Future Goals and Closing Thoughts

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No the naughtiest thing that some of our guests do is they might have a cheeky fag, but you just go to them and say, do you mind out these And they're ever so. Oh really? He was walking around bare fur. Yeah L that. R the festival is so great.'ve got we've got her eyes eyes on eyes Level of efficiency was so amazing. Do you know the only person Who was freaking out? Wh Lynn cau Inside I was like, oh my gosh, what is going on, right? Lynn wears a four inch heel, doesn't do a drop of yoga, breathwork, meditation. We had walks, podcasts. We had music, DJ set. DJs at the air. Everyone has a good old dance. Exactly. I love that moment. Last year we had the rain at Tat, so people were actually dancing in the rain. Dancing in the rain. And the reaction was so good. We were like, right Let's do this all over again Hi everyone, it's Fern here. Welcome to Happy Place. I am very much looking forward to having a chat with you today because you're going get A little sneaky peek into the inner workings of Happy Place. Of course we've got our podcast, which is what I'm doing right now. Obviously we've got our marketplace and we've got our brilliant book club as well. But a major feature of Happy Place is the festival. And it's now in its sixth year, which is unbelievable. I still kind of can't believe that we do it every year. It's wild. So I thought today I'd give you a sneak behind the curtain, which Now I've said it out, loud sounds quite rude As to how that all happens. So if you've turned up on the day and you've seen it all or you're intrigued Find out more withith the wonderful Nikki Darling from Team Hay Play. He my Darling. How are you? I'm good. good, good good. They just so bonkers because normally Niickki and I would be around a board table in a meeting room discussing Every minute detail of the Happy Place Festival because of course it's two weekends in the year. But this is an all year round gift.. That's what I'm sort of intrigued to get more into and to sort of express this to everybody listening the The amount of time that takes to put this festival together and the amount of thought and brainstorming and problem solving which we'll get ono is literally just all year round. M M' a monster. Yes. If you think back to our first one, which was twenty, well, we actually did pop up I think was twenty twenty eighteen, I think it was. ye. We did a tiny pop up two hundred people there And then we were like, Ohh, it worked. Yeah, let's do a proper one cut to six thousand people in Chizig. Do you think we knew what we were getting ourselves into? I think we probably thought it was just going be one year and that would be it. I don' think knew what we were getting ourselves into, but I think we always knew it was going to be something special and the reaction was so good. We were like, rightight, let's do this all over again Yeah. I mean, that's been the beauty of it. It' that people do want to come along and Part of the work that takes that full twelve month cycle is us going, oh, people seems to like this, Oh, that didn't work. And we can quite literally be reactive and then make it what it is today. So let's talk a bit more, first of all about your role. Tell everybody what you do, what that involves and a bit about yourself. I kind of do everything on it because I'm very hands on. So I kind of oversee marketing, the kind of PR side, the op side, the content side and work really closely with kind of our team who that we have like leads in those areas as well. So I suppose the book kind of stops with me. So yeah, I'm involved in every single aspect from kind of the event looks like, who we're going to have at the event, like how we sell the tickets, what the website looks like, Obviously we workre really closely with the social team. So I kind of like to sit across all areas and obviously we work really closely with this cell But we have an amazing team. I've got a really really great team who, you know kind of support me. and yeah. just looking forward to the events really in terms of like what we can do differently like you said because every year we do try and switch it up a little bit as well. We do. I mean we had a meeting literally yesterday. We had a long old meeting about every element of this summer's festivals and some stuff that's happening next year. Yeah exciting thatbe we can't talk about. But we do quite literally come up with ideas in those meetings that we hadn't planned to even discuss. And yterday we had someome cool ideas about some extra guest we might get along and what we could do with them. There is a huge amount of creativity behind all of it. It's not just Where the stage is going to go, where are the lose? It's dreaming up these big ideas that we then get to bring to life. It's exciting. Yeah, it definitely is. And I think also we do do like our survey after the event. So we really want to hear from our you know audiences like what they