Strawberry Fair, Cambridge (June 7th)

[Swearing Nonna]

What kind of ' oils' were they talking about. I have never even seen a barrel of oil, as that politician said.

Patcholi oil?! Hippy!

The police presence along the river was due to a fight that had taken place but thought the fair itself was police free. Station looked a complete overkill nightmare

A very disjointed affair this year, lack of sunshine and friends that kept getting lost kept us wandering and not settling in a spot. I had a map reader breakdown at one point (don't anyone else ask me where we're going. . . I don't know! )

Good to see the people we did manage to bump into via luck rather than judgment and very pleased to see batfink dressed as an 'extra' in a dress made out of pink j-cloths

 

[foo]

and very pleased to see batfink dressed as an 'extra' in a dress made out of pink j-cloths

with no script, and no breasts - he managed to do a marvellous Helen Mirren i thought...

 

[scumbalina]

Mr S came back right pissed off about the police at the station, it's been fucking OTT the last few years so I was suprised to see him seething about how much worse it was. So did they just make "funny" looking folk go through all the cordons etc and let all the "normal" looking passengers go on their merry way? (in which case I bet they pulled out WoW with his snazzy jumper )

 

[pogofish]

But surely a sniffer dog is supposed to 'speak' that is bark when they get a suspect. This one didn't speak.

No. They train both "Active" (go apeshit when they smell something) & "Passive" (sit down or otherwise respond quietly) dogs & use them in different situations.

From what I've seen, the passive type are usually the choice for taking amongst crowds.

 

[zenie]

Well I had a good day, the police pressence was OTT as was the price of tickets! We managed to meet up with Onket though and all went for 9 quid each, much better, will try and get there earlier next year.

Taking a dog who doesn't really like being taken off her Mum by strangers (especially coppers good girl!! ) worked for us though, they did the sniffer dog but then asked me to come and take her back as she wasn't happy.

Will's jumper's excellent, reminds me of that hippy from Time Team

Lovely to meet up with Foamy and her blerk, (and in the hippy field predictably....this lot!) Eva and her mate, Will and Debs and Paolo, didn't manage to meet up with anyone else from here, (except tort, I met tort!!) it was sooo busy!

 

[rogue_lettuce]

F**k me, that's insane (the photos of the station). If I had been unfortunate enough to go up to Cambridge on that day, I'd have taken one look at the bloody massive crowd, walked back round the door by platform three, and opened it (it's just a latch with no lock) and walked out. Then again I do have a chip on my shoulder about BTP.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

Mr S came back right pissed off about the police at the station, it's been fucking OTT the last few years so I was suprised to see him seething about how much worse it was. So did they just make "funny" looking folk go through all the cordons etc and let all the "normal" looking passengers go on their merry way? (in which case I bet they pulled out WoW with his snazzy jumper )

Yes scumbalina they did make almost everyone go throught the complicated chicane of barriers so that we were all shuffling slowly along. I did see a WPC allow a couple of people with buggies to go through a gap she was guarding. Perhaps people with buggies are not carrying drugs.

Most people were just left to proceed slowly through but I was picked out and searched because a sniffer dog came up to me. I wasn't carrying anything illegal though - not even patchouli oil as suggested by an early poster.

William arrived the day before and only acquired his jumper-of-many colours later in the day. The police presence was only like this for the last two years. Last year I thought it was some sort of bomb scare when I saw it. The year before, my first time at Strawberry Fair I was not aware of any police presence at all. They may have been there but perhaps they merged in with the station staff who also wear hi vis jackets.

Yes I sampled the Mompessons Gold (its a beer, for anyone in the security services monitoring this site)

 

[Maggot]

People should start getting the coach on Strawberry Fair day! It might not even be slower for people from South London, once you take into account the travel to Kings Cross, and the time wasted on queuing up to be searched. And it is cheaper...

I went on the coach and it was fine. Takes longer, but you finish a short walk from the Fair. i'm glad I did!

My first Strawberry Fair and I enjoyed it, shame the weather wasn'tr better, at least there was no heavy rain.

Was good to bump into Stig, Rich!, William, Debs, Tort, Paulo999 and MoMo27. Met Eva Luna very briefly and bumped into Foamy and her fella in the pub afterwards!

Really enjoyed hanging out in the Green Area - was the best part, but didn't discover it till late on.

Didn't see many bands, but the last band on the Strawberry world Stage were fantastic: a funk band with a singer who could do brilliant James Brown yelps! Didn't catch their name though.

Stayed over and had a lovely sunday in Grantchester. Pub lunch followed by lazing around by the river at the idyllic, bucolic Grantchester Meadows.

 

[Maggot]

1. Very threatening weather forecast did not deliver its rain. Miracle, because the rain the Friday night in Letchworth and Royston, less than 20 miles away, was torrential, as it was in Ipswich, also not far away, on Friday and Saturday.

That didn't stop you borrowing Debs umbrella every time you felt a few drops of drizzle!

 

[Tort]

That didn't stop you borrowing Debs umbrella every time you felt a few drops of drizzle!

I’m still in total shock that the plastic trousers didn’t make an appearance even when we had a spot of drizzle.

We were so lucky with the weather. I only live 35 miles away from Cambridge and it rained pretty much all day at home.

 

[puck]

We came by bus so avoided the search thing on the way in, but did get searched on the way back -the bus stop was opposite the police station. The reason they gave was that they had seen us smoking roll ups Nearly made us miss the bus too, but the driver was a lovely bloke and waited for us to finish getting searched, what a sweetie!
Inside the festie it was quite relaxed though, I had no probs selling my tequila at all, but had to be careful of how old the punters were - so many teenagers about. Weather was better than I expected too, so it was a really good day. That band 'the Skints' were great.

