So at 1100-ish on Saturday morning, Adam and I set off from Clapham Junction for the drive to Kent. The weather wasn't looking too good, but we were happy to be getting out of the city for the Bank Holiday weekend, Notting Hill festival and all that other stuff that we've seen and been to for umpteen years past.

We made pretty good time getting out of the city, showing up around noon. We had a quick coffee in the farmhouse with Dan while waiting for a sudden downpour to subside. Then we got our gear out of the car and walked up the Cobnut orchard (the largest in Europe, over 3,000 trees) to the campsite.

Plaxtock is traditionally set up like this: on Friday, some folks arrive and help put some of the event tents up, like the Stuffed Pepper Cafe, the main stage tent, the chai tea tent, kids tent etc. Then on Saturday, more people start arriving and anyone who can will pitch in and do their part, be it helping up with the dishwashing after mealtimes, etc. By the time we arrived the majority of event stuff was already up and running so we took advantage of the dry and pitched our tents.

Incidentally, this was Adam's first camping trip - you can see his tent on the right, mine on the left. Guess which one wasn't soaked?

After pitching, Adam and I went to see if we could lend a hand anywhere. We started moving bales of straw around inside the stage tent to make for a seating area that evening. After a while, I was asked to mind the bar for a while (not bad going!). Dad showed up around 3pm and we started relaxing.

I originally thought that I was going to do a full hour's set from 7pm to 8pm, but plans had quickly changed. Instead, they wanted me to do a small set and then lead a good acoustic session around the campfire after they switched the PA off at midnight. But things didn't go as according to schedule as we had planned. Dinner was a little late, which put the music back a bit. Dad had originally planned to go back up to London around 9pm or 10pm, but was starting to consider staying overnight, seeing how long things were taking to get into action. Luckily, Barny had a tent going and offered it up, so he was sorted later on in the evening.

Nothing like incriminating photographs, eh? He's just holding it for someone else!

I got on for a few songs before The Highs and the formidible and mighty Love Grocer. The video for the tent songs follow here:

Tent Set 01

Quicktime .mp4 | iPod Video .m4v | Extracted Audio .mp3

"Encore" Tent Set 02

Quicktime .mp4 | iPod Video .m4v | Extracted Audio .mp3

The night's just starting to wear, but it's still great fun.

Love Grocer finished off around 1am, at which point I tuned up and headed for the campfire.

Just a couple more hours to go.

Time to chill out and relax. Adam (our videographer for the evening), whom you have to thank for grabbing the tent footage, was also able to get some recordings from around the fire. I've extracted the audio from the footage, as it was too dark to see anything but the fire.

• Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out (Clapton)
• Hotel California (Eagles)
• Romeo and Juliet (Dire Straits)

We hit the sack around 3am and were back up for the drive back to London after a quick breakfast. It's a shame we could stay longer, and I feel slightly guilty as we didn't get a chance to be there for the rest of the musicians, people and taking the stuff back down again on Monday, but work officially starts really in full swing on the following Tuesday and preparation is vital! Here's hoping I'll be more organised so that I can stick around for the whole thing next year!

Thanks to Barny, Myf, Chris, Sam, Dan, Sally, Dave, Lucas, Mark, Jake and everyone else who I may have forgotten. Hope to see you soon.