Just So 2015

It's been nearly two weeks since I returned from volunteering at the wonderful madness that was Just So 2015 and I've still not got used to being back in the real world. The reality of commuter trains, smart clothes and household bills just doesn't quite have the same appeal as living in a field, dressing up as a mad fortune teller, and dancing to pirate music...not to mention the wonders of the David Attenborough song (it has now become my life's mission to make everyone on planet earth aware of this song).

I arrived at lunchtime on the Monday before the festival and pitched up my wee two-man tent in the field that was to be my home for the rest of the week. I was quite surprised that the usual nerves and anxiety I get from going somewhere new on my own didn't seem to be making an appearance. There was something about the site and the people that instantly made me feel relaxed and at home.

My home for the week

Just So is a weekend long festival designed specifically for children and their families, that "provides a magical experience where art, music and literature are embedded and entwined in a beautiful and wonderous landscape" and they without a doubt achieve this. I spent a huge chunk of the week I was there wishing that something like Just So had been around when I was little, I would have been in fairy-tale heaven! Scratch that - I was anyway!

The amount of work that goes into setting up any festival in huge, but the amount of effort that went into decorating every inch of the Just So site was incredible and it was amazing to be able to see what was essentially some fields and woodland be turned into a magical wonderland. From the submarine over at High Seas to the Museum of Curiosities in the Spellbound Forest is was just incredible. Don't even get me started on the bunting...hundreds upon hundreds of meters of bunting! So.Much.Bunting.

"The Design Barn"
Photo by Just So Festival

During the set up week, I was mainly based in the Design Barn which was such a fun and creative space to work in and made me realise how much I've missed painting and building stuff. It was brilliant to be able to watch everyone take on their own projects and see them come to life, and then to see them finished and set up around the festival site.

My jobs in the design barn mainly revolved around learning how to become a pro signage painter. Myself and my new friend Evangeline, along with sisters Harriet and Molly (and fueled by an endless stream of tea and giggles) made quite the sign painting team. 

Evangeline and I then got promoted to the big leagues and were challenged to create the signage for the 'Mad and Marvellous Bird Hunt', based on the graphic design for the card game (available to by from the Wild Rumpus Shop (seamless promotion, can you tell I work in retail)). Neither of us having painted anything for a while, we were both a bit overwhelmed by the amount of detail required, but we went for it and were both pretty proud of the results.

After a week of set up (and a slightly frantic morning of last minute jobs) Friday afternoon was upon us and so were the punters! It was time to put down the paint brushes and don the costumes!

On the Friday afternoon I started out running the Strongman activity before turning into the Bicycle Fortune Teller and dishing out fortunes to children with the help of a rather magical bike (I’ll let you in on a secret, there are going to be a lot of Ringmasters working on Mars in the future). I then transformed into a Beetle Attendant to the Fairy Queen at her Grand Ball in the Spellbound Forest. It’s amazing how much love the children and their parents have for the Fairy Queen, there were so many people there it was less a ball and more a fairy mosh pit!

I didn’t start until later in the morning on the Saturday, which gave me a chance to wander around the site and take in some of the festival before I donned my pirate outfit and began training up the pirates of the future. It takes a lot of hard work to become a pirate, you have to be able to talk like one for a start, learn the pirate code, tie pirate knots and design your own pirate ship!

Later on in the day after some intense lantern making (ahead of the parade that sadly got rained off) I had one of the strangest (and definitely the sweatiest) experiences of the festival, I became the Gruffalo. Being the Gruffalo involves wearing a ginormous, heavy and VERY warm costume. Once you've got the head on you can hardly see a thing and solely rely on your guide to lead you through the swarms of screaming children (equal amounts of delight and fear) that descend on you.

Photo by Summer Festival Guide

Sunday, the final day of the festival, was the only I didn’t do any dressing up, instead I sat in the Passport Photo Booth, drawing little passport sketches from behind a two way mirror. I’d like to take this opportunity to formally apologise to any families who had their photos drawn during my shift, you really drew the short straw on that one. I swear I didn't mean to make you all look evil...I'm just not very good at eyes. 

After leaving the Passport Booth in the hands of someone more capable, I headed over the High Seas to help with the Tribal Craft workshops, where people were making masks and noisemakers ahead of the Tribal Tournament that evening. I was helping people make Angie's rat-a-rat noise makers (a genius invention involving some string, an elastic band, a bead and a beer top). After making such a mess of things when Angie had showed us how to make them, I very much doubted my ability to explain, let alone help anybody make them. However, two later I'm pretty sure I could make them in my sleep.

"The Gang"
Photo by Just So Festival

As the majority of the weekend's activities ended around teatime, it meant most of us volunteers had our evenings free to enjoy the festival. This mainly involved practicing our best pirate dancing to the likes of Seas of Mirth and Galleon Blast over on the Footlights stage, getting way too overexcited in the Jitterbug Retro Disco, and chatting around the campfire. One of the absolute highlights for me was Galleon Blast playing "Fairytale of New York" - yes it was August and not Christmas, but it was so surreal and wonderful, you just couldn't help going along with it.

"Dancing to Galleon Blast"

Photo by Rachel Ballard

Volunteering at Just So has been one of the best things I've ever done. It gave me the opportunity to do so many things I would never have been able to otherwise, as well as allowing me to meet some truly wonderful people. Its not every day you get to spend an entire week living and working with such a wonderfully insane and creative brunch of people who all have so much in common. Every person I met who was involved with Just So was so genuinely lovely I left feeling like I'd know them all for years not days. 

Until next year Just So
xx


If you want to see more photos from the festival head over the Just So Facebook

For more information about the festival check out justsofestival.org.uk or this video of Just So 2014
Interested in Volunteering? You can get all the info here and also watch this video