Wateside Festival 2011

Nearly a year of prep and the weekend was finally here! I was at the festival site at 8am to meet a delivery from Tring Brewery of five barrels of Jack 'O Legs ale, thought I'd be able to go home for a few hours before things kicked off, but no, things just kept appearing with only me to meet them, I wasn't going anywhere. Next was the generators, then the beer tent, the bar stock, bins, skips, bar engineers who build the bar inside the tent. I think everyone could tell I had no idea what goes in to building this outdoor bar. I had all the bits, just need a bit of knowledge to put it all together. Justin and Phil - the bar engineers, were pretty good to me, they explained everything, helped my put the ale beer engine and barrels together. They are like the Mary Poppins of bar bits. The tubes for the ale weren't long enough, they pulled out extra tubing from their tool box, nets for the tubes, again out the tool box. I did try to do a facebook update of what was happening on site as the day went on, embrace the social networks etc, but I just go so busy with festival 'stuff' the record wasn't as through as I would have liked.

Beer with no bar tent, building a bar, a working bar!

The weather did keep people away on the Friday night and the Saturday, think this was the best scenario for me as a beginner bar manager so I could get to grips with the equipment, the bar, the environment. I only had issues with frothy beer, which I couldn't problem solve, neither could my bar buddy, Colin, or Fred who has been doing the bar the last five years. We think it was because we were pulling so many pints by that point, that the beer in the tubes didn't have long enough to cool down.

I walked around the festival for about ten minutes on Sunday morning, apart from that, all I saw was the inside of the beer tent. I did hear the music, the bar tent is right opposite the main stage, but did question the choices of artist - heavy metal on a Sunday afternoon, not sure if that's appropriate. I managed to get a few of my Costa friends involved in working the bar with me over the weekend and also met a few others who were willing to help. Really appreciate the support, I wouldn't have been able to man the bar on my own. I didn't quite enjoy the six hours I spent waiting in the empty site on Monday morning for the generator and drinks guys to come and collect their stuff. Thankfully, it was a sunny day and I have an iPod. It was definitely a learning experience for me. All in all, it was a really fun weekend, and I'm already thinking of ways to improve for next year. 

Some of the bar volunteers over the weekend.