The transition from Jazz World to the West Holts Stage took place in 2010. Exploring the old hard drives for this year confirms my memory that it was a hot one with a number of photographs demonstrating the many creative skills our loyal audience deployed to find or create shade. We’ll come to those shots later, but for now, why don’t we start here? A number of ‘behind the scene’ technical improvements were introduced this year to accommodate our growing audience, along with new stage dressing, but as yet no side screens had arrived.

Often in terrestrial rain, the site crew in 2019 built the stage. This was the very moment when the weather started to turn. Standing in the field, me and the site manager (Martin) were taking 5 minutes over a brew to discuss progress and looking like Vietcong extras in a Rambo film.

What I recall at that moment was the instant cheer echoing across the whole site as if the sun king had returned from a long lost vacation. The rest, as they say, is history. Within a matter of hours, the forecast had changed from Thunderstorms to full-blown heat and sun. Great news for everybody, but for the team a whole new set of challenges. They so often go unmentioned, but the site crew are the unsung heroes of the festival.