7 Sisters

After the big bruhaha over their exclusion of transgender women (when male electricians and other site-maintenance workers are apparently fine to have on site) mixed with the shitful way they have treated us in the past (both as performers and as festival guests), I’d really not wanted to go again this year. We’d heard from friends who were booked to perform and do a workshop that after backpeddling over the transgender issue, they had also effectively brought in the politically-correct-police and tried to sanitise everything to make sure they didn’t cause anyone any offense.  Nudity was now not allowed, the “American Tribal Style” bellydance was now not allowed to be called that, lest the word “tribal” cause offense, the drumming circles around the fires were stopped  😦

I really  really did not want to support them and their way of treating people by giving them my money.

But I’d been promising MiniObsi that I’d take her once she was old enough, as she’d desperately wanted to go.  We’d already bought the tickets.  So I left the decision up to her (she was furious over the transgender exclusion as well, but really wanted to go), we did go.

It rained and was windy and horrible for most of the weekend (for memory it was one of the worst storms in many years or something).  But it’s also just not got the same lovely vibe it used to have.  Maybe also because I’m no longer looking at it through rose coloured glasses.   Once you’re aware of some of the way things are run, it does become harder to enjoy yourself there.  But when you’re cold and wet and all the workshop spaces are cold and wet and half falling down – it’s really hard to get into the lovely festival spirit.

Ultimately we enjoyed the weekend, we did some fun workshops but it’s most definitely the last one we’re going to!  There are other hippy types of festivals around, that are cheaper and not run by the people who run 7Sisters.

Our little setup.  We had the 2 tents facing each other with our 2 cars either side of the market tent loungeroom – so that the cars were a windbreak and also everything was tied to the cars 😀  My bunting gave it a little more colour and I’m glad I’d bought foam floor sections to put under the tent floor, as everything was saturated with all the rain.

Not that it was windy or anything, but this tent graveyard more than doubled by the end of the weekend.  So many tents broke 😦  A huge branch came down a few metres from where we were camped – it had landed between 2 women!  Thank goodness they were both ok – though very shaken up!