There is actually a lot more to this blogging thing than I thought. That?s the last time I will put my hand up in a meeting again!!!

Anyway, now I?m here I may as well start giving you some of the nitty gritty as to what I have been up to since Oxegen 2009.

One of my favourite areas at the festival is the Green Campsite.

For those of you who don?t know what the Green Campsite is, it?s basically that Posh, Boutique, Luxury camping area that you get at a lot of the other festivals.  It?s where you pay a little more for some higher end festival luxury and some creature comforts.

Being an avid festival attendee myself, I?m with those who say it?s not really the true festival experience and that there?s nothing beats the sheer energy of the campsite, the joy of finding that perfect spot to camp, the confusion of pitching a tent with those first couple of festival beers (we have all done it!) ? the further confusion of never being able to find it again and the sheer madness and hilarity of the whole thing.   There are however those that disagree.

About 4 years ago we brought Pod-Pads into the main campsite.  The best way to describe them is like little small colorful Wendy houses with a sunflower on the roof.  They have a double bed inside and the sunflower is a solar panel so you can charge up your phone or iPod or whatever.

This worked out pretty well so the following year off I went to the U.K and some friends of ours from another festival introduced me to Tangerine Fields.  This is what I call the hands free festival experience.  Tangerine Fields pitch a tent for you, whether it be 2, 4 or 6 man, complete with mattress and sleeping bags and even pillows and at the end of the gig you just walk away.  A nice thing they do is clean the sleeping bags and pillows before giving them to a homeless charity.  The tents go on to the next festival.

With these guys on board the area literally mushroomed out of control.  We had to get a new site, which is that lovely lush green grassy area up on top of the hill that we are still in today.  We put in the nicer facilities, which really make the area distinct ? flushable toilets, hot showers and its own food units and what not.  I got some help in the form of Tex and anyone who has stayed in the green campsite will know this guy.  He is that wild pirate like man from way out west who treats one and all like his own and will always be found still up at the crack making sure everything is ?just ticking along?.

We made new friends then in MyHab.  They are these great little 2 bed structures that James their owner created for his finals in college and then brought on the road.  The sides and base travel but the top is made of very hard wearing recyclable cardboard so it?s very Eco-Friendly.  Boutiquecamping.net came next to the party with their Tipi?s, Beach huts and even a ships cabin for a big group. Anyone who played Cowboys and Indians as a kid really has to do the Tipi experience.

The area is now a few thousand strong in terms of people enjoying the finer things in festival life and our newest companies certainly are that.  I?m really looking forward to seeing one of Festival Village?s Kabins on site.  Under floor heating, a plasma screen, speakers in the roof and a fridge for your beer.  It really is the MTV cribs of Camping.

Might try and get me one to put my own head down over the weekend.

Until Next time

Niall