HCA at Glastonbury festival

There are some major perks of my work and I certainly count a week at Glastonbury Festival as one.

My friend and HCA supporter Nigel Townshend came down to help set up and man the stand and tell people about the work of the Heritage Crafts Association. This is what our stand looked like, I rather like the mix of rustic shelter and sharp professional banners I hope that sums HCA up, serious and professional about protecting and promoting traditional skills though I have to say we did also have a great fun time.

A view over the site before the visitors arrived. The green crafts fields are on the slope looking over the main festival and much quieter. We were told to stay in the adjacent teepee field cost £800 per person. It is difficult to show in pictures the scale of the site, it really is the size of a city, in fact I think when the visitors arrive there are around 120,000 people on site making it about the size of Bradford and the largest performing arts festival in the world.

Evening before the crowds arrive.

 When the sun shines on a festival there is a lot of love about.

Once the public arrived we were hard at work through the day, me turning bowls.

 and Nigel chatting to folk about why traditional crafts are facing problems today and what we can do about it.

The emphasis of the crafts field is on workshops where you can get real first hand experience of crafts such as forging.

Or throwing a pot on a kick wheel.

Folk running workshops or demonstrating have to apply and are selected for the greencrafts area and I very much hope that we can go back next year with an increased HCA presence. Several top craftspeople have mentioned that they would like to join us and I can not think of many nicer ways to spend a week than in good company sharing our love of our work through the day and chat around a campfire in the evening. Oh and there is some fantastic music too!