Well, no problem with that! The boogie woogie caught up with us in Scotland!
Oh yes, what happened after the ten days tentwashing?
Well, the day after we folowed the M1 motorway to Edinburg.
It's a long ride and when we stop to eat we buy some six packs.
We start the whale and pop open the first beers, before we know it the soundsystem turns the ride into a party.
Yes, we cross the border!
Back in Scotland!
I was here five years ago and this was three weeks of hitchhike pleasure (first hitchhike trip)!
When we arrive at the site in Kinross (one hour drive from Edinburg) we install the basecamp.
There we hook up with three other crews and so we meet Pauls' crew.
That's the third tentmaster I work for this season.
But it's going to be a walk in the park because we're with twenty tentmonkies.
The day after we crack on and a copple days later we start with an other concerttent in Summerset.
It's for some catolic fanatics who organise a meeting in order to save the lost and gone christian values.
..
Yeagh right, eat, work, get in the van and get the .
...
out of here!
We're at the edge of the highlands and all the time I'm staring at this hill..
.
When ever I see a mountain or hill I want to get on top of it.
We finish lasing around six PM and I start walking, Kinross, lake, folowing the shoreline, walking,private land, no trail, jumping over hedges and fences, thousands of insects swurm around my head and before I know it three hours have gone by.
Oops, nah, who cares and I continue heading towards the hill.
Yes, finaly I'm on top of it!
The scenery is breathtaking, I can see the festivalsite, the highlands, the see and even Edinburg.
The wind blows some tunes to my direction and I notice that there's a marquee(small tent) in the village below.
I rush myself down and end up in al folkfestival.
About hundred people are dancing on the tunes and I join the people at the bar.
A little dance and then it ends.
Midnight, no bus and I can't catch a ride.
Oke, Kinross, 9 miles (15km), I walk, hitchhike, no succes, the last kilometers I run and I get lost in a village.
I hear some music and voices but the blindes are shot from the hotel.
I knock on the door and the barman gives me a free beer.
My drunk Scottisch golfplayer mates overload me with their patriotic anti England feelings.
...
Right, time to move on and I ask the direction to the big white golfbal (army radarstation nearby our gate).
five o'clock and I hit the deck.
Two hours and a half later I hear the good morning Joe wake up call and I drug my twisted brains with cafeine.
A hard labour day and luckely they call it a half day...
My mates are curious what happened with me and I can persuade eight of them to go back with the whale and to enjoy the rock afternoon.
We step in the tent and about sixty people sit down and stare at us or at the stage.
Hmmm, me beer, you beer, first dancepasses and before we know it kayam rocks the place.
People stand up and kick of.
The coverbands are allright and it all ends with an old man dancing and falling from a table.
The hard labour ends and it is thursday.
Somebody hears something about a rave on the campsite and we prepare ourselfs mentaly and fysicly for the thing to come...
Suddenly people stumble in in our two crewtents, they come from everywhere and we just can't cick them out...
Hmmm, some of the crew DJ with the Ipods and the others have a good time.
Two o'clock, we've got to work tomorow in summerset and we ask kindly the people to leave our home.
Everybody goes but one.
He sleeps in the coach and when we wake him up he freaks out.
Pushing, pulling, shouting and he ends up in our kitchen throwing things at the floor.
A kayammember keeps him down on the floor and when he lets him go he gets punched in the face.
Suddenly six security and two cops are in our tent.
They handcuf the intruder (he didn't had a wristband) and take him away.
Than the police starts to interogate everybody.
I make a cup of tea to calm down the tormented minds...
.
Bedtime is it?
Long sleep and I just wake up in time to see Mano Chao on the mainstage.
I'm ready to party but the crowd doesn't move an inch...
.
So we start our own fiesta and suddenly a moshpit starts around kayam.
Pfoe, our honour is saved.
After the gig we chill in the crewtent and then I party with a Scottish fan on the Levellerstunes.
A body moving day goes by and we rush back to the crewtent.
It's one of the tentmasters birthday and she bought 500£ pounds wirth of booze.
Not everybody agreed but I promissed her to be bartender and we start transforming the kitchen into a bar.
