This Bank Holiday weekend saw the arrival of thousands of Festival programmes from the printer. Boxes of them were piled up at the bottom of the office stairs and I soon found that just staring at them sternly did not help to get them delivered. Fortunately the people that have been organising the Festival for years have a well-rehearsed routine to distribute the programmes to pubs, cafes, visitor information centres and caravan sites all over the southern part of the Peak District.
I grabbed my list of 29 drop-offs in the Ashbourne, Buxton and Bakewell areas, heaved a few boxes of programmes into the boot and spent a couple of hours on Friday evening delivering them to pubs, some of which were unknown to me — honestly! Seeing customers tucking into tasty-looking food as I handed over piles of programmes to landlords made me hungry, and I made a mental note to re-visit places such as the Watts Russell Arms, the Druid Inn and the Miners’ Standard when I had more time.
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| A young volunteer gets to grips with the problem of programme distribution |
The following morning I did a circuit of the caravan sites around Ashbourne and it was surprising to see how busy these were on a weekend when the forecast was not brilliant. They were positively buzzing with families setting off on bike rides, kids playing football and even younger kids charging around the well-equipped play areas. A sudden sleet shower sent everybody scurrying at Ashbourne Heights.
By Bank Holiday Monday I only had a few more deliveries in Bakewell but the place was absolutely rammed, with all car parks full by 11.30am. As I left it was pouring with rain as people patiently queued for parking spaces.
