Philippa Fleming Activist

I have been watching my friends that attend Daxtonbury vicariously through facebook and YouTube for years and i just didn’t want to do that this year, I wanted to be there in the thick of it. In retrospect i think i got a little over excited and was hoping the cannabis was going to get me through the day. Yes you heard that right I got permission from Dax Miller and the team to vape my cannabis medication on site. Thank you so very much for that.

So my day started out on about 4 hours of sleep. My father was coming to pick me up in his electric Skoda to take me out to Poddington. I already knew it was near to Santa Pod (Drag Racing venue) but didn’t know it was nearly a mile further and when we stopped at Santa Pod they had never heard of Daxtonbury or Wold Farm. So we pulled out of Santa Pod and decided to carry on along Airfield Road to see if we could find it. We came upon a dirt track and both my father and I were getting a little confused. But I could see some wind turbines with a car park to the right of them. So i said lets try to carry on to see where we get and soon enough we saw signs for Daxtonbury and found the entrance. We had some help from security to unload all my belongings. I visited the ticket office, the disabled toilets and the breakfast stand before i set off on a walk to the main field. It was a long walk and i should really have stopped along the way to rest. But stopping every 20 metres is a right pain in the you know where so i carried on until i got to the main arena. I stopped at the bar area to chat to a few people i knew and buy a Daxtonbury T-Shirt.

I then went to settle myself front row centre stage for the day. I’d like to say that Rock Bitch is back but i’m not sure I can at this time, I think it’s more like Rock Baby at the moment I just hope I don’t have to start wearing ear defenders anytime soon. One of my special friends was at the festival but had not made it out into the main arena from the camp site as there were issues with some mobility equipment that they were using.

I have no idea what time it was (i lost all track of time which was not a problem and infact probably something that i very much needed). I have quite a lot of friends in the local music industry and some of them were announcing the bands on stage. Kerry Jo Hodgkins (jazz singer and all round lovely person) came out to introduce the next band and said “Hello Daxtonbury” the audience response was blah. So Kerry said come on Daxtonbury you can do better than that “Hello Daxtonbury”. So the response was definately better and both my friend and I started screaming like we used to do a few years ago when we would party all weekend every weekend. But i went that little bit further (as always). Everyone else (including my friend) had stopped applauding but of course i carried on until I ran out of breath (i had been screaming for nearly one minute by this tme) I stopped took a deep breath and shouted “I’m Back” now Kerry did say something over the mic but i can’t remember exactly what it was but probably something like “oh Hi Philippa I thought i could hear ya” and carried on introducing the band like the true professional that she is.

There were people dressed up as film and TV characters and i managed to grab a couple of photos.

After one of the bands had finished there was a procession from the viking villiage. The ring master of this group also didn’t require a micrphone (just like me) and shouted something about a fight about to start in the viking villiage (a re-enactment of sorts). Of course i had to get my gob on and shouted “Is there anyone able to wheel me in my wheelchair to get me to the villiage please”? So i had a bit of banter with the ring master and he said “of course we’ll carry you over if necessary” and then they all buggered off without me. Luckily there was a lovely lady called Janet who was willing to push me to the viking villiage so that i could watch the fight.

Now i really don’t like violence i have to switch of real life news reports of violence as it is a trigger for me. I can watch acting/make believe fighting but not if it really is people getting hurt. But this was a fight with a difference, a bit of girl power with a twist.

The king was trying to marry off his daughter and she was having none of it, so she was going to war against all the men that were vying for her attention. The princess won and had her father on his knees begging for her not to kill him and that he would bow to her wishes. Well i say “nothing like a man on his knees begging for forgiveness”. LOL Of course i jest and i wish that we could all just get along and resolve disputes with no fighting. The twist in the story was that they had another fight in which the priness won again but the ring master just couldn’t let her win and (pretended) to slit her throat and she died. The enactment ended with all the actors lining up so that the audience could get some photos and then they all charged at us. I should have taken a video of that but i took photos instead.

After the re-enactment was finished we went back round to the stage ready for the next band Lycio. Oh my what a fabulous band the singer had a wonderful voice and they were really funky which i love. I really enjoyed this act and hope i get to see them again but they are available on Spotify.

Tweets by lyciomusic

Lycio on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpN9rBftfYUeCjvuKjafrLQ

We were then getting close to the time when the first ever band to play Daxtonbury Festival (when it was Dax and just a few of his friends) was scheduled to play.