enjoyed, what we could do better, what they want to see more of. And we're really reactive to that as well. So yeah, we always try and switch up You know, our workshops, our classes, the content that we've got, making sure that there's enough there for absolutely everybody, which there is. there's something for everybody. Everybody. One example is like a couple of people came to us last year and said I socially get quite drained or overstimulated. I just need somewhere to go. And we've got a little quiet zone this year where you can just take yourself out of, I mean, they're not we try to not overcrowd it because we don't want people to feel like, oh my God, there's so many people here. But even if being in a yoga class or a meditation or a talk is overstimulating, you can take yourself to our quiet zone. and just have a breather on your own. So I think that's a really clear example of us going, oh, right, okay, we haven't done that. We need to listen to what is actually desired on the day. And then try make it happen. Yeah, definitely. and that's what we are really reallyactive Even like to one festival to the other. So if we feel like something Ps didn't work at our first festival, we'll then adapt that and change it for our second festival. So we're really respond you know we react really quickly to anything that we think doesn't work and we can switch that up and we can add stuff because obviously our festivals are a couple of months apart. So that does help. It really does help. I think we've learned so much from the first one to where we're at now. Oh gosh,es. And you obviously normally learn through things going wrong. Oh yes Which we've had many of. Like the thing that freaks me out because I'm a control freak is that at a festival, anything could happen. There's so much you can plan in the year and we are so organized. You're a Vergo, aren't you? I'm in Leo. Oh you' a Leo? just before Vergo.. I knew you were close We're fucking organised. It's like everything is just so, we know how we want everything to be. But then on the day or the day Any could happen Let's dive into this a little bit.. Let's maybe first we'll start with year one. So this is twenty nineteen, the first time we' done a festival on a large scale We're at Chizk. B weather, Yes. the sun was shining. It was gorgeous We were really just it was trial and error in all areas. What do you wish we'd done differently that year I think One of the things was probably the toilet situation We had slight toilet situation, didnt? And I think we basically from that we learnnt that we probably need more toilets and better toilets, even though the toilets were wonderful. but I remember a certain somebody having to deal with a bit of an unblockage and yes We're not Glastonbury, we don't want no shitty drops. No We have nice toilet. We have beautiful toilets toilets are amazing, but I think we needed more toilets I think in our year two, we upp that, but we do have stunning toilets. They are very posh and we do get a lot of feedback on how lovely our toilets. We do Every year peopleople are like, o my God, the ls are amazing. That is so important Noough, especially we have a lot of women come to the festival. you want a nice peace stop Yes. I think from that year what I learned was we need more food trucks. And also Big learning was don't put a big guest on point where the guest will finish talking and it's luncht time. because we had I remember we had a big guest on and then we had this huge on remember now Exodus and everyone went to go and eat lunch and it was like, o and it was just a simple thing that we hadn't y considered. So that was just an amazing takeaway. we were like, right, okay, let's not do that again alsoso from that year, I mean, I had Even on the days themselves, the most amazing feedback of people coming up just saying, this is amazing. This has been like missing in my yearly festival schedule, like just something really chilled The other thing I have to remember is you always get one There's always one person who wants to have a Mayor. Yeah Always and they'll come up to me personally and tell me to my face and I'm like and then I have to now I don't do it. but on that first year, I went on such a down because some woman came up to me and started having to go at me about something. and I was like God, we put so much work in and it's just like one thing that you didn't like and I felt so devastated. She went to me something like Rylland's the only good thing about this festival. And I was like, o my Godd. And we'd literally just had like the biggest beautiful yoga class sound baths over. There'll always be one person that you can't polase. in life. Yeah. Oh yeah. And you can't take heed of that No, You can't. onlyn take the critique that is worthwhile Exactly. Exactly. The other mega days that I remember was it twenty twenty three it was Windgate. Aark you now. So right, C to. The Friday, the last day of the festival build, We had a torrential rain. I turned up to have a