Clubfest - Pink ELO

Our next Dame Shirley trip was Clubfest. It’s a festival run by the Caravan and Camping Club in the grounds of Weston Park in Shropshire. We aren’t really sure but it appears to be a cross between Butlins and Glastonbury. Nevertheless, we were very much looking forward to it and I had made a couple of new ‘essential’ purchases for the occasion. More on these later.

Sadly, the few days before departure had seen torrential rain in the area. I was worried about getting stuck in the mud and having to be towed out. We also had an e-Mail telling us that as the electric was only 6v it would run just the barest minimum of appliances without tripping. I was worried about tripping the whole site. We had also emptied one of our gas bottles in Brizzle and not had time to replace it. I was worried about the back up running out and having no cooker, mainly for morning coffee. Ian was not worried about any of these things.

The Friday of departure dawned bright and sunny. Dame Shirley was loaded up with a full tank of water, a stuffed fridge, loads of beer and wine, and the two new ‘essential’ purchases. Soon Ian, Misty and I were off to Shropshire.

Much to Ian’s chagrin, Sir Georgie took us on the M6 toll (£13 Mr Motorhome Thankyou very much!) then we followed the clubs own directions to the Green Gate. We were greeted by a very friendly old couple (for future reference just imagine all the Clubfest officials as old) who directed us to the Green field while pointedly telling Ian to keep the speed to 5MPH. The next two miles were spent with me shouting at Ian to slow down as he crept up to 10MPH! 

We are in Zone 4

At the Green field more officials directed us in to our spot. Although the one woman, who was busy talking to her mate, confused us completely by waving her arms around in a random manner. We eventually got her meaning and were settled on pitch 1323. The grass had been left long so the field wasn’t too muddy, and so one of my fears was alleviated.  The pitch gave us plenty of space, and with all the unit doors facing the same way, privacy. Soon we were all settled in.

Pitch 1323

The Green gate is for those who want to be in the quiet zone, and to be fair it is pretty quiet. I have only seen one child (why? Take them to the noisy zone!) and there has been no music or rabble rousing, so far. The only noise is the baaaing of about 1000 sheep that seem to be roaming free.

Roaming Sheep

The electric is one a big box with about 12 hook ups per station. The man in the van on the row behind us kept walking over and examining his point and flipping switches. He better not flipping trip that box! 

We had a sandwich then decided to take a walk down to ‘Central Park’  to see the lay of the land. Misty was in her element with so much long grass and was skipping along like a puppy. We also saw loads of dogs running free, strictly against Clubfest rules. At Central Park we had a good look around all the food stalls (there is a crumble stall!) and shop things (nearly bought a windbreak) before watching the first act of the weekend. It was a Pink tribute act. We had pondered whether to bother as we knew no Pink songs. But on consulting the girls, we realised we did know some Pink songs. We are so glad we did. The woman was excellent. Her singing was really good and she interacted with the crowd superbly. We even had a little dance.

Pink and her number one fans

As you can see, most people had brought chairs to the arena. We decided to return to Dame Shirley, have a bit of tea and feed Misty, then return to the Arena with our chairs and other stuff.

I rustled up a quick tuna pasta bake, lovely if I say so myself, then we deployed my first essential festival purchase. The Festival Trolley! I am so proud of this little baby. We loaded her up with chairs, blankets, selfie stick, beer, wine and wine glasses. Then Ian dragged her down the hill. 

An Essential Item

We got a nice spot, cracked open the Rioja, put a blankie over our legs, and settled in for a bit of Jeff Lynne. Once again, we thought we knew no ELO songs (except Mr Blue Sky) but turns out we remembered Ian’s double album from the 1978 and knew them all. We were on our feet bopping to Roll over Beethoven and waving our arms to Sweet talking Woman. Meanwhile, Misty lay at our feet acting like the perfect dog. We had a ball. 

ELO ready

Festival, old person style

Sadly the evening ended too soon. Well at a perfect time for me, about 9.45. So we wended our weary way back up the hill to Dame Shirley. We decided this is our kind of festival. Old peoples songs played by old people pretending to be old people. Seats. Wine. Blankets. Even the toilets were clean and smelled of vanilla. 

We did the washing up that we had left from earlier then I retired behind the fly screen leaving Ian sitting outside. I heard talking and turns out a man was wandering around trying to find his campervan, having no idea where it was. I also heard the shriek of an alarm. Yup, it was us! We had forgotten to disable it properly. God knows what the quiet zone residents think of us. 😬