The Workshop Boys – Good friends of mine who i have helped with their sound on occasion. I decided that i was going to take a video of them because there are so few of this band. So i had my mobile phone tripod with me and set it up so that i could film The Workshop Boys. I also have a video of their support act but i have no idea what they are called i’m afraid. Sorry about that maybe someone can enlighten me.

We were almost getting to the time of the auction by this point but i was getting hungry as was my friend. We decided to go to the gourmet burger bar to get some food. Which was really good timing because the food stalls were closing down for the auction.

I thought that i might be able to charge up my phone at some point so that i could take more videos. I remembered the charging cable but not the plug so i was not going to be able to film anything else from the day so i have to apologise to Pearl Handled Revolver for not taking a video.

Shortly before Pearl Handled revolver came on stage i was getting really tired and i thought i might be having a whitey because i was being allowed to vape my cannabis. I was vaping at 130c to try to see if the Caryophelene would stop me feeling like this but it turned out to not be so much as a whitey but was in fact a panic attack because the carophelene wasn’t working. I should have vaped at 176c for limonene which is a stimulant and anti anxiety but i was running out of battery power on my vaporiser device.

I was really tired by this time and i was just not going to hold out until my taxi was scheduled to turn up. I decided to call the taxi firm to see if they could pick me up earlier than the scheduled 1 am. This was just before 8 pm. Thankfully they agreed and told me that they would be there in 20 minutes. I knew it was going to take me a while to walk back to the entrance but because i knew some of the people working on the stage i asked someone if there would be a short cut i could take and i was allowed to use the same entrance/exit as the bands were using. Thank you so much to Amy Mason for arranging that for me. So i started a shorter walk to the entrance passing backstage where i saw my friends Kerry (the one i heckled earlier) and got the biggest hug ever (thank you Kerry that was very much needed) and Olivia from the Duzzy Avocado’s who i missed on the friday sorry girls and Easydread who i was now going to miss because i’m now a light weight).

After a quick chat i carried on down the lane stopping to let a vehcle through and got to the entrance. I took everything on the wheelchair off and put it on the floor and collapsed into the wheelchair thinking that my taxi should almost be here. I was however thirsty and required the bathroom facilities. So i relieved myself and went to sit back in my wheelchair to wait for the taxi with a bottle of water.

The taxi managed to find the way to Santa Pod and phoned to ask for directions which i tried my best but then ended up having to pass the phone to security to give directions. I kept getting text messages from the cab firm saying your taxi is almost there. But i even got one that said your taxi has arrived. Well i couldn’t see it and neither could security. I also spoke to the people manning the taxi rank and this person just couldn’t find where i was.

So i got another message with a new taxi having been booked for me. More waiting. The next driver got to Santa Pod gave me a call tried to tell them head for the wind turbines where you will see a temporary car park beside them. The entrance is opposite the car park. This took at least another 30 minutes for the driver to arrive but arrive he did at 10 pm more than 2 hours after i first called the taxi company. It then took another hour to get home. I hate to think what would have happened if i had waited until 1 am which was the time of my original booking. But security did tell me that on Friday night the farm had to use their vehicles to bus people out to Santa Pod from Wold Farm. Fantasically awesome of the festival to do this especially considering the cost of fuel and they were going to do this for me as well but thankfully the driver manage to find us and i was home at 11 pm. (Dax if you know anyone with a drone or dash cam maybe you could get someone to do a video of how to get to Wold Farm from Santa Pod thanks).

I have to say i had a fantastic day as i’m sure everyone else did and i really hope that i will be able to go back. I would like to volunteer at the next one though. It was sad to hear that a few people had let the organisers down & that some of the bands had to be pulled in at the last minute due to COVID illness with some of the booked bands. I have some ideas but i will keep them to myself until i have spoken with the organisers.

In conclusion Dax i have to say that you are an amazing person to allow so many people to share your back garden and what an impressive garden it is. I really hope that you will be able to carry on what must be known as a bit of a tradition now. I know it can get a bit demoralising organising such an event but i tell you now that for as long as i’m alive i will support Daxtonbury anyway i can. You are so kind and caring and give parents of children with disabilities something to look forward to every year. It was such a pleasure to see so many families enjoying the weather, music and other entertainment that was on offer. Hopefully you will have some time to recover from the organisation of this fantastic event and will be able to find the energy and the inclination to organise another one. I will try to help where i can. I want to send you love and best wishes for having such a big and caring heart. Thank you so much.