walk around the layout at Chizick And there was seemingly goose shit on every bit of grass that was visible And at that point I thought I think I'm to do a runner. I don't want to do tomorr I don't want to come. I don't want to be here. It stopped raining, but then we had seventy miles hour forecast. Yeah, we had Windgate, we call it. Windgate and we had. Obviously been in contact with the local authority is because every know actually, Hester and I have been on our local authority meeting this morning for an hour of fun where you meet with ambulance, police, council and you just go through everything. So Hester and Russell had been in contact with the local authorities about the wind. We had our own wind machine where it tested how I know how fast the wind speeds were And we had to have a meeting with Cesa on Friday, which I don't even think I' even told you about. I don't think we did, because othert we like to work where they basically said there is a certain point where we will have to close the festivals down if it goes above. And that was on the Friday morning and then by the Friday evening the Tusic House had said to us R you're good to go because they've kind of been like monitor in the wind. So we only really got Ab seven, eight o'clock on the Friday night, the thumbs up that we could open on the Saturday morning So it was and I don't think we told you this because we didn't I'm glad didn't. becausecause I just was thinking about goose shit that night rather than also it's not going to happen. Yeah. But it was even touch and go the day after because I remember turning up Oh yeah and there were like tenents flapping in the wind. At one point we had Tom Grennon in the talks todayam about to do a live podcast with me And the howling winds were like whipping around. And one of the tent poles came out. and these if you haven't been to the festival, these are major tents, huge, big stretch tents.. And one of the tement poles flew out. It was still obviously standing, but health and safety wise, it's a no go. We've got to get everybody out You, Hester, Russell, the whole team acted so quickly to move Hundreds of people, ye in a herd to the outdoor stage where there was no rain so everyone could sit and happily watch the live podcast It was just the level of efficiency was so amazing. Do you know the only person who was freaking out? Who Lynn Cotton? L My my mum. Wh' she? My mum who loves the drama. Yeah She came up to me backstage and she went, What's going on And I went, Well, we've got to move everyone because of tempple Yeah. What? Oh my go. Oh no. I was like, and then you're just calmly moving five hundred people across a field and Lyn's freak out. Shall I go or shall I stay? Do you want me to stay??rould you recognize your guys? I don't care if you go or stay? We've just got to deal with this insane emergency that's happening right now.. But I think we can prove to us that we can mitigate reallyally big out of control dramaers calmly Yeah. And that was just such a resilient building moment for the team, I reckon. Yeah, I think it was. it was quite interesting because inside I was like Oh my gosh, what is going on right now Be before again, we weren't sort of bringing you across this, but we were taking things down because we were losing things. So like at one point I said to Russell and Hester, get the flags down. I've got to do this. So as the day went on, we were kind of like adjusting the festival throughout the day. and then J just as the talk was about to start, Rusll was like, We can't do this. I was like, we have to do this. So yeah, we moved everything. but I remember I stood because there was a you know where they do they have all the sound desks and stuff at the centre stage I was stood holding that down throughout the whole of the talk because I thought this is going to lift up in a minute. It's going to go. It's going to be like the wizard boss. It is going to go. It's going to end up over like Richmond shortly. So we were all kind of, I remember just looking at the whole team. Everyone was kind of holding on to something around R it was just sort of looking at me to sort of say And I was like looking at him and I was like, come on, let's get through this. let's get through this. and we did. We did it. And it was brilliant and it was a great talk. And actually we managed to get more people there. because we did We did, didn't we? Yeah It was just a good weekend all round. and I think for me allowed me to think, right, that was that's my worst nightmare is the weather being badad. And we did it. Yeah. we did. And we've had little rain showers here and there then and we cope and then we've had Seriously hot day. Last year at Yanersbury Park for the happappy Place Festival Nar to London, we had what was the temperature in it was thir thirty, easily thirty. It was so. I loved it. Yeah I wasn't having to run around with a high v jacket on. I love being hot. only small problem I had was in the big tent for the talk because it was so