Ain't Talking 'Bout Dub - Camperjam 2016

Last Thursday, after two days mostly spent washing the Glastonbury mud from our clothes and abstaining from alcohol, we loaded Gilbert with vintage clothes and headed eighteen miles down the road to Shropshire's picturesque Weston Park with two questions uppermost in our minds, would the BBC's forecast of unseasonably cold weather, rain and high winds be true and was Brexit going to affect customer spending at Camperjam?

After five hours we were set up, a whole three hours faster than the Acoustic Festival three weeks ago.  After our traditional first night camping dinner of grilled Haloumi, Mediterranean couscous and a couple of cans of gin and tonic, lulled by the sound of rain pitter-pattering on the awning roof, we slept for a solid 12 hours.

WEARING: ME: 1960s linen maxi dress with massive stylised flower (borrowed from the Kinky rails)
JON: Turnbull & Asser shirt, vintage Austin Reed waistcoat, 1960s Farah trousers (all charity shopped)

Camperjam doesn't open to the public until 2pm and, after 9 years of attending as both campers and traders, we knew Friday was usually a slow day for shopping. Most of the ticket holders want to park up, crack open a can, chill out and catch some evening entertainment with a quick rummage through the auto-jumble for a much needed car part or an emergency purchase to replace something they've forgotten to pack. But, as the blue skies of Friday morning were replaced with grey, the temperatures plummeted and the rain lashed down, business was brisk, with shoppers snapping up our vintage knitwear and the abandoned Glastonbury 2016 wellies we'd rescued from the car park last weekend and scrubbed clean. The rain was so heavy that the trade tent, for the first time in three years of ownership, started to leak and it was so cold that despite wearing two coats, my trusty sheepskin hat and alpaca mittens I was still shivering.

WEARING: JON: Pal Zileri shirt, 1960s Farahs, vintage John Collier blazer, tan leather belt & brogues (all charity shopped)
ME: Vintage polka dot maxi, 1970s majorette jacket (charity shopped)

The torrential rain kept us awake for most of the night but by the time we opened at 10am on Saturday morning it had stopped and, as we'd had the foresight to move the clothes rails into the middle of the tent away from the leaking side seams, the stock was mercifully dry. The weather was chilly but dry- ideal festival shopping conditions. We were so busy that it was 2pm before we'd even cracked open a cider and we had to subsist on a packet of Lidl cheese straws as there wasn't a chance to make anything to eat. Over the years we've seen the house tribute band so many times we know their set list off by heart and yet another poor rendition of Mr Brightside held little appeal so, after selling yet another fabulous maxi dress to a lairy stag party, at 11pm we closed the shop and turned in for the night.

WEARING: ME: Me-made 1970s duvet skirt, customised 1990s crochet top, floral headpiece (handmade by the divine Desiree)
JON: (as Friday)

On Sunday morning we were awoken by sunshine at 6.30am so we opened early to catch the day visitors. Normally Camperjam Sundays aren't great for trade but we'd taken a gamble and upgraded our pitch to a busier location and it paid off, doing a steady trade in hats, shorts and crazy 1980s shirts. Normally we shut at 3pm but the customers just kept coming and we closed when the main gates did, at 5 pm. We packed up, said goodbye to our trader friends and made it back home just in time for the France-Iceland match.

The BBC's weather forecast was pretty accurate but did Brexit affect business? There was certainly a marked change in people's buying habits compared to previous years. Although the average spend was lower but the number of people who bought from us had increased massively meaning that at the end of the weekend we'd taken 60% more money than last year but is doing well financially the be all and end all? 

Vintage VDub porn

Voodoo Street, auto jumbles and Glitterbugz - cool indie businesses in amongst the corporate monsters

Both of us feel Camperjam has moved away from its original ethos of a good, old-fashioned family-friendly van meet. We've lost our enthusiasm for wandering around, finding the mile-long trade area overwhelmingly corporate and the lovely vintage VWs on display have gradually been outnumbered by soulless, shiny new ones (they might be reliable but they just aren't very inspiring to look at). Although the pitch fees have increased, space between stalls have decreased to become virtually non-existent, so much so that we got through two packs of joss sticks in a desperate attempt to disguise the next-door neighbour's obsession with grilling meat and don't get me started on being subjected to Absolute 1980s FM at full blast from 8am every day - there's a limit to how much Phil Collins, Dire Straits & Chris Rea any sane human being can endure. Yet again, despite returning a completed trader's feedback form every year, the portaloo situation remained woefully inadequate and, if you had time to stand in a queue of 30 people to use one (we didn't, we were just too busy to leave just one of us alone on the stall for that amount of time) the toilets were invariably blocked or out of loo roll and hand sanitiser. Will there be a Camperjam 2017 for us? The jury's still out.

Linking to Patti and the gang for Visible Monday and Judith's Hat Attack #36.

Gilbert, pop-topped, set up and ready to trade.

In the meantime we've got two days to restock & recharge, we're off to trade at Cornbury on Wednesday.  

See you soon!