 

[William of Walworth]

That didn't stop you borrowing Debs umbrella every time you felt a few drops of drizzle!

1. Be Prepared ...

2. ... for (paranoia induced) downpours within the next 10 minutes!

You can hardly say that neither the clouds nor the forecast didn't justify my fears.

We were VERY lucky ...

 

[William of Walworth]

We came by bus so avoided the search thing on the way in, but did get searched on the way back -the bus stop was opposite the police station.

Parkers Piece??

 

[William of Walworth]

Meanwhile, have you considered submitting that considerable body of year-on-year photographic evidence of policing at the station to the Police Complaints Authority?

I second this suggestion ...

 

[Guineveretoo]

I second this suggestion ...

If you want to be taken seriously, you need to ask the BTP for their justification for the presence of so many coppers before complaining. The IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) is probably not going to be interested in a few photos of a (probably) successful drugs bust operation, if that is what it was, but it is appropriate that the BTP justify what they did, including the cost of it. IMHO, as ever.

 

[William of Walworth]

I'm sure that makes sense. I wasn't there though, so it's people who were (editor included?) who'll have to make any complaint ...

 

[Guineveretoo]

I'm sure that makes sense. I wasn't there though, so it's people who were (editor included?) who'll have to make any complaint ...

When I said "you", I meant "one", but I thought it would sound a tad pretentious, so I went for the generic "you" instead!

 

[Onket]

Really disappointed with that- just seems to be rows & rows of stalls selling tat.

Won't be going again, really not worth the trip. I'd been looking forward to going for years too. Never mind.

 

[Guineveretoo]

Really disappointed with that- just seems to be rows & rows of stalls selling tat.

Won't be going again, really not worth the trip. I'd been looking forward to going for years too. Never mind.

You mean you missed all the music stages? Every single one of them?

 

[Onket]

Yes.

I heard 2 as I passed them but the music sounded really poor & very low in volume. Heavily outnumbered by stalls selling hippy crap anyway, as I said.

 

[zenie]

You didn't really explore much though tbf did you?

The hippy/green field where everyone else was, was really nice and chilled out, with lots of different things going on. I think if we'd got there earlier on in the day you might have seen a bit/done a bit more. It is a hippy festival though, but I thought you knew that!

I'd go back next year but much earlier on in the day. (or camp )

 

[Onket]

Most festivals are hippy, or at least a bit hippy, so yeas, I was aware of that.

I did more than enough exploring too, thanks. It's just that you didn't see me doing it cos you were off at the same time.

For the record the company was great (until we got back to London!!!).

 

[Guineveretoo]

Actually, one of the strengths of Strawberry Fair is that it is NOT a hippy festival. Yes, there are hippy stalls, and there is some hippy music, but there are also lots of non hippy stalls, and lots of non hippy music, and there are lots of kids things and lots of other activities. It survives because attracts people from lots of different age groups and interests.

You simply didn't look, if all you saw were rows of hippy stalls.

 

[Onket]

Don't tell me I didn't look- I did & was very disappointed.

 

[El Jefe]

To be honest, last year was fun cos of the company and a couple of bands. For the most part - and this is the reason I didn't go back - it IS dominated by bad music and hippy stalls.

 

[scumbalina]

We had a stall...it was not a hippy one

So that's err....one that wasn't


*worries that in my absence they might have made the stall all hippyish*

 

[perplexis]

Well, I hardly heard any music, got quite drunk on some spesh, found some of the Urban massive (only just mind, totally failed to find most people), staggered around, didn't spend any money on tat, got given free beer by some drunk kids, ran into loads of mates and generally enjoyed my day's bimbling.
Less aggro than I've seen in previous years*, but far more cops giving people many stern tickings off. Station looks absolutely horrific, I can't believe they think that kind of deployment is worthwhile for anything other than a serious terrorist threat zomfg.

*edit: this may be because I was considerably less pranged than usual and therefore less para...

 

[William of Walworth]

We had a stall...it was not a hippy one

So that's err....one that wasn't


*worries that in my absence they might have made the stall all hippyish*

There were plenty of similar campaigning stalls/marquees in the Green Corner that were not at all hippyish -- Schnews, for one. Looked for yours and couldn't find anything labelled with your group's name

TBF there was plenty of hippyish tat (like my new pullover ) on sale generally, but who cares? It's one of the first major fests of the season, easily accessible, people are spending money and stalls need to sell their stuff. As already acknowledged, most fests have that element to a greater or lesser extent. Some bargains, some stuff you wouldn't touch with a bargepole -- probably including my pullover

I thinks it's a bit harsh to write off all the music there, and the event overall, so negatively and dismissively. It may not be everyone's bag at all, but if you look around various stages there ARE good acts to be found. Honest!

I give you AOS3 -- they were very good (IMO) and got the crowd really up for them. Check em out at Endorse It.

People can stay away if they don't like SF and that's fine, as are criticisms of whatever aspects, but I'm sure we'd all agree that it would be a great shame if a rare survival from the old school free festival tradition disappeared. Fortunately it seems to have a secure future ...

I remain hugely positive about Strawberry Fair personally. But I'm biased ...

 

[Onket]

Oh yeah, the lack of signage from the train station (or on site for that matter), and the frosty welcome for out of towners also went against this one.

2 dickhead jobsworths tried to stop me taking beer into the train station on my way home too!

It's not a problem though, it's just a bit of a shame that people have been telling me it's great for about 8 years & it really wasn't IMO. At least there'll be a bit more space for the rest of you in future!!

 

[editor]

A bunch of average photos here:

http://www.urban75.org/festivals/strawberry-fair-cambridge.html