LLAMA.

Had a wonderful day today at the Lynton and Lynmouth music festival. I love listening to almost any sort of music in the open air (except hip-hop which does absolutely nothing for me) and to to bask in the sunshine and have the sea in the background makes it perfect. Even better, it's free and only 12 miles from home. The festival lasts for the weekend but we've always just gone there on the Sunday. Sometimes its been overcast and distinctly cold with the wind blowing in from the sea but today the sun shone until it started going down behind the cliffs at about 7.30. One of the problems with Lynmouth is the limited parking. We got there a little after 11.00 and got one of the last places in the car park. Other years we've had to park in Lynton and walk down the cliff path. A nice walk down but not such fun at the end of the day. The first band to play was an Australian girl, Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halos. They were pleasant to listen to.
Then another band, The Travelling Band, who were also good.

And then a brangra/rock band who were lively and fun. After that there was a band from Bristol , kind of reggae/ska . Their last 2 numbers were hip-hop which I don't like and Peter got very annoyed because it was definitely gangster (gangsta?) rap and he finds the words and sentiments quite offensive.

It's a beautiful setting, down below the wooded gorge of the Lyn Valley, (think Lorna Doone) . All the local hippies turn up plus locals enjoying a day out and plenty of young people many of whom camp at the local campsites. Part of the fun of such events is meeting up with friends ( more in Peter's case than mine this year) and people watching.




I kept spotting sunglasses that I liked and pointing them out to Pete. Funny how many of them were on good looking young men.

This was the sort of event where long hair was common both on men as well as girls. While I've never liked dreads, ( I warned Romas that any dreads would be chopped off by me in the night), this (blond) guy has the the most amazing hair almost down to his knees. Last year he won the busking competition. I think long hair looks good on blokes as well as girls and I love the fact that both Vytas and Romas have hair that is longer than mine. Linas had hair almost to his waist and then he cut it off :( .

There are always plenty of food and drink stands and unlike some of the other festivals where you have to pay to get in, the prices are not sky high. Partially this is because the festival merges with the adjacent pubs and eating places in Lynmouth and unlike Oceanfest the stall holders are not themselves charged an exorbitant fee by the organisers. LLAMA is done more on a voluntary basis and only needs to cover the overheads. A man does come round with a bucket for donations and you are asked to support the site bar which also does some food. We complied by having a fresh waffle (me) and nachos with chili, sour cream and cheese (Pete).

For liquid refreshment , apart from the on site bar and local pubs, jugs of Pimms were very popular.

Or for the more health conscious there were fresh fruit drinks available.

And of course there were stalls selling hippy/indian clothing and jewellery and stuff.

I had a great time checking out the jewellery. Normally there will only be one or 2 stalls like this at the local market but here there was plenty of choice.

You know that nursery rhyme line - Rings on her finger and bells on her toes. Well that described my purchases , except the ring was my first toe ring and the bells were a bracelet made entirely of small purple bells. And there was another ankle bracelet (I was already wearing one), a pretty torque, a necklace and some earrings. And I also found a pair of really wild,, cheap sunglasses in a shop on the street, wrap around, mirrored surf/ski type. All Peter could say was 'wow'. (I was very tempted to get an air brushed 'tattoo' but that might not have gone down too well at work even on a temporary basis.)

There was a recycling theme going on and some excellent craft like these recycled bottles,

and drift wood lights.

Being an open & free festival there were a lot of dogs around. Spot the lab on his back with his paws in the air.

And this beautiful greyhound sat quite peacefully near us.

Just a little taste of the festival music. Sorry about the swinging around style, I haven't had much practise making videos. Emily, told us that a little while ago they had been doing some house gigs when she was approached by a producer/ responsible for doing the music for tv series. He asked her if he could use one of her songs for a series (Wallander)he was doing with Kenneth Brannagh , she agreed and the song got nominated for and won a Bafta award.

It's been a wonderful day and I'll post pictures of Lynmouth itself tomorrow.