Going camping for the weekend is a bit nuts.
There’s all the shopping and packing and driving for hours and erecting the tent. Two days later, there’s all the cleaning up and packing and pulling down the tent and driving back home again.
It’s exhausting! I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.
But it was also kinda awesome, because I didn’t just go on any camping trip, I went to Nookfest 2016.
And Nookfest was … yep … BULK FUN.
The vague story behind Nookfest is that five blokes own a farm south of Sydney and thought it would be great to hold a music festival there, with the farm shed as a stage.
Cool, huh?
There were 500 invited guests … and 14 port-a-loos.
I was a little freaked out by those odds. But it turned out I rarely had to wait more than two minutes for a wee. And the water to flush them lasted all the way until Sunday morning …
The youngest LOVED it and is already saying she wants to go back next year. Not so much for the music, more for the stand-up paddle boarding in the river. She freaking LOVED the stand-up paddle boarding.
DD’s son plays in one of the bands booked to perform there – they’re called Jester and they’re very, very, very good. How do teenagers get to be THAT good at 17?
Their gig was scheduled for 6pm on Saturday night.
The rain started bucketing down around 5pm on Saturday night.
Bummer.
We got VERY wet watching Jester and have resolved to take more changes of clothes next year.
Braidwood also gets surprisingly cold at night in March. Especially when you’ve told the eldest MANY times to pack a jacket and she still forgets one …
Other than that, watching Jester perform totally rocked.
The next band was sort of death metally. The rain had stopped by then, but you’d swear by the horror on the eldest’s face that it had gone torrential.
She may look a little emo, but she’s sooooo not.
Turns out she’s far more the David Bowie glam-rock end of the spectrum.
Nookfest’s line-up wasn’t all heavy metal though, there were loads of excellent duos and cover bands and bush bands and soloists.
There was also a colour run – I’m still snotting blue stuff out my nose.
It was my – and the kids’ – first colour run and we were blown away. Not just by the pink powder in the fire extinguisher …
So. Much. Fun.
But the clear winner for the youngest was the river. She refused to leave. And I have the sunburn to prove it.
It was a huge weekend. The music was still blasting at dawn on Sunday morning. I may have moaned a bit about THAT …
I felt slightly better about my geriatric grumblings about the NOISE because a teen member of Jester was also pretty pissed off about his sleep being interrupted.
He stomped up to the barn/stage in a huff to discover about 10 people swaying in the dirt at 4am while the DJ lay passed out over the mixing whatsit DJs do their thing over.
We wobbled home around 2.30pm yesterday afternoon .. and DD and my ex finally met for the first time … in my front yard.
ARGH!
Unlike most crazy events in my life, it was oddly mundane.
They smiled, nodded, exchanged small talk and shook hands.
It was all very civilised … which didn’t stop me silently freaking out …
How was your weekend?
Wish me luck today, it’s going to be a tougher one than camping with port-a-loos. And not because of lack of sleep.
But I’ll always have Nookfest …
Thank you Dave, it was SUCH a great weekend.
housegoeshome 
Sounds like a great time although I’m still not sure camping is for me !! LOL
What great fun! Looks like a real blast! 👍
As for DD meeting the ex, it had to happen sooner, or later, and glad it was no problem.
Me? Trying to pack my house with a twisted ankle and a stuffed knee for my move on Wednesday….lucky I have my very own nurse to take care of me with regular ice packs and compression bandages! 🤕🤗😍
I’m glad your nurse is taking such good care of you Geoff!