bright that I would just have my eyes closed throughout all the podcasts because couldnt I couldn' open it. It was so bright. I was just like this. I couldn't see my guess But it was so brilliant It was gorgeous because people somen bathing and laying out, but also then for you as a team, you're working under extreme situations in terms of You're running about, you're moving things, you're dealing with insane amounts of people With that heat going on, probablyro not eating and drinking enough, didn't you faint? I had a slight moment, yes I went down on Saturday about four o'clock and Laura went down probably about ten minutes after me because I think it was the buildu because actually felt fine on that Saturday, but I think it was the days ahead of it was so hot. and we were drinking like we all had like electrolytes, we were literally all looking after each other, but you couldn't drink enough. You couldn't drink en of water. And it was The Saturday actually once everything was open and it was when I got into calm stage. I just suddenly started to feel I was Running around to an area just started feeling a bit woo Yeah. And I went down and then Laura went down, but we quickly bounced back and we were at the team meeting by six. So I know you were. I know. There's no stopping. And then it was fine, but yeah, it was I think, you know, two of us sort of having a slight wobble was good actually in the circumstances, but it goodness me it was hot. was hot It wasn't any real kind of like chy shel It was a hottest weekend by far. Oh, I mean I love. the audiences were absolutely loving it because they were just like mooing around, they were in there, you know getting an ice cream, he's having, you know, the coolness and things like that. but yeah, it it was a hot one. It was a real hot one. It was. We also, of course, because we have so many amazing talks. Yeah. For me that is my favorite part of the festival, notot even just the live podcast that I get to do, but just Like walking past the talks tent, it's always overs spilling with people Yeah because you've got back to back amazing stories from like even this year, right? So if we look at our lineup, I think it's our best lineup. stunning. We've got Tisa. We've got Tom Reed Wilson.. Matt Hay I am just such a megap fan off. He's been on the podcast He's just, you know, one of the world's biggest authors. He's incredible. Ruby Wax Literally can't wait canan't wait. It's gonna be amazing. Can't wait for Ruby. She's so brilliant. Ruby and also I've interviewed Ruby before and you can have all the notes in the world. Yeah. She won't follow them. It will go off on a tangent that none of us are expecting. But to sit and listen to someone who's not only lived a life like that, but has gone off and had this second chapter studying mindfulness, getting a degree, A masters, I think you. She is just incredible She's fascinating. Lucas Jones, a really interesting person for us to have there. Jordan Stevens, who had a huge crowd last year at the festival. He's doing Great things in the men's mental health space. just got the most solid lineup. We've also got Sam Thompsons's just on board as well as his sister Louise and her partner, Ryan to do live podcast That for me is so brilliant. But of course on the day Sometimes people either can't get there for whatever reasons or drop out. and we had one big guest a few years ago in Manchester at a Taton Park venue drop out on the morning. And again, that for me is like worst nightmare. It was for a live podcast with me I was absolutely panicking. It was actually my birthday. So I remember waking up like, o, these birthday texts and then blah blah was pulled out. And I was like Yeah birthday ruined. Luckily called Dr. Ron Chassy Yeah, who lives two seconds away. do. And he went, yeah, yeah, I can tell up and do a podcast B biggest crowd. He was so loveful. audience in thealm of his hat. So again, we problem solved. we made it happen. Yeah. Thank God. Yeah, than goodness. it was amazing. He was so stunning as well. And he was walking around barefoot. Yeah. L that. The festival was so great. It was brilliant. What would you say your big highlights have been over the last few years Goodness meate. So I think well, being in our sixth year is a massive highlight to me because I'm like, you know When we first started it, it was like I think it was all just such a whirwind when we first started it. I remember going with Russell and I looking for the venues, like going around looking for the venues ant I was really heavily pregnant, I think, with Rose. So when we found the venues and then we put it all on sale and you know, it was such an achievement to do it. But now being in our sixth year, we went through COVID as well, remember? We did one We did a digital one, whichich was unbelievable. We actually, we have to pause this Yeah because we were mad. Yeah. We decided Yeah because we'd all gone slightly to do Lally in the pandemic We decided to not just do a weekend of online