Following on from our exciting day in Bethnal Green, we packed the stuff into the van and hot footed it down to Cheltenham for one of the biggest festivals of the year, Greenbelt.
This is a lovely, friendly Christian festival, although the multi faith and arts angle is everywhere to see. What was also evident to see was how well organised and super safe and friendly this festival was. Amy was still recovering from having her appendix out a few weeks previously and we were well looked after in the disabled camping area. We arrived in the pouring rain and the loveliest man, called Vincent, who had been going to Greenbelt for 40 years, helped us put up our tent and made us all hot chocolate at 11pm at night. What a dude!
This is a big festival, with about 35,000 people attending at Cheltenham Racecourse and we had over 2,500 of them play The Rig over the course of the weekend. This was our biggest crowd yet and we were so chuffed by how loved and popular our wonderful creation was. WE thought it was an amazing musical playground, but to have so many people play and keep coming back to play it over the weekend spoke volumes about its popularity and our crazy but brilliant idea!!
We had one adorable boy who spent about an hour playing with the wind up music box and the Victorian tin bath. When you hold the wind up music box against the side of the bath, it resonates round the metal and amplifies the sound. Once we’d shown him how it worked, he very quickly picked it up and spent ages mesmerised by it and showing others how to use it. I think we might have changed bath times for the better for this little boy!
Winding up the music box
Have a look through the rest of the photos here.