My christmas lights enlight the place, people show up but there's no music.
One of the decks needels is broken and most of the crew don't help with setting up the party.
Luckely there's a chap on the campsite who's got his laptop with him.
And than there was music!
Party hardy and suddenly the security shows up, it's half past three and there are complaints from the other campers.
..
The party organiser refuses to shut down the music; no, this is my party, I'm in charge here,.
..!
.
The situation is going out of control and I interveen by turning down the music and than switch it of.
She's pissed of on me because I didn't respect her wish to party on.
On top of that we shut down and camouflage the bar because we don't have a license to sell booze on the campground.
It could get indeed very messy if we would have continued.
But the people can stay and so everybody (but one) is happy.
The day after we hit the dancefloor again in the slamtent (the kayamtent) where all the DJ's play.
I hook on with a Scottish girl and she drags me all the way frontstage to to many DJ's.
The crowd is going crazy and we get pushed around.
...
Than we go together to the Who and party with some of her friends.
A massive highlander puts me on his shoulders and jumps around with me..
.
Eighty thousand Scots who go crazy on the grand dad songs.
The festival ends with a bagpiper playing on the mainstage Scotland the brave and some fireworks.
Than I speed back to the crewtent, put on a safety hat and a HIV and march to our tent.
We have to put down some sidewalling, but I can't stop staring at that fool that climbed all the way up in to the kingpole (16 metres).
People try to get him down but he doesn't move a feet.
He just sits still on the bellring.
It takes fifteen breathtaking minutes before he's back on the ground.
My collegues did allready the sidewalling and we start up an other party to sell the drinks we didn't sell.
But somebody is sabotaging the party by unplugging our cable.
Three times I plug it in and the fourth time the cable is stolen.
The partyqueen is pissed of and wants to plug us back in.
But I persuade her not to do it.
Some people are getting realy angry and I'm afraid that this time the police will shut us down..
..
All the evening she's checking on the money and after a while I get pissed of with her behaviour.
So I double or tripple the shots.
I wanted to end up with a break even and we're getting close.
She wants to make profit but I'm not here as her moneymaker!
Two o'clock and we decide to stop the afterparty.
This time people walk on with out wrecking our humble home.
Good morning Tom, good morning Alex, noohoooooooooooo I don't want to wake up!
The usual big cup of cafeine and Alex and I have to clean up the mess we made.
Party on! Happy tunes, partyglaces and kick of.
People say goodby and thank us for the effort.
Than I've got to help to turf down the concerttent.
Eightteen zombies swurm around the tent and each hour brings us closer to our bed.
Bedtime and suddenly I wake up with the wake up call.
Thursday and finaly I'm recovered.
Tomorow we take the ferry to Belfast so that means that we have a day of.
Last chance to discover Edinburgs nightscene and I round up three others.
We find our way to a club, but my mates don't like the music and move on to an other one.
Half past two, closing time and they're all totaly shitfaced.
It's studentsnight so all drinks cost only 1£50.
No afterparty to be found and we go back.
One of the lads is going to drive us back in the morning but one wants to drive back now.
He's total loose and we just can't convince him to folow our plan.
He even threats to leave Kayam (hidden frustrations about some crewmembers) take the train back home..
..
It takes three hours, two escapes (I had to trace him twice), a lots of talking, some rooftop jumping, but at the end he folows us to the van.
I tell him that he can drive and he takes place behind the steering wheel.
I put Bob Marley on and five minutes later he's asleep.
I have a talk with my collegue in arms and we're both amased that this normaly so tranquile person freaked out like this.
Indeed, alcohol changes a lot.
Half past seven, my mate takes of and we get lost in the countryside, but I can localise ourselfs on the map and finaly we find the highwaybridge.
Ten o'clock and just in time.
We rush ourselfs to pack everything, the lost soul has got a complete blackout and we're allready lauging with what happened.
We folow a busy road and just around the corner we fall out of petrol.
The safetytriangel out, two on the refil and the rest of us diverts the traffic.
Lorries and all kind of vehicles speed by and it allways looks like it that they will crash into Anna's caravan.
The police and the petrolcrew shows up and we continue the journey.
