On Friday morning at just after 8am we set off to Indietracks, the festival which combines indie music with vintage steam trains and is held at the Midland Railway Museum in Derbyshire. When you spend a large part of your life working outside you become mildly obsessed with the weather and our constant visits to the BBC weather website over the previous few days had told us to expect sporadic showers & a fresh breeze but for it to remain warm and on Friday it certainly was, by lunchtime the thermometer in our tent registered 38° degrees. Not that the heat troubled us, we set up in record time.
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| Testing out our changing room in my work wear! |
After a quick once over with the wet wipes we changed, grabbed something to eat, cracked open the booze and rolled open the shop front ready for the gates to open at 5pm.
The evening was balmy, business was brisk and headliners, The Lovely Eggs, sounded amazing. By the end of their set the heavens opened and most of the festival goers retreated to the bar, returned to the campsite or jumped on the festival train back to their respective hotels. We shut up shop and tumbled into bed only to be awoken in the early hours by torrential rain and thunder so loud the van was shaking.
Unlike Cornbury and Larmer Tree, the Indietracks gates don't open to the public until 11am and in previous years Jon & I take the opportunity to explore the site for a couple of hours. This year it was so windy and cold we stayed firmly put watching Matt, the sound engineer, battling the elements to ensure the speakers on the main stage could withstand the gale force winds. The wind finally dropped to be replaced by torrential rain and plummeting temperatures....arghhh!
We were kept busy selling jackets, scarves and old skool sportswear to festival goers caught out by the inclement weather. Nat (above with her partner, Sarah) is a longstanding Kinky Melon customer, this year she snapped up this super funky 1980s silk Peck & Peck power jacket.
The Indie kids are made of stern stuff and braved the inclement weather.
Luckily - come rain or shine- our wellies & coats are always in the van. Not expecting it to be quite as cold neither of us had to foresight to pack anything else warm - Jon borrowed the hat and the tracksuit top from the rails but ended up selling both items to desperate festival goers later in the day.
When I packed this psychedelic nylon maxi (bought from a chazza last week) I was a bit concerned that it might be a bit sweaty to wear, how wrong I was, I was bastard freezing! The good thing was that at least the synthetic fabric dried quickly - no soggy hem for me.
Super cool Parisian band French Boutik spent ages browsing our rails, leaving with a decent haul of vintage goodies (including the 1970s metallic belted leather jacket and Peter England paisley scarf seen worn below). Merci, mes amis!
Despite the weather the Saturday day tickets were a sell-out and the festival was buzzing. Many hardy folk ignored the rain and danced to the bands performing on the main stage whilst others made their way to the indoor Church and Engine Shed stages or were entertained by bands performing on the steam trains. The craft tent offered everything from bolo tie making to fanzine workshops and, new for this year, the Indie Kids tent hosted an under 5's disco playing everything Indie from the B-52s to The Smiths (those children are going to grow up to be so cool).
Saturday night headliners, British Sea Power, were brilliant. We did have plans of going to the indie disco (the adult one!) later but were so cold we went to bed fully clothed instead.
Sunday saw yet more rain, a trip to the Portaloos was an ordeal in itself with both of us returning to the tent looking like someone had thrown us in a wind tunnel and chucked a bucket of water over us. I'm glad I'd packed my crochet, yet again exploring was out of the question. Jon did a happy dance when he discovered an old pair of white jeans stuffed in the bottom of our overnight bag, no more cold knees!
As I'd only packed halterneck dresses I borrowed this cotton fully-lined maxi dress with sleeves from the rails.
Not surprisingly the site was very quiet for the first few hours but eventually the festival goers emerged from their tents and made it to the arena to watch the likes of Wolf Girl and Boyracer.
At 6pm the rain stopped, the sun came out and it finally felt warm and my Thomas The Tank Engine dress got its annual airing much to everyone's delight.
You may remember the gorgeous Jude from Indietracks 2016 (here)
We're crap at selfies!
After Blood Honey closed the main stage we rolled down the shutters, poured ourselves another drink and packed up the stock, setting the alarm for 7am so we could take down the stall, drive home, wash and spend the rest of the day in 'Spoons.
Despite the wind, the rain and the horrible cold we had an absolute blast, trade was brilliant and takings far exceeded the past five years. Our vintage clobber is now gracing the backs of Indie kids as far afield as Paris, Rome, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Vermont and Newcastle Upon Tyne. Let's hope bloody Brexit doesn't spoil the fun for this wonderfully multi-national festival.
See you in 2019, Indietracks!
We've got next weekend off which is just as well, we need to do some serious vintage shopping.
Linking to Patti & the gang for Visible Monday.