DirtyLurker

Hello <waves excitedly> This is our 4th Camper Calling, tickets/passes/window stickers just arrived, can't wait to start the long journey (7.5 miles😅) to Ragley Hall😁 Currently in Covid isolation/quarantine hell☹ managed to pick up this nasty virus at work even though double jabbed & the most careful person I know! Isolation ends Weds so with everything crossed should be feeling tiptop by the following Thurs - loss of hearing/ear infection had best buggar off by then otherwise I'll be the one shouting "turn it up!" Such a chilled little festival, food usually really good & the added bonus of no arena so wandering about with your own drinks makes for an even more chilled affair. See you by the lake Callers 😉

T4 & T5 just like driving a car tbh, I was a bit nervous about driving our T5 to start with because of the size but in all honesty it doesn't feel much different - the actual driving experience, gears/steering/dash set up etc all very much the same as most VWs, and the wing mirrors are enormous so seeing behind is no bother😉 I too had a Polo, until last week when the feckin deer wrote it off☹ and yes the van is definitely bigger it doesn't feel too much😁

Thanks for msgs above. A quick update: feeling generally a bit better today's, taste/smell is returning slightly, if I try really hard! Now have excruciating earache & loss if hearing in 1 ear but I am prone to ear infections so this is almost kind of expected. Feeling extremely grateful for vaccines - those who worked on them & the NHS for the rollout - I can't even begin to imagine how awful I would be feeling had I not been double vaxxed.

Feeling pretty shit tbh - wrote car off last Thurs, hit a deer, then got PCR positive confirmation this morn☹ As if we went to a zero social distancing festival over 2 weeks ago & everything was hunky dory but I go to a job for 2 days where their staff aren't testing when they have symptoms & I manage to catch this shitty virus. I literally went nowhere else, no shopping nothing so it has to be that job. Double vaxxed so antibodies are having sword fights with the virus & doing their job. So yeah feeling very, very sorry for myself. Oh and I can't taste/smell anything so can't even comfort eat - and I'll be a pretty shit chef if my palate doesn't come back by the time I'm out of isolation. Big fat sigh ☹

I was just coming here to update my post - thank you for the well wishes Partner did 2 follow up LFT spaced a few hours after, both negative, awaiting PCR results, thinking they may have done the intital one too soon after eating/drinking which may have caused a false positive. Agree about the timings but they haven't actually been out of the house since we returned from Latitude so if they had got the virus it would be down to me.... fingers crossed the PCR is neg too, tbh they feel a lot better today anyway😁

Urgh compromised immune system partner just had a positive LFT - doing another in an hour, then booking PCR. Mine still negative, I'm doing LFT every 2 days as i go to different sites for work - both double vaxxed - they feel very under the weather, to put it mildly ☹

Still testing Neg after Latitude - feel like pure shite but that's prob festival comedown combined with 3am starts, why did I say yes to breakfast shifts the week after a festival😅 rookie error!

Let's see how much of the 5 days in a field I can actually remember 😅 So, arrived Weds around 3pm ish, campervan set up gin poured, Covid passes & wristbanded by around 3.30ish - and happily that was the last time I even thought about the pandemic all weekend! Thurs we had a wander around the rest of the camping areas earlyafternoon as the steward on CV gate said it was all open... it was not, the arena opened at 5pm as usual. Wandered around Thurs eve, which felt much, much busier than any previous Thurs eve, but was totally expected to be honest. Worried there was no gin bar after a full sweep of the site.... found the gin bar hidden in the Forbidden Forrest, it soon became our second home 😉 Saw The Mighty Flux in The Trailer Park - brilliant fun - danced to a jungle track telling us not to destroy the jungle. More gin... Fri - wow so many people everywhere! More gin. Definitely saw Maisie Adams on Comedy stage, some of Hot Chip, had dinner with a pair of nurses who were 90s clubbers (as were we, excellent conversations) taught another couple the pincer move of sweeping up outside the left hand side of a tent/stage and winding up "front left, by the speaker" More gin. Sat - finally accepting of the sheer volume of people, leaning into being surrounded by sweaty, dusty festivallers - ah yes, this is home! Churros for breakfast. Kerry Godliman set luckily started later than scheduled so we managed to see it all. Gin. Preparations for evening shenanigans. The Chemical Brothers - absolutely wow! Met another couple of 90s clubbers & he was sooooooo excited totally made my night, hugged strangers, danced in warm rain, lightning! 3Ds at The Out Post - yes please. Emergency tunes from the Ambulance in the Kids field. Sun - scraped selves up, grabbed a charity taxi, Bill Bailey! Pretty close to the front, begged & borrowed sunscreen- it was cloudy when we left the van! I'm an idiot😅 Vegan Dog yum, fuckin, yum. Gin... There may very well be more but that's what I can currently remember 😁 yes there were some queues for food but if you have to queue then the food will be good! I waited over half hour for a Vegan Dog, it was well and truly worth it. Toilets; never had to queue too long, it there were massive lines I'd just head for another block, nothing is too far away. The ones at the back of kids field usually no queues at all. You just have to be smart about when to go to the loo 😅 There were definitely fewer food traders but us hospitality bods have had it tough the last 18 months, many traders have gone out of business, many traders will stay at their more local food led events where the pitch fees are cheaper, and chatting to 1 trader they said they were having to use Festival Republics payment systems (card readers etc) and that FR were keeping the payments for over 7 days before they would release the £££££ - if that is correct then a lot of traders may not have wanted to go that route. To surmise; bloody hell if was good to get back in a field, to not have internet so no BBC news app jumping in and spoiling the fun with its "breaking news", to totally forget about the real world, get back to the basics, campervan, nature, fresh air, live music, comedy, gin - more please 😁 Fuck me though how fucking good was the Chems gig 😍😍😍

On way back from spending 5 nights in a field at an actual festival! Huggsd strangers & everything😉 So good to be back💜 And the Chems set was absolutely astonishingly out of this world!

I'll read everyone's reviews & write my own when I get home but for now: That was truly a beautiful experience, I could cry at how absolutely amazing it was! Pinnacle Sat night - bloody hell Chems blew it out of the frickin park!!! 😮😮😮 followed by 3D 😁 Hope you'll all be back next year 💜

It was fucking awesome - all power to the events teams for pulling off & absolutely smashing another truly beautiful Latitude festival.