Diary Of A Couple Of Festival Virgins - Day 3

We were up at the crack of 9am today to make sure we got to the Waterstone's Kids' Literature Tent before 10am. Why would we want to be up so early of a Sunday? I'll tell you why... Tony de Saulles. That's why. Who? Only the man that illustrates all the Horrible Science books, that's all!

My drawing - attempting to copy Tony's one

Tony de Saulles was giving a masterclass in cartoon drawing for the children. So, off we went. We were the first there. Thomas sat on the floor and we were both given paper and pencils. The tent filled up with families and the Tony came in and showed us how to draw. Check out Thomas's masterpieces.

Learning about facial expressions

Shark eating piranha and getting eaten himself

Dinosaur eating dinosaur eating plant

How cool?

Very cool!

Where do you from here? Who on earth could follow this? There is only one man who could. The author of The Grunts, Philip Ardagh. He was absolutely hilarious, with a very impressive beard and a bottom that's so sexy, he was afraid to turn around ;). He gave a great talk and finished off by showing the children how to write a story by getting the children throw in ideas and act it all out. They were great and so was Philip.

What a morning!

The author/illustrator talks are worth coming to the festival for in their own right. Just look at the amazing experiences Thomas has had. He came out of school not wanting to read, and yet on Sunday morning, the first thing he asked for was a book to read. Nice work Wychwood and Waterstones.

My lovely friend Helen then came to the festival and asked which crafts and workshops we'd done. How embarrassing. We had been so busy with the music and the literature, that we'd not really been into any of the other tents.

What a mistake! There was so much to do and I quickly discovered that we had barely scratched the surface of it. So, we set to work making a giant hand while Helen made a really beautiful pair of enamel earrings. We also got to join the Drumming Circle. I really loved that. It was incredibly uplifting and a lot of fun. We didn't sound too bad either!

We headed into the BBC tent too and listened to some up and coming local bands. Great idea! Some really good bands too. Let's hope these sessions give them the breaks they need.

Then we listened to more bands, including Lee Thompson and Mark Bedford from Madness and then, finally Lord Saint Bob of Geldof hit the main stage. What a show! How on earth does a man in his 60s have so much energy? We were so close to where the Boomtown Rats were. Check out my pic of Sir Robert of Geldofshire!

The crowd was great too. People dancing with complete strangers and everyone having a ball.

A magnificent way to end the weekend.