Too hot to handle? Festival founder agrees to sunshine clause in event contract

I’m becoming slightly obsessed with all this rain and was chatting to Big Chill festival founder Pete Lawrence yesterday about the weather forecast for this weekend’s Festinho music event at Hinwick House in Bedfordshire. He told me that he had acquired a reputation over the years for an uncanny ability to bring out the sun. According to a study about weather at UK festivals his former festival, The Big Chill, was recently declared the hottest by average temperature and sunshine hours in the UK.

Ironically, after Lawrence's exit from The Big Chill two years ago, this year's event (my first music festival) was hit by rain, cloud and cooler temperatures for much of the weekend.

I’m not the only one keeping an eye on Pete’s weather predictions. Festinho suggested adding an unprecedented clause to his contract this year for the ‘delivery’ of a minimum number of sunshine hours of sunshine hours. Pete apparently accepted. Festinho organiser Simon Strick remarked "Pete's reputation as a sun god is legendary in UK festival circles and has recently acquired added resonance and scarcity value since his departure from The Big Chill. We stepped in quickly and went for an exclusive with him - he was more than happy to agree to the 'sun' clause in his contract for the coming weekend. It's a bit of fun really but at the end of the day, heads will roll if Pete fails to deliver the rays after such a poor August so far."

I’ll be asking this revered sun god for his forecast for our forthcoming National Picnic Day on Bank Holiday Monday 30th August. Organised by Pete Lawrence to get us all out of doors sharing food and good times with friends and family this occasion is also an early celebration of the impending launch of Pete’s new social network, Pic-Nic Village(which I’m launching so watch this space for more news on 7th September). Like the online community, picnics are all about bringing people together to share good times and ideas. The Pic-Nic Village team and friends will be taking a picnic to the inaugural (and free) Braunston Festival where Eliza Carthy, Sheelanangig and others will be playing. I’ll be packing warm (and waterproof) clothing just in case but am hoping Pete’s new contract with Festinho is a good omen for a dry bank holiday weekend.


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