You might have seen my post from Monday about going to Camp Wildfire and what it’s like, my first weekend festival experience. And if you’ve been to Camp Wildfire yourself, you might have noticed that actually, I didn’t do that much, not when you really understand how much is on offer.
And there’s a reason for that and that reason is I went to Camp Wildfire as crew, not camper. I was a volunteer, I was staff, I was running an activity. It came up via the Rebel Badge Club on Tuesday lunchtime and by Thursday, I’d gathered my camping stuff and packed it all into my car. I’d briefly considered how scared I was of festivals, spending an entire weekend with a stranger and driving on the M25 and then thrown my name into the ring and here I was, heading for Kent. Oh, after a relatively early morning swim, so with wet chloriney hair.
So, belated full disclosure: I went for free. I got a wristband, a badge for my activity and the loan of a (numbered and counted) “fetching” yellow staff t-shirt, the loan of the tent belonging to the person who was supposed to be doing my job and I helped run fifteen hours of Capture the Flag over two days. I could have had more time to explore all Camp Wildfire had to offer but I wanted to earn my keep and anyway, on such short notice, the only things I’d really semi-set my heart on were one of the talks and throwing axes, both of which I achieved. My life isn’t short of adventurous and crafty activities, which is why I’d had my eye on this particular festival – it’s packed full of stuff I know from experience that I enjoy.
I’ve volunteered at large scale events before, although this was off the scale of what I’ve done, which is teaching archery and being a helpful pair of hands at Sparkle & Ice in 2018 and doing whatever I actually did at Magic & Mayhem which was around the same time. I’m accustomed to turning up and being given a job right there on the spot. You’re going to help units put tents up, navigate everyone in and out of dinner, teach archery 9-6 all weekend and finish by helping units pack down. Up by six, might make it into bed by midnight Camp Wildfire was a walk in the park in comparison. I did lend a hand in carrying and pitching but my actual work was strictly 9-6 and Tom was adamant I should take some time to do some of the fun stuff myself.
Also, frankly, helping run Capture the Flag is easier than running drop-in archery sessions. I was used to having a specific group for an hour or two and not to giving the same safety talk and shooting instructions every couple of minutes to girls who appeared as and when they felt like it. I didn’t have a routine for that. With Capture the Flag, Tom was the one actually running it. I produced flags and patrol tokens when they were required and shouted “boundaries!” quite a lot, explained that no, you can’t tie your flag to the tree, handed out plasters and advice to go to the medical tent to all the people who got overexcited and fell over tree roots and I took the group photo at the end of each session. That I’d never played Capture the Flag before I got there – and still haven’t, if you want to get picky – didn’t matter. It was a lot like running an activity at Brownies, except most of the players were taller and most of them could stick the plasters on their own cut fingers.
It was still tiring. It’s a longer time on my feet than I’m used to and although I’m not sprinting around the woods waving flags myself, I covered 10km between 10:30 and 6pm on Sunday, when I got back from my target sports and back to scampering around the woods refereeing the blue end (although it was yellow as often as blue).
And then yes, I had the evenings off. I didn’t stay out late; it’s not my thing and I was too tired and also, it was surprisingly cold. I watched the things I was interested in and retreated to the warmth of sleeping bag and blankets.
Let’s talk about Tom! Tom was my “boss” and it was Tom who’d offered the opportunity on the first place. He was waiting for me when I arrived, got me all signed in and registered, took me to my tent on the staff field and was my buddy all weekend. I joined him and his friends to hang outside their cluster of tents, to go to the parade and to go to staff tai chi and they’d all stop to chat if I ran into them when I was wandering around on my own. Lovely people, the lot of them, even if they did occasionally deliberately compound my difficulty in keeping track of all their names. In fact, I was marginally better at keeping track of what activities they were running. And yes, Tom. Lovely lovely Tom who brought me here and looked after me and initiated me into the mysteries of festivals and wide games and badges and in general, was absolutely everything and more that you could ask of someone you were suddenly going to spend an entire weekend with.
Running an activity meant I met and chatted to a lot more people than I probably would if I’d just been an ordinary camper. I signed them in and chatted – what have you done today, how was last night, what patrol are you in? – and in fact that meant I recognised some of them when I was just out and about and could stop and chat like they were old friends instead of someone I’d met briefly for the first time that afternoon. Big Italian Marco was great fun – a kind of Italian Brian Blessed – and I encountered him throwing axes. Yes, imagine Brian Blessed throwing axes. I was recognised as staff by my yellow t-shirt, so I could chat easily with the other staff – “what are you running, how have you got away?” etc.
I think attending a festival as a participant could have been a bit… well, a bit scary, a bit overwhelming, a bit much. But going as staff worked really well. Ready-made friends to show you the ropes and because I had a job to do and a place to be, it was a lot harder for the scale and the chaos and the muchness of the whole thing to get overwhelming. Besides, it’s just Wellies & Wristbands, Sparkle & Ice or Try Inspire Qualify turned up to eleven. It’s not Glastonbury, Leeds or Reading. No, this was my years of Guiding experience applied to ordinary people and it worked really well.