festival activity. We did every single day, weekdays and weekend his full schedule for a month. I don't know how we did that. Why did we do that? I' know but everyone got involved. It was a family affair. My sister was watching videos for us. It was so great. I had like no one had anything to do. So it was great. Everyone was so involved, but it was unbelievable. And you look at the numbers that we got the amount of content that we created The figures were insane. They were the yoga classes that you could do. I mean, my sister was lo and it sheself Yeah. We had yoga, breathwork, meditation. We had wks, podcasts, We had a music, DJ set. D't we? But we did every day for We did some live stuff. You actually went out ld a bunch of live talks. I mean, we I was grateful because I definitely needed a distraction like the other people, but it did feel like We kept our happppy placel community really engaged, but also it was a real two way street and we were all in it together and it felt really beautiful. but that was mad. crazy wasn't it? That's got to be alight for us I think, as well. I think that, you know I think we should put ourselves on the backat. I do as well. That was yeah, that was definitely a highlight. and then coming back into the festivals But I think some of my highlights are seeing how like we've got the best shopping there. I mean, it's such stunning..'s beautiful. Like you go you know, and seeing how that's grown from When we first started it in twenty nineteen to where it is now, I mean, it's notort of shopping village Yeah. The commercial you know, the commercial girls like Marcia and Matilda and Natasha do so incredible. amazing job because Every single product is so beautiful and the storeholders, the exhibitors are really lovely people as well. They're so it's such an extension of the Happy Place brand, how lovely they are and how love they are to the visitors. Our visitors are really lovely. So it's just such a nice atmosphere when you've got everybody who's on the same page as us. So I think seeing how the exhibitors have grown. everyone's in there sort of Chatting because the brand owners, they're often small brands A lot of them are female founded, all of them are UK founded. So you've got, you the brand founders chatting to our festival revelers and telling them about the product and their interest in the product. And that feels like a real lovely little social hub. I mean, again, my mum will come to the festival and only go there s walking around the shopping bit trying to get blag a few freebies treating herself to some little bits and bobs. but you got everything in there from clothes to jewelry to tea to vitamins. It's just I love the shopping's amazing. And I think then like I just I love all the workshops and classes. Laura and Jenna do such an amazing job and the variety and like, you know, obviously We do have repeat, you know, teachers and you know, guests.' part of our family no exactly. but we do try and you know, mix it up a little bit each year so that there's something new. We've obviously got our new area this year, which is super exciting. You can come and try some hula hooping. You can do I' never been able to hul hoop No, neither have I terrible. terrible. terrible. I don't know why. My hips don't lie And they just it just falls down. So it's I'm really bady there. Yeah I do know someone who's really good at actually, but anyway, that's for another another time story. Yeah. And then line dancing. ye, I absolutely love line dancing. so I'm gonna to be in there. I'm gonna might wear the shirt. Yeah, get a cowboy uply. And then silent disco. la. yeep. And looking at comedy as well. Yeah nice. I mean, all things that make you instantly feel happppy It's so great. I'm really buzzed about that area. I think it's going be a place where you can just pop in, put a smile on your face and then leave happy. Definitely. And you know, you can drop in and you know do these taster sessions and then you know, see if it's for you and then take it on for your journey after happappy Pace. Yeah M maybe line dancing iss new thing. Exactly. O hula hooing Hula hooping, this is it. I'm going have to get in there But there is something for everybody. So if you're not into, you know, like yoga or if you're not into kind of like doing a sound bath, but you want to try something, then you know, this would be the area for you, Happy Hub. So You can come along to the festival and you can go for a talk, go shopping. and you know the food food good. food's amazing. food's so good. I'm gonna to have to eat about eight lin. And Tester, who heads up all the operations is just you know, it's done such an amazing job on the layout. So there is so much thought that goes into everything we do in terms of like how our visitors move around the festival. so it's really accessible and easy for them and where they sit to make sure there's enough chill out areas We always have water on site as well to make sure that you can just bring your bottle and