As Lippy and I walked around the marquees I thought how well laid out they were. Each area of the country had its own marquee and flags adorned avery stall. The marquees are provided so that each area can raise money for its branch. It is not mandatory to have a stall but it is another way of getting to chat to people and make a few pence for our cause. Leaflets cost money, especially the profession type that we use, so every penny comes in useful.
One of the first people I came across is also one of my favourite British National Party friends. He is one of the founders of The British Patriot, the new online shop that opened its doors last week and he has been a British National Party member for many years. His stall in the Welsh marquee was quite big as it contained many of the items from The British Patriot. We had a quick hug and a chat and then off we went for a bite to eat and to look around all the other marquees before I returned back to run the Amber Valley stall.
I managed to find most of my friends, some who I’d only spoken to online, but one was missing… The Green Arrow. We had never met before so I was dying to put a face to the man behind the words. A little while later someone came over to tell me that The Green Arrow, GA for short, had returned from walkabout.
What a wonderful man he is. He is witty and smart and such a flirt. He told me how beautiful I looked even though I knew I looked awful. I HAd been working non-stop for the past two days shopping, cooking and gathering the items for my stall. He knows how to make you feel good about yourself.
Later that evening after we had closed our stalls a few of us arranged to meet. Some of them had arrived in a camper van. Of course Amber Valley Borough council not only took away our alcohol and entertainments licences as they had the previous year, they had also banned caravans and camper vans from the site. Not a problem. I had already told them they could drive to my house, park up and we could go to my local pub for a few hours. And that is what we did.
There were five of us in all. After a short walk we arrived at the pub to a warm welcome from the landlord and landlady, Billy and Kate. A couple of others from the sight rang and asked for the postcode so they could come and join us and we spent the rest of the night in the busy little pub talking about anything and everything. We finally left around 3am and I collapsed into a deep sleep feeling comfortable in the knowledge that I was surrounded by good people.
The next morning I was woken by Roger yanking the duvet off me and shouting at me to get up. We had overlaid. At 7am it suddenly clicked. We needed to get going as soon as possible in order to avoid the protesters. I quickly brushed my teeth, had a wash and after screaming at Lippy to hurry up, rushed outside and jumped into the camper van.
I am not good first thing in the morning. I am one of those people that needs time to wake up before I can get into the swing of things. It usually takes me around half an hour. This morning was different. Roger could see we needed something to get us going and we spent the journey listening to the Sex Pistols. It was deafening but we didn’t care. We were singing at the top of our voices and looking forward to the day ahead.
A combination of British National Party opposers had threatened to disrupt our festival in any way they could and to stop British National Party members from getting onto the site. They tried that last year and failed miserably. Would they succeed this year?
To be continued…
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