Witchfest and back again...

Last weekend was the infamous Witchfest. I love it but its held in Croydon which is a pretty long way away from here. After the Barcelona holiday got doomed I figured that I should still use the bus tickets down to London that I had booked so I changed the dates and used them for the Witchfest trip. This was not the best idea I have ever had. For the first leg of the journey I was the only person on the bus to have someone sitting next to them - obviously I didn't look scary enough - the lady who sat down fell asleep about 30 seconds after the bus started to move and stayed that way until Newcastle. Great I hear you thinking....no. She ended up dropping her head on my shoulder for half the way. At least it was quiet I suppose. The journey really was pretty uneventful, which just added to the boredom of 9 hours on a bus. Anyway I finally got to Croydon and found my hotel with ease. I struggled a little to find the reception desk, as it was on the first floor and there was no sign to tell you that but I got there.

After dumping my stuff in my room and headed out to find my friends . I knew that there were two places to track people down and Jurys was closest (being the next hotel along the same road) I headed into the bar and after grabbing a highly priced pint found myself a seat on a sofa, I spotted lots of people I knew but they were all engrossed in conversations so I waited a while. This obviously got boring after about 3 minutes and I spotted Drew, one of the very first people I ever met at Witchfest in 2003, whose whole group took me in when I didn't know anyone. I tapped him in the shoulder and was nearly deafened by the high pitched scream he gave before he hugged me like I was an old family member. After some frantic chat someone else did something similar and he ran off to the bar so I went back to my seat and started chatting to someone else. Halfway through that conversation however drew arrived back by launching himself across the room at me and throwing me backwards over the sofa, much to the surprise and amusement of the table opposite. (At this point I should state that Drew is both in a relationship and gay so this isn't an unusual thing for him to do to a woman) lots of chatting and a couple of pints later I decided that my bed was calling me and retired.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early (a bit too early really) I got myself dressed and ready for the day in my big purple dress which is a staple outfit for Witchfest and went to get breakfast and supplies for the day. Sorry for the lack of smile but taking photos in a mirror isn't my forte.
I have a running joke with another friend that I have to carry cakes in my basket so I popped into the newsagent to buy some, this really shouldn't have been anything of note but when I went to the till to pay the man running the shop asked me if I was going to Fairfield and what it was all about. Someone from one of the hotels had commented to him that he might get some odd people in over the next few days because the witches were in town! We had a really good chat, he told me some of his background of being brought up in a Hindu mystic family and converting to Catholicism, and how he believes in miracles and magic powers and was genuinely interested in the subject. About 30 mins before the doors were due to open I walked through the drizzle to get in the cue for the day. Through the day I went to several talks and workshops and was quite literally buzzing by the end of it. I met lots of new people and learned a lot of interesting stuff but by the time dinnertime came at 7:30 it was a much needed break before heading back to party for the rest of the night.

Somehow when I got back to Fairfield I could see no one that I knew very well so I sat with a couple that I had met on Friday night chatting and drinking mead.

Theres no photos allowed in Witchfest which is always a shame as there would be some fantastic ones to show of everyone otherwise.

Thankfully the journey home on Sunday was much better, I had lots of legroom and there was only 4 people on the bus! I still got bored though so next time I'll stick to the train.