top your bot whenever you want gcery. Yeah. You know, we are non alcohol at the event, which everyone always comments on what a safe space it is. It makes such a huge huge difference. I mean for us, it's an absolute no brainer. Yeah. I certainly don't want to have responsibility of people pissed out of their heads doing a yoga class. That is a bad idea. So you know, if you want to a musicestival and get shit face, I'm not to judge you. I've done that a mill times I love doing that, but equally Come to Happy Place and know that you're going to be in a safe space with no drunk morons throwing beer everywhere and getting out of control. everyone it's a leveler Everyone's there to feel good, try something new and leave feeling better when they arrived, whichich I don't think you can say for many festivals. No, exactly. And that's really important. I think yeah Like even all of the, you know, like the security teams and people working, they always say to me, it's just such a nice event to work because you haven't got to deal. No declared someone who's like peed in a field or like, you know, gone off wandering somewhere. I mean, I think the naughtiest thing that some of our guests do is they might have a cheeky fag But you just go to him and say, do you mind c out? And they're ever so. Oh, really? But he's always the same person. I always catch the same personally And it's normally at Tatan, they go off into like the trees trees. Yeah. That's hilarious. I mean, one year we did have a man t up with bows and arrows. Yes, we did to confiscate. Yes, we did And he did I mean again was rather wonderful with him and she's very diplomatic, but she was just trying to explain to him that, you know, in the world that we live at the moment, it's probably not the best thing to walk around with even though inos Angelles they were dud I don't know why he does some kind of thing with them. She was just saying it's just not being considerate to, you know, it's a female audience and you know, let's perhaps not do that I mean we do say every year, obviously like I mean, there's so much to go into this one, but Obviously, I'm a woman And I have a big female following podcast wise Mail podcasters weirdly do get a big female or more equality, they'll get men and women listening. Men don't want to listen to women talk, supposedly. Yeah. So I have way less men, disproportionately less men listening to the podcast, therefore less men turning up the festival, but it's not just that I think wellbe weirdly has always ed to women. And you know we have loads of male teachers on the day, yoga teachers, breathwork practitioners, meditation teachers, people running creative workshops, arts and crafts, certainly you know, probably equal men and women in the talks ten. Yes, telling life stories or giving advice, etcer. But still there's so many women there. and every year, you know, someone will come up to me at a book signing and say, I should bring my husband next year or I should bring my brother and his mates. And there is still this weird Myth that we need to bust that wellbe is just for women. No. L we talk about this internally at happappy place all the time, but wellness, well being, whatever the hell you want to call it, is simply feeling alright. Yeah. You don't have to do yoga. You don't have to do a sound b. Fe good, isn't it? Itust feel good Theks the talks are so feel good and happappy place heroes Oh my God, this is actually my favorite bit. I've got so many favorite bits. Yeah. tellell us more about Happy Place Heroes. This for me I get nervous doing this bit.s there's so many sides to Happy Place Heroes. the organisation that Amelia does beforehand and works really hard on that, you know, And then there's the actual on site bit and there's two sides to that. There's the comedy side to it, which I'll get into. and then there's the actual stage side where we're all crying. We're all c anyone hasn't seen this at the festival, basically We surprise someone in the audience by saying You've been nominated by your best mate or sister, whoever. You are our happy place hero. We've giveiven this amazing raptous round of applause. They come on stage, I chat to them. We've got a surprise video all about their life. It's the most beaut wholesome thing ever seen, but behind the scenes, you are stressed to your tits. justust because they so it's like we go we go undercover. You're literally delight. we are Penelope who I work with within the live team and I sort of and Matilda and Emelia we're all trying to find this person and we who doesn't know that they need to be found? No, and sometimes they go wandoering and we're on the phone to whoever they're with and they're like, Well, she's g off here and we're like, well where's she gone? And then there was one last year that Her husband had put her forward but she didn't know her husband was coming or someim we had to hide him, I remember And and then it was literally we're all on our like walky talk a walky talk is our radio sorry