September Festivals 2022

Saturday September 3rd 2022

Over a month since our last festival so we were very excited to be travelling to Jersey for the Weekender Festival at the Royal Jersey Show-ground.

We were flying from Liverpool John Lennon Airport so we arranged to get there for about 8.30 as our flight was at 10.50.

Keith and I arrived early at 8.07 so we decided to check in and get some breakfast.

Thought it best to get a good meal inside us in case we decide to have a pint before departure.

Eventually we caught up with the others in the departure lounge and had a look at what was on offer.

Carl and I had a couple of pints to settle the nerves before the flight.

Took no time at all to get to our destination as we were travelling on a brand new Airbus!

We were met by drivers hired by the festival to take us to our hotel – The Merton.

The Derby was on TV so while the others watched it in the hotel, Carl and I made our way to a pub – The White Horse.

Unfortunately they weren’t showing the football but they had a beer garden next to a beach so we ordered a couple of pints of Liberation Ale from the bar.

They also had a brilliant food menu so we ordered salt & pepper calamari which was fantastic!

We had one more pint of Liberation each then walked back to the hotel as we needed to head up to the venue.

The festival was busy and we were quickly shown to our dressing room.

Keith came round with the food order, I went for the foot long hot dog!

Our good mate Mick Potter had come away with us…

and Carl’s lad Chay was our guitar tech for the day!

Time to limber up as we could hear The Pirates finish their set!

Just a medium vodka for me for nerves…

The crowd were building up nicely as we arrived on stage.

The following great pictures courtesy of photographer Matt Noel.

The crowd were brilliant and we got a great reception.

After the show we all met up with my lovely guests from Jersey.

Then disaster! The beer ran out😕

Cold hot dog it is then?

At least we had nice neighbours…

Great to see these guys again!

Then!

We decided to go out front and watch The Proclaimers, they were great!

We then enjoyed a drink in the crowd listening to Hot Dub Time Machine.

Then to finish the night we all had a good laugh at Barrioke!

It was now getting late though and about 9.30 we got the message that the bus was leaving so we all headed back stage one last time.

We got the driver to drop us off at the White Horse…

and we spent a couple of hours watching the waves and the moonlight.

We then spent the best part of an hour trying to find an Indian restaurant…

and a further hour trying to find the hotel😫

Considering we’d been drinking for the best part of 15 hours, we all still rejoiced at the sight of the hotel bar still open😀

One more drink for the road and then we staggered off to our rooms. Not an easy task in a hotel where the ground floor reception is marked as the 4th floor.

Anyway, what a great day out we all had!

Sunday September 4th 2022

Check out was 11.00, I think most of us made it to the breakfast buffet. Alex had a very healthy one…

The flight was scheduled for 2.50 pm so we all set off to the White Horse to be picked up at 12.15 for the airport.

The pub wasn’t serving food till 12.30 so the others missed the chance to sample the salt & pepper calamari.

We had another pint of Liberation Ale and enjoyed the views…

With heavy hearts we set off on the 20 minute journey to the airport.

We found out that there was a delay!

So some of us jumped a cab to a surfers beach bar…

while the others checked in and played cards…

The waves and views were fantastic…

All refreshed, we jumped another cab back to the airport.

We still had to wait an hour or so for our flight so we ordered something to eat and drink…

Eventually our flight was called and we all wearily trudged to our gate reflecting on the great couple of days we had just had.

Thank you Jersey