The event is now getting very near, one moment all those bits and pieces we need for the event will not fit into the car, we need a van.  Quick look in yellow pages, and discover that there is a van hire company just down the road from where I live. Quick phone call, wow that is cheap, book van.

Wednesday, pick up van so can load it up ready for the event. Have you ever watch that episode of St Trinian’s, where Terry Thomas owns a Bus company called Dreadnought.? Well that was what I had walked into, the second van we tried started, and allowing for the slight pull to the right it seemed ok.

Van loaded, and it is of to the event site, arrive ok,  Karen, and Loz are already there, as well as Jay, Kim, and family.

First job put up the Marquee,  quick look around the site, there is a nice flat spot.

Karen holds centre pole, Paul, and myself start to put in the four corner poles.  Centre pole  falls over, almost concussing Karen.  Try again, this time Paul holds centre pole, Karen and myself start to put in the corner poles, Centre Pole falls over almost concussing Paul.  Ok time to read the instructions.  Ah  need to put the corner poles up first, finally get the marquee  up, just about to put the last peg in. Just then a shout comes from the pub landlord; “You cannot put the marquee up there, that is for the Caravan Club of Great Britain“.  “Err we were told we had the whole of the camp site”?   “No you have got the whole of this section here”. Pointing to a section of grass, about four times the size of the marquee.  “You said we had the whole of the field.” !“No I said that bit”.  Remember what I said about getting everything in writing, yep lesson one learnt.

So Marquee put up for the forth time, this time it goes up, and stays up.

Right time to get something to eat,  Get out that WW 2 petrol stove, the one that had been REFURBISHED, fill up with petrol, pump it up, light it, what is that liquid spraying from the tank, WOOOMPHHH !!!!! Six foot flame,  panic, there is half of a gallon of petrol in there, try putting on sand, all that did was gave it a bigger area for the flames to spread,  there was then a frantic five minuets of frantically trying to put out the flames, knowing at any time the thing would explode. Finally managed to get a CO2 extinguisher from the pub, which put it out.  Elaine shouts; “What are we going to do now”? Waddy’s reply; “Make a salad”!

Friday morning, Waddy gets up at seven, Elaine goes off to purchase a new stove, Waddy starts to say; “Hello”, to the early arrivals.

As the people arrived the camp site started to fill up, it got to the point where Waddy had just got everybody in, when a short wheel based Land Rover arrives full of sound gear. “Hello” said Waddy, “Who are you”? “We are Nicks advanced party”, came the reply. “And how many of you are there”? “Thirty, with twenty tents”, came the reply.

Right better get all the cars off the event field, to make room for Nicks party.  Once everybody got their cars off, Waddy managed to squeeze everybody in, although the word cosy was an understatement. Hodges even had to use some of the Marquee tent pegs to hold up his tent.

Saturday morning, “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT NOISE”?

Have you ever been within five metres of a hot air balloon when it is starting to fill up with hot air? The noise is horrendous, and within a short period everybody was awake.

Now that everybody was awake, it was decided that after the luggage was created to allow the children. To paint  the  luggage as an extra children’s activity. This was to lead to an event that was never intended, but still survives to this day, but more of that later.

At the time as there was no committee  the first volunteer was Oook (not DWMOOK), who with his wife volunteered to look after the children, and give them things to do,  and so the youngsters were named ooookids, and they were known as Aunty and Uncle Ooook, the youngsters are still called Oookids even now.

Saturday  afternoon it was time for the Masquerade, there were several entries, and the winner was Loz as Death on a Motorbike,  later it was time for the auction, the charity was select as Cancer Research UK,  this  has been the Wadfest charity every year since.

On the Saturday night it was time for the Magic Show,  Waddy was expecting  a short amateur show, what he got was a full blown very professional Magic Show,  everybody was very impressed, and Lupine got several people coming up after and thanking him.

Later on the Saturday evening, Waddy decided to join Loz, Lupine, Hodges, Kev, and a few others for a late night drink and chatter. The question was asked;  “There will be another Wadfest next year won’t there?” Waddy’s reply; “Well got to see what the feedback is like, plus as it was set up as a cheaper alternative to the Convention, if there is another one it will not be till 2004”, the reply came back;”No you didn’t understand, THERE WILL BE ANOTHER WADFEST NEXT YEAR!!!”.  So it was decided there and then to make Wadfest an annual event.


Sunday  morning was time for luggage wars, the first heats were the adult heats, after the adult heats, due to pressure from several children, because they had painted them, the Ooookids were allowed a go, this was to set a president that was to continue every year after.

Later on Sunday it was decided that there had to be a group photo, this was duly set up and taken.

All that was left then was to say goodbye to everybody, until the next time.