Everybody is KO (still from the festival or from our night out) and falls asleep.
We have to wait in the port and I take my siesta.
We mis our ferry and have to take the next one.
So it's to late to drive to Dublin and we stay in the travelerslodge hotel.
Wow, a soft bed with fresh linnen,clean towels, airconditioning, a TV with ten channels, a BATHTUB, a lightswitch beside the bed, a clean toilet and curtains to keep the sun out!
No way Jose that I'll go into town! I'm staying in!
A movy, a loooooooooooooooong bath, a broadcasting about T in the park and it's allready two A.M.
Breakfast, wow, a chair and a table, buffettable, friendly waiters,.
...
Hmmm, aim I to long allready living at the edge of civilisation?
Arivel, the same story..
..
We have to got to stake the stake line from the six pole tent.
Pfffff, peace of cake!
I stake a while and than I start cooking.
The day after I wear my kilt because of the heatwave it's to hot to wear trousers.
The ground is a mixture of stones and earth.
Bloody hard and so it takes us all day to finish three thirds of the staking.
At the end of the day a guard calls that lad in the kilt.
..
He hands me over a note with a name and a smile sign on it.
...
Confused I walk back to the lads and we just can't believe it!
Why not?
Three hours later I phone her and the day after I search her in Templebar square.
We talk and talk...
.
Than I confront her with the most wanted question that burned allready a while on my lips..
.
To do or not to do, that's the question!
I make the first move and in the last days we met a couple of times.
We're working in Farmleigh park, a mansion in the Phoenix park.
It used to be property of Guinness but five years ago they sold it to the Irish government.
They use it to house all the important visitors.
So they turned it into a fortress, infraredcameras, infrared fences, a big fence around it and around the clock security guards.
You can book a guided tour to visit the estate and the mansion. On sundays a brassband plays in the garden and than everybody is welcome.
We're camping in the back unther a big tree, so we have allways shade.
It's more than welcome, so we can sleep long without being cooked out of our tents..
..
Three days ago we finished the job and we have to be standby during the whole classic musicfestival.
But we are a crew of eight and so we can take turns.
The boys will discover Galways' famous nightlife scene from wednesday untill sunday and I'll stay behind with Doug (Canadian, new crewmember).
He's on guard wednesday, friday and sunday.
I take care of thursday and saterday.
It's not a big deal anyway.
Open in the morning the sidewalling, undo the raincaps and put everything in place before the gig.
Peace of cake!
Dublin is an industrial city with a small historical centre.
It's packed with pubs and shops.
It's crowded with people and I seem to hear every language but English.
Today I allmost lost it when I tried to find sandals.
It took eight shops and two hours goofing around!
There are some unspoken frustrations hanging around the crew.
Especialy with three of the nine there is a lot going on.
I think that the bubble is about to burst and that the shit will hit the fan.
Probably earplugs and knifeproof vests will be needed.
Perhaps we've got to call man down and sent in a medic..
..
It's not easy living and working all the time with the same people.
Especialy when certain people are double faced and try to keep their masks on...
.
I found the perfect cure for that!
When I'm at boilingpoint or have to air my hart I go back to civilisation.
Than I talk with an unknown and let it all out.
It's the perfect remedy!
Sorry, I have to skip this edition.
Company policy. Martin decides where and when everybody goes.
The tentmasters can persuade him to make some adjustments but it rarely happens.
Martin has got a sixth sense when it comes to putting crews together.
I even said Anna that I wanted to be out of the race.
I don't like the commercial course that they're folowing the last years.
The music doesn't interests me and the wrong people are destroying the folky atmosphere.
Last time something happened with my youngest brother and that spoiled my whole festival.
Certain people of the organisation didn't like the way I handled this problem and I could feel these negative vibes.
...
Ofcourse it was the perfect oportunity to see my friends and family back.
Kayam stays there for almost four weeks.
So if you meet the kayamlads please don't forget to show them the Belgian hospitality and the Belgian partyspirit.
Right, got to walk back (2 hours walk) and enjoy the tropical temperatures...
.
We're here for an other ten days and we only have to start working on monday.
What will I do?
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