festivals

[GardenersDelight]

HELP my DD17 is off to Reading with 3 friends in the morning, I'm mildly anxious but I think my DH might evaporate over the weekend Why do they grow up so quickly!?

[Bellabellabella]

My son, 16, is off too. I am terrified. Good luck.

[midnightexpress]

Don't know about your DH, but judging by the weather forecast, your DD might have dissolved.

[kidsncatsnwine]

My daughter (18) is off tomorrow too... she went last year for the first time and LOVED it! Came back with swine flu, and a temp of 104 but had a ball there.. couldn't wait to go again.

She is taking LOTS of warm clothes and waterproofs this year having learned her lesson last time!! I suspect she may have trench foot by the time she returns :D

[semicolon]

Oh happy days. I wish I was 17.

Make him pack some bin liners. They are very useful when it's wet.

[semicolon]

Her...sorry

[DandyDan]

My oldest son, 18, has just gone off to Leeds yesterday - his fourth year. Aged 15, he went with girlfriend and her parents to Reading. Following year he went with mates to Leeds and I dropped him off on his own several miles from the site. Last year he and girlfriend shared a car with two mates; and this year he got a lift with a friend.

Takes minimal stuff - alcohol and tins of All Day Breakfast and bog-roll - and comes home with more than he went with, usually.

There were some scary moments last year, he said: a crowd surge through a gate meant he had to scramble his girlfriend up on top of an ice-cream van to stop her being crushed. Also on the last morning gangs were going round piling up and setting fire to everyone's stuff as a kind of Farewell Bonfire, and you had to be careful to look after your stuff.

There's about a dozen of his mates going from where we live so he'll be amongst friends most of the time.

[violethill]

They'll have a fab time!

It's hard, but I think you really need to let them have this freedom by 16/17, because let's face it, at 18 they can turn round and do anything they want without any reference to you as parents. So far better to have had some experience before then.

[MmeRedWhiteandBlueberry]

My son has gone to Reading for the first time. I helped him pack yesterday so that he (hopefully) doesn't get too wet and miserable.

[MmeRedWhiteandBlueberry]

I didn't need to read your post, Dandy

[DandyDan]

Oh, he has a great time. Just don't ask what he gets up to... Food is hugely expensive there. Son took 8 tins of casserole/bolognese/all-day-breakfast, pack of mini-baguettes, pack of Mars Bars, pack of choc digestives, and two packs of clementines ("for the Vitamin C"), and a bottle of vodka and bottle of dark rum decanted into plastic bottles.

For those without money, you can do "cup collection": all the boughten beakers of water are abandoned on the fields, and if you collect 100 and return them, you get some money. Some people spend hours doing this to get a pile of money.

Last year SOn came home wearing a huge fake fur pimp coat he'd bought for a fiver - rather fabulous actually - and with a double-size inflatable bed and a large muddy hold-all someone had left behind. The previous year he came home with a pop-up tent: thousands of tents (and belongings folk can't be bothered to carry away) are torched or left on-site at the end of the festival. O

[elterwater]

They have a great time but be prepared - they will smell when they get back! Send them straight into the bath, feed them and send them to bed for a couple of days to sleep- job done.

[MmeRedWhiteandBlueberry]

Mine has not taken any food or cooking equipment. I offered to marinade some chicken for him and his friends, that they could cook on a disposable barbecue that I was offering, but he turned me down.

It would be a lot to carry a tent, bedding and clothes on the train.

He plans to buy his food, and walk into Reading today to buy some cold food at a slightly cheaper price. He has not taken a lot of money, and I have said he can phone me if he is in need of anything.

[MmeRedWhiteandBlueberry]

Oh, I know about the smell, elter.

DS2 was at Soul Survivor this year and I could not believe how awful he smelled. He came home at midnight and I made him strip off downstairs and put his clothes straight into the washing machine before heading upstairs for a shower.

I really pity the poor chaperones who had to sit in minibuses for a couple of hours with 15 similarly smelling teenagers.

[MySweetPrince]

My daugher (17) is off today too - first festival and meeting a group of friends there.........don't know who is going to get the least sleep, her or me.:(

[GardenersDelight]

Oh I know she'll have a great time and be OK but it dosnt stop you worrying.
ME she prob will melt in rain only taken light weight pacamac, cos the one i got her isnt trendy enought to fit in with the clothes ehs planning on wearing!!
Used to smell and dirty washing both DD have been in scouts for last 7 years and younger DD16 gets back from switzerland after 9 days so hopefully can get that smelly lot done before she returns from Reading
Dandy Dan have heard about fire and destruction DD hasnt taken anything she's not prepared to loose, minimal cash and old phone, bin bag full of food very similar to the previous lists

[GardenersDelight]

Quick update! DH still survivng but grumpy (no change there) DD having a great time but got her camera nicked on Friday. Having seen the photos I'm dreading the washing

[DandyDan]

Ours is home. Phonecall at 3am to say he was on his way and snuck in an hour or so later. His tent was wrecked and burnt so left that behind and he lost a tin-opener and his cushion/pillow but otherwise very happy and had a good time. Already working out who to go with next year.

[GardenersDelight]

Mines back now , tent pole broke in wind yeterday so everything was soaking! Between the 4 girls that went they brought back 3 popup tents and 2 chairs that had been abandoned, also managed to spot a tant samas thiers so got a replacement pole so they can use it again!
said she had the best time and even survived the loos which were as bad as she expected

[GardenersDelight]

sorry tent same as theirs!!

[MmeBlueberry]

I picked my DS up at 12.30am last night. It was an amazingly easy meet-up. I recommend the new Tesco (Tesco Extra Reading West) not far from Orange Gate.

It was quite a surreal experience, with all these parents picking up their children in the middle of the night.

We've now done all washing, and gobsmacked by the amount of mud. The inside of the tent has now been cleaned, so just the bottom to do.