Hester. We're in our radios, walky talkers We're on our radios and we're like, yes, we've got we've got her eyes on, eyes on, eyes on. and then we're We're then running up sort following them without trying to not follow them, making sure we've got eyes on them in the talk stage, because obviously then you've got to climb over them to get them through around the back. So it is it's an undercover experience, but then you've done that. your adrenaline's really high, but then actually when you're sitting down, then you just you end up crying your eyes out becausecause you've gone from like adrenaline adrenaline and then you your remote you just like so but it is one of my favouritees. I absolutely love the happ to sayeroose I love that b. I love that. And we've done so many lovely things in the last few years to really make sure Whoever turns up feels like They're getting something super special. So I lo last year that we left these yellow envelopes around the site. and they were hidden. It was like a bit of a treasure hunt. And if you found one, it might say, go to this store and you get a free water bottle or go over here and you'll get a free smoothie or you've won yourself a BA voucher. like it was amazing sort of small prizes to high end prizes that were just Or you could jump the queue in the book signing area, or whatever. That was love lovely. I think thinking of more things like that is makes the experience so lovely the festival go up. Yeah, definitely. They went down so well and we put it out on our socials beforehand so everyone knew about it. So when they got there, they were looking for it and you know literally as soon as in the organized office, they were coming up with the envelopes and like, oh, I need to redeem this. I need to redem this. and they were so happy. They were like so excited. Yeah the most gorgeous crowd of people. Every time, you know we walk around just going, everyveryone here is really nice. And what I've really noticed in the last few years is an increase in people coming to the festival on their own. Ohes, which is actually a very brave thing. I've only been to one event on my own, which was an Elton John gig. I love that. And I felt really odd wal It's a strange thing ve got sort of awkwardness have' gotten on to talk to, and you're just sort of standing there waiting for the show to start. But we get a lot of people braving it And then they end up like meeting people and having a chat and then like leaving a little group. and that's just so love. love. And I'm on the gate every single morning of the festival opens. I'm on the gate because I love to meet the customers and like talk to them and then you get to see them around. And you do, you have like conversations.'s like, oh, I've come on my own, I've booked this, I've booked this, I've book this, I want to go here. And they've kind of like done their itinerary. but then they do make friends because when they go into the talk stage, it's you're all on benches. you can sit down next to somebody and share an experience. But yeah it's really It's a very collaborative festival where you can come you've got groups of girs but you've got mums and daughters. You know, you've got families like mums who bring the husbands along and their kids because we've got a fantastic children's area right. I mean, like literally, it's one of the best children's area.'s early. My godaughter last year whose fall was doing a fairy workshop. The best cameameway with wings and a wand couldn't believe It's just such a great space for the kids to play around leave them with the dad and then the mum can go off and have a nice little s bath and have a moment to herself. If you were to turn up to the festival as a unter Y. what would you go for? Right. So I'd arrive, I'd go for a coffee straight away.. Then I would probably come and watch you first, obviously in the morning. Then I would go and do a sound bath. Yeah. I'd do yoga. I'll go into the happay hub. and then I would do the shopping Yeah. and then I would go centre stage and do some open because the centre stage is fantastic because it's so, mean it's such a It a joyful moment when you've got like, you three, four hundred people there all doing like an activity and it It's moving a lot of time. It is. It's really like collaborative and it's really like everyone's just there no one cares. lies No. And that's what I love about it. So I wouldd go and do something there. I would go up to the bookstore and book signings all day. Amazing. And the bookstore iss lovely. you know, there's so many fantastic books there I would go and have some amazing food. What else would I do? There's the Expressive arts. Oh I love that. I love it Like literally, like when they're doing the poetry read and honestly, you can it's so crazy because it's you could drop a pin and you would hear it. There's so much respect. the audience, our visitors are so respectful when someone's reading poetry or their Reiting something. They're just they're so respectful and