My Experience At Fruitfest 2017

My experience at Fruitfest is very different to everyone elses. As the organiser, I am responsible for the the smooth running of the event and the safety and care of the attendees.

Therefore I don’t get a lot of time to attend the activities and take part as I usually would at other festivals.

Despite this, I thought my comments would be of interest to people, stir up some fond memories and also perhaps stimulate some people to share their own memories.

Set Up

The day before the festival the Marquee arrived to be constructed at around 9am. As the event had grown we had hired this extra marquee for additional space.

I was impressed by how quickly it was put up and how well it served us for the whole event as our main dining room, lecture hall and social space.

Potentially in the future I would consider hiring some heaters that could be used at night. The wind did create quite a lot of noise at times as it blew against the sides of the marquee but that was hard to be avoided.

Like clockwork the audio equipment turned up to be set up after. Once again this is something I only felt was now essential as we really needed to have the ability to communicate to a large room of people which would require amplification.

Once again the system worked great with very few issues. Probably we could have done with having more screens or a bigger screen on the stage. It is hard to be able to see a screen as so much light comes through the marquee so we will need to find a solution to that if we use a marquee in the future.

Food Delivery

The food arrived in the early morning too. I realised that I had arranged for the food to be delivered before any volunteers had actually turned up to help unload it (I think I made this mistake before). However, the two guys that delivered it, father and son team Peter and Bradley Martin, were able to unload it themselves and were very quick.

A fridge trailer had been rented to give extra fridge space. I had made the mistake of arranging for it to have shelving which I thought would make it easier for the people using it. However, the shelves simply reduced the space available for storage so we took them all out.

As we unloaded they cut open a few pieces for me to try. As ever, I was impressed with their ability to pick great quality ripe fruit. The bananas could have been picked a few days earlier for maximum ripeness but they have always erred on the side of delivering them slightly under ripe so they know they will not be spoiled during transport.

Volunteers and guests arrived a little later on in the day. We had a simple meal at night and went through some preparations for the next day. Personally, I was started to feel the pressure a litte more now.

In the days, weeks and months leading up to the event I go through some unusual inner stresses. The hardest part of putting on the event for me is these emotional stresses that can feel like a huge weight of responsibility. This culminates in the day before when it is probably bigger than ever. This is why i can say in all honestly that the festival has really shaped me in the last few years and helped train me to cope under pressure.

One of the main things I have learned is making better decisions. When I make a decision I realise it is a decision for everyone there and not just for me or one person. Something that is offered to one person should be on offer to everyone, to remain fair. Making good decisions is hard and it can be very very time consuming and energy sapping to have a lot of decisions to make in a short space of time.

Arrivals

The next day at 1pm was when registration opened. People started to arrive and were shown to their rooms. This whole process was really well planned by Sophie who played a huge part in the organisation of the event before and during the festival.

I was preparing for the opening ceremony in which I was to introduce the speakers. I fetl that I did not do very well with this part of the festival. This is what happens when you are not fully prepared. I was also a little intimidated by the audience who i started to realise were probably desperate to EAT rather than hear me go on!

We had our fruit quiz tonight…once again, I wasn’t there to take part.

Highlights

There were so many classes at the festival but I didn’t get to see that many of them or participate. I did really enjoy the presentation with the Jackfruit at the end. I had bought 6 large Jackfruit just before the festival and they had been sitting in the kitchen for days.

On the last day Kostantinos brought the Jackfruit out and did a fine job presenting it, explaining some facts on the large fruit and showing how to cut it up. It can be a very difficult fruit to deal with so it is essential to get some training. I watched as a crowd gathered round and were fascinated by the exotic fruit and were looking forward to sampling it.

I realised that simple presentations like this can be very interesting to people…especially if the fruit itself is interesting enough!

Spending Time With Friends

It was good to spend some more time with people that I met at other Fruit Festivals years before. It is sort of a full circle feeling to bring them to the UK to teach and speak.

It is good to see a new generation of leaders making their way in the health movement and I proud to have provided an opportunity for them to continue to develop their message.

Dance For Life

I enjoyed watching everyone having fun on the last night with Roger’s Dance for Life session. Roger has been a big part of the festival over the last few years and has helped in a big way with the support groups and now also with providing dance exercise classes and his dance for life session.

He has the rare ability to get everyone comfortable enough to dance without the need for alcohol to be involved…which is unusual in the UK.

Leaving- The Last Day

On the last day, people were leaving from quite early on. I forgot how many people would want to leave a little early to get home for the week ahead. We spent time moving the leftover food into a small tent which the camp site was going to donate to local charities.

The sound system was taken away, the marquee and fridge were getting collected the next day. It felt like a bit of a ghost town to walk around the camp at the end, knowing that only the day before the place was packed with people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr3EFMoZTpA

The Future

Thoughts and conversations turned to the future. The festival had grown again and it seems like there are many people now who want it to continue. There is no reason why it won’t.

I would love to have the feel that a big festival can bring when there is a large crowd, a big buzz and a lot of energy. As it gets bigger there will be a lot of new challenges but at the same time there will be the potential to do some really special things.

I also love the idea of helping others to set up more events like this in other locations. There are already a few discussions with others on doing this. Hopefully we can continue to grow and multiply and set up more events to spread this lifestyle and diet to others.

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