Nomad Fest

For the past couple of days we had all been keeping a close eye on the weather forecast for this Saturday. Although we had been really luckly so far, with plenty of sunshine and warm weather, this was forecast to all change just as Nomad Fest was starting.

The potential for thunderstorms got us all a bit nervous, as we weren’t necessarily prepared for spending several hours outside in poor conditions. Jo seemed pretty confident that nothing would come of the predicted storms, but Ems and I headed off to get some “gum boots” (wellies) for the kids, just in case.

Next up, we had to relocate out of our accomodation and prepare for the next week of travelling. Jo lent me a nice rucksack to re-pack my belongings into. I packed an overnight bag for the festival with my essentials, and put the rest of the clothes and things I wouldn’t need into temporary storage in Mich’s room.

We headed over to the festival site a couple of hours before the festival was due to start and continued to set everything up. It looked like we might escape any bad weather… until I started to set up some of the tents and there was an almighty downpour! Luckily it passed pretty quickly, and as the weather was still warm everything dried up quickly.

I spent a lot of the festival walking around taking photos and chatting to people; some familiar, others new to me. I wanted to make a conscious effort to document the evening in photos, as it’s something I usually forget to do.

It was a great event that felt like a mix between a family reunion, and an eclectic festival. There were lots of activities and everybody seemed up to get involved.

Highlights for me include: Jeff’s Shop, scavenger hunt, Jo’s Tea Party, face / knee painting, making juggling balls, birthday wishes tree, sausage sizzle, gumboots song, funny skits, dance lessons, glow sticks, live music, rock painting… but there was so much more going on that I can’t even list it all!

The festival really surprised me. I’m not 100% sure what I was expecting but credit to Jo and everybody else who helped in organising it and got involved on the night.

I also got to see a different side to my Dad. Celebrating his 70th birthday among his new friends and family in New Zealand, it was really clear to see how he has fitted in as an kiwi.

I would like to have stayed up later, but as the evening drew in and the temperature quickly dropped, I headed back to my tent and fell asleep quickly.