they're so quiet. It's so gorgeous. We're so ly you've had Donna Ashwth for the last amazing life. and she's back this year And she is someone that can command Absolute concentration you know, you can turn out to that area whenever you want and sit and listen to her, read her beautiful poem. And it is just lovely moments of excit. I try and just walk past it and have a little pit stop here and there just to like soak up some of that lovely energy because That's the one thing I guess for us is Everybody else is having a lovely g time. We're all like we're sprinting across. Yes yes, yes, we do. We do. It's like rushing ck coffee everyone's like, have you done anything here today? I'm like, are you joking? I've done two book signings, two live podcasts, I'm about to do a little private chatting Yeah like its Absolutely manic. So I do have fantasies about just going as a reveler and enjoying it and thin, what would I do if I what sort of workshop? I'd love to go do one of the arts and crafts work? Oh,es, of course. yeah, the arts and crafts. We've got everything in there from like watercolors to jewelry making and it's just always again, a nice place to sit and always try and pop in there and chat to everybody and see what they're making. And then you get to take something home with you. look amaz. And again, like some of you know my friends come up to the bestestival, they absolutely love you away with things and I think my daughter did a class in there as well. She absolutely loved it. But again, it's just such a nice environment. it's so chilled in there because we do We do, when we're looking at the floor plan, make sure that we put kind of anything that's a little bit noisier in one area. and anything that requires real calm and real chill in that area. So we do you know Hester and the team are so good at like making sure everything is in the right place. Yeah so that it's The audience have such an amazing time and they're not like doing in a class and there's like someone on the centre stage like playing drum and bass. Exactly. Yeah, which And we do that the end of the day. You have DJ's at the air. everyone has a good old dance. Exactly. I love that moment. Yeah. It is wonderful. That's what I think people have like they've got to hold out the festival And they do just let loose and people are sober dancing. One of my best mates, Rebecca came to Chisick a couple of years ago And she was dancing. I think it was Robert de Bank was on stage playing music And she was like, I don't think I've ever danced like this sober. Like everyone's kind of raving sober in a field, no one cares, inhibition's gone. That's just such a lovely moment. Yeah it is. And I think last year we had the rain at Tatan so people were actually dancing in the rain. in the rain. He Take me dancing. Yes. in the rain And we don't often need to blow our own trumpet in a really overt way., but I think we should because our ticket prices are so low. Yes And for a whole day out of everything we've just said That is something that is important to us making this festival and well being as a whole accessible If you look at all the other events and festivals, we are down there at the low end making sure that people can come along at a fair price and have a bloody great day all whole weekend out. Yeah, I think we are. And also what we do do is make sure that you can you don't because obviously you can book extra classes, but you don't have to do that. There' enough there So you don't have to book extra classes, so you can just have your ticket priceed. But if you want to add a class on, you can do. And you know, they're only the bookable classes so that we can, you know kind of like cover our fees to pay for like, you know our obviously has to do that on a business level But it's not like we to pay the team. We have to cover of course we have to do. But yeah, we are really inclusive in our ticket pricing. And as I say, there is something for everybody. So you don't have to book a class. You can just come and spend the full day there doing absolutely everything that you want to do. So yes. you could do a whole day of like watching walks and shopping. likeike my mumes Lynn wears a four inch heel. Lve it. Do doesnn't do a drop of yoga, buys a load of stuff in the shopping area, watches a couple of talks. goes home. Lovely job.'s had a good day out. Yeah I'm so proud of what we're doing But what I will say is we couldn't do any of this without you and the amazing team and you are so exceptional at what you do. So I want to say a massive thank you to you, Nkki for All the hard work that you put in year in, year out and on the days themselves are absolutely bonkers. than. And we could do this without you and you know you being our kind of like inspiration and you know we love you lots and we love doing it. And here's two many more We'll be sitting here maybe in another ten years. key, I'll be close to sixty. God al. I will be sixty I want be s thinking about it It a streak in my hair by then.