WHILE The Rolling Stones, Arctic Monkeys and Mumford & Sons grabbed headlines at Glastonbury Festival last weekend, behind the scenes Frome people played a key role in creating a “festival within the festival” at the popular Avalon Field.
Traders from Catherine Hill joined forces with caterers, sound engineers and musicians to bring Frome’s creativity to the festival.
John Evans, owner of The Garden Cafe, Frome, brought his vegetarian cafe to Glastonbury. He said, “I’ve been coming to Glastonbury with the cafe for about 20 years now, it has slowly evolved each year. This year our cafe is quite possibly the biggest on site. I feel lucky to be able to provide food I like to eat myself. I run both cafes here at Glastonbury with my daughters Gemma and Saffron. Each year we grow bigger and improve the service we offer, Avalon is like a festival within a festival, the last stop before you reach the famous Shangri-La.”
Sound engineer Will Angeloro was approached by John in 2004, when he took on the task of managing the stage and sound for the Avalon cafe. “What started as a small set-up has, over the years, evolved into something great. It’s the biggest event on my calendar because there is nothing else like it. There is a big Frome community behind Avalon and it gets better every year.”
Without power, John’s cafes and Will’s stage would be useless. This is where Mike Boden, Frome electrician and owner of Temporary Power Events, comes in. Mike is in his 16th year at the festival and has a big role in making sure the Avalon field has electricity flowing 24 hours a day.
Mike said, “It’s been really successful this year. Each year the job changes because the stages move position; it’s a big responsibility but I work alongside a good team.”
John and Will’s cafe stage played host to popular Frome band Port Erin. The festival veterans lined up at 9.00pm on Saturday and only had none other than The Rolling Stones to compete with! Port Erin played some favourites along with songs from their latest three-track Ep.
