Summer 2016 Kaya Festival

Summer was now fully upon us. 

The shop was busy, evenings were long and with much anticipation I packed my new stall into Lady Sage and headed to Margam Park for my first official Festival booking.

The stall had arrived a full month previously and knowing the confusion involved in putting up a biggish structure I had asked Peter and Tommy to spray paint a colour code onto them to save me time and embarrassment in public.

I had also had a practice run at Lou's field just to see if I could manage it alone.

The newly coloured poles were placed in their approximate location.

Then bit by bit I joined them together.

With the aid of a slight breeze I got the roof on,

then the walls,

then I sort of made up a front!

During our adventure in Shell Island in 2015, I had skip raided with amazing results. 

Two full tents, some body boards, enough broken tent fabric to fill a car plus various poles and strings had been collected and stored for 'A Rainy Day'!!.

The front of my shop needed a closing strip but I had only bought enough canvas to cover the roof and three sides.

In fact there was even a gap at the back.

One of my many fabric finds was cut and hung into place, 

......... with a bit of stitching it would work fabulously!

I left the stall stand for the night to see if the breeze would show any problems I may encounter. 

I machined the front strip and returned to the stall to find it thankfully still standing where I'd left it.

I hung throws around the Story Room.

I built a shop and hung the flowers I had brought back form Little India in Malaysia.

I played with ideas and designs.

I attached, adjusted and reattached the newly sewn front strip,

opening and closing various doorway combinations until I was happy I could make the place secure.....

and then I packed the shop away,

folded all the throws,

took the whole thing down and packed everything into Lady Sage ready for Kaya Festival.

Even with everything in, there was still plenty of space for me!

I was as ready as I ever was going to be!

I had applied to Kaya the year before and at the time I had received an enthusiastic reply. 

Since then however I had heard nothing despite my two attempts to contact someone.

It was only when Rob and Dee, who were actually going to the Festival showed me the Official Poster with my name on that I felt I had a comfortably confirmed booking.

I turned up to Margam Park a day early just to make sure I really was expected and was welcomed, apologised to, welcomed again and told to go and pitch myself anywhere I wanted in the children's area!

I was the only one there so I set up next to the position they had told me was reserved for the circus but that also lay next to the main walk way in. 

As pitches went, it was perfect.

I put the frame up and cover on in wind and rain!

To be fair it wasn't raining when I started but as the roof sheet and I battled the wind gusting across Port Talbot from the sea, this amazing squall flew in, dropped its entire contents on my head in the space on a minute, and then left.

I held on the the half flapping, half secured roof canvas for dear life asking myself if I had truly thought this out, as alone in the field the elements had tried their best to destroy and battered me.

But then the wind dropped, the sun returned and twenty minutes later my entire stock of throws, wood craft, jewellery and beads was neatly stacked inside a wind proof, rain proof structure that I had built alone!!!

The next morning, having only woken twice to make sure my newly build structure was still standing as rain and wind lashed the countryside, I began work on my interior design!

Although I had done a practice run in Lou's field, I had now made even more stock to arrange.

Throws were hung, changed, then put back to the original designs.

Boxes of stock were unstacked and displayed.

Jagannath was hung to watch over us all, along with some extra bunting to hang necklaces on!

By the time Rob and Dee arrived I was just about ready for a break! 

They were given tasks to do as I fine tuned a few bits, arranging and rearranging!

By late afternoon I decided I was at last ready!!!

Kaya was truly amazing! 

I was nervous at first but then the children arrived and the hugs and the smiles and the one more story please!

I discovered set times for stories don't work with so many activities going on.

I also discovered stories on demand doesn't work either as I just got exhausted and began to run out of stories.

A mixture between the two eventually seemed to be the answer.

With the arrival of the circus (who had not turned up until the Saturday morning!!) who were now doing a half hour show each afternoon, I at least got a good break each day!

Rob and Dee became my official photographers, as I couldn't take any pictures while I worked.

We all shared a night of merriment with supper in the shop.

They helped me sell things while I told stories.

In fact I couldn't have done it without them!

Once the Festival was underway and we had settled into a sort of routine, there was also enough down time for me to enjoy myself.

There were beautiful flowers and bees that paraded the grounds.

There was time for Hoola Hooping with the circus, and in the evenings, when the children's area closed down there was time to wander, listen to music and meet fascinating people.

Victoria arrived on the Saturday evening in preparation to work the Sunday as Rob and Dee had to leave and to help me pack down.

We worked the day selling and story telling and then two days of preparation, three days of trading was packed back into Lady Sage in just under 3 hours!

I was tired, I was muddy but my First 'Big Festival' had worked.

I had had an amazing time, had received amazing feed back plus I was over £300 richer!

This I had to do again!!!!