Glastonbury. Big. Bright. Bold. So much going on, but sometimes you spot a tiny gem of a tale shining out from all the colour and cool (and shed loads of rain at the moment!).
For us, that’s a little postcard stall and it’s run by Hester - who’s currently up to her eyes in the shed load of aforementioned rain, setting up stuff for when the festival kicks off on Wednesday!
At her Festival Postcards stall, you can buy an ace postcard, a stamp, write your card and post it in a box.
Twice a day the guys on the stall leave the festival on a bicycle to meet a Royal Mail van and send tales of Glastonbury all over the world. In the days of email, text and social media (as much as I love it most of the time) this is all sorts of awesome! This brings back memories. Really good ones.
I bleeping love postcards. Sending a postcard was one of my favourite things about going on holiday - carefully selecting the image to sum up the brilliant time you were having for 2 weeks of the year (if you were lucky)!
When one picture on the front wasn’t enough, I used to draw tiny little sketches on the back too… and how I looked forward to receiving them. Even more so these days really, because it’s pretty rare. When a girl I met on Twitter sent me one from her to trip to the seaside recently, I knew she was a good ‘un and we’d be mates!
Anyway, the idea for Hester’s postcard stall came from her parents. They wanted to take their children to festivals and needed to find a way to afford it, so they designed some postcards, made a box and sat under a tree next to the Cider Bus at Glastonbury Festival in 1981 :) It worked. And it’s still working. A simple idea that fills us here at the blog with nostalgia and joy - and although Hester runs the stall these days, the whole family still go to Glastonbury together. Cool family.
The other thing that caught our eye about Festival Postcards is the Glasto competition they’ve just run. They asked people to email in their photos of Glastonbury festival, say why it’s their favourite pic and 3 winners now get the chance to see their images printed as postcards and sold on the stall this year. Here they are (plus post box obviously!)
For each winners card sold, the guys will donate 10p to Amnesty International and since 2010, Festival Postcards has donated over £3,000 to the charity. This is why:
“From the very beginning of Amnesty International in 1961, people have written letters on behalf of victims of human rights abuses. Today, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people throughout the world challenge cruelty and injustice by taking a few minutes to write a letter.
Glastonbury festival gives us all an opportunity to engage in a few days of freedom, expression and creativity. Since 1982 Festival Postcards has been offering festival goers an opportunity to share their tales of fun and frolics by sending a postcard from the festival.”
So… if you’re off to Glastonbury this week, go and say hello (they’ll be at the end of the row towards the Pyramid) and send a postcard. For us, there’s no better way to get that ‘wish you were here’ message across!
Have a good one x
P.S. Follow Hester and Festival Postcards on twitter for rain updates and lots more - and the good news is the forecast is much better for the weekend! :)
