Sidmouth Festival Diary (Wed)

I am in the Rincon cafe . 

The shop which sells absolutely everything, opposite, has closed. How will I pick up the things i din’t pack or don’t have the space for? 

I went for packing light this year Twelve tee shirts, four pairs of jeans, two turtle doves old uncle tom cobley and all. 

I am officially old so I came up on Wednesday rather than Thursday. Folk week really starts on Friday evening. 

By which I mean I am mostly retired so I don’t have to book days off two years in advance. I am not saying that the main reason I retired was that they wouldn’t have let me take the 2026 folk week off, but….

Putting up my tent was the usual Struggle. It still bends alarmingly in the wind, but it has never collapsed yet. I realise this is like saying that you found the thing you lost in the last place you looked. I assume one day it will explode and I will have to buy a temporary one from the Shop Which Sells Everything, which has, I have said, closed. 

I had somehow formed the impression that it was easier to go to Sidmouth on the Coach than on the Train, since the Coach goes to the Bus Station and the Bus to Sidmouth goes from the Coach Station. This year National Express seems. To be running Fewer Coaches. So I went to Exeter on the train, which is quicker. And there is Bus to the Bus station. So I went on a bus and a train and a bus and a bus and a bus. 

Nothing happened on Sidmouth on Wednesday night, so I had fish and chips and looked at the seagulls. 

I had an early night but the people in the next tent talked all night but i have earplugs. I have a whole quiver of earplugs in fact. I am not going to be like one o those people who quit smoking and goes on and on about it, but everyone should wear earplugs at concerts. 

I arrived in the coffee shop (there are lots of coffee shops) and the coffee shop lady said ‘Hello! Now folk week has really started!’ I am sure she says that to all the regulars, but it is still kind. They do bacon sandwiches and spicy buns. (Neither me or my spell check can spell "cinnamon") 

I will see if I can buy Everything in any other shop. 

If I can’t find any Unofficial Siniging I will go for a walk along the esplanade.