival, after only just recovering from my dislocated knee cap. This year we had a few familiar faces (Hamish, Greg & Gabbi) and some new additions (Mattia, Squeak & Frances). We also had 25 volunteers who would clean the loos 3 times daily in exchange for a ticket to the festival, so our job was to be very nicely structured.

Geordie Mirror Shot - Sunrise Celebration 2010, Bruton, England

It was quite strange to be back on the festival site, and I reminisced quite a lot, especially driving through the one way streets of the very cute local town, Bruton. Things at Sunrise had changed quite a lot from the previous year; it had grown to be much bigger, had an extended main arena, and a lot more venues.

One of the funnier moments of the weekend involved our Crew Food. We were originally issued food tickets for a very pleasant food venue called Buddafields, a fully vegan café. The food was nice, and serving sizes quite generous, but unfortunately the shift to no meat, and a whole lot of mung beans, meant that the crew turned into more of a marching fart band. At one point, Hamish (the boss) was talking, and Mattia (the Italian) farted so loudly and continually that the boss actually stopped talking, a feat that for those who know him, defies belief.

Great Costumed Patrons - Sunrise Celebration 2010, Bruton, England

Eventually, we were provided food tickets for the crew food tent, catered for by the farm, so a lot of hearty meals were in order. I have a hilarious video, which I will try to upload, featuring our first meat meal in a week. Needless to say, we were quite excited, particularly Mattia, who is obsessed with food, and eats an amazing amount of it.

Our lovely 7.5t Truck - Sunrise Celebration 2010, Bruton, England

Squeak and I thoroughly enjoyed cruising through the festival site in the big seven tonne truck with tunes blaring, usually Australian Artists like Hilltop Hoods, Ash Grunwald, The Cat Empire etc, and entertaining the Green Stewards who were posted on each of the gates and junctions. There were two girls in particular that enjoyed our comings and goings, Ella and (I might have forgotten the other girl), purely due to them having the graveyard shift and us making it pass slightly quicker.

The management of the Volunteer was left to Squeak and myself, and was quite entertaining, with a few members of the volunteer poo crew being on substances 24/7 or just generally being trippers. We were pretty tight on attendance on the first day, but as soon as the volunteer crew realized that they had a pretty sweet gig, the had some love and commitment and wanted to come to work.

Amazing Scissor Lift - Sunrise Celebration 2010, Bruton, England

The gig was a smashing success, with a very high level of service, despite a bit of a lack of toilet paper supply (badly managed by the festval). The only other notable story from the weekend shouldn’t really be documented online, but lets just say it involved a pipe failure, a goldern shower and Geordie joining a very select club… Email me if you want the complete story!

Our packdown was quite smooth, and didn’t require any stupidly long days as we had two weeks to the next gig, Gastonbury. Which is the worlds largest Greenfield festival, around 210,000 people. There was only one hitch on bump out, when Squeak managed to fall onto the back of the truck, bend himself over the bar on the back and was subsequently rushed to Hospital on a full spinal isolation board. He ended up being fine, just muscular damage, and was discharged that afternoon.

Toilet Framed Sunset @ Sunrise Celebration... Fitting Really!

It has been quite nice to be back on the crew, and in the lifestyle of festivals. You don’t want to know the number of days we can go without a shower, but everyone around you smells just as bad as you do, so its not really an issue. Onto Glastonbury Festival next, looking forward to the bands and the craziness of 200,000 people on one festival site.