It's Sunday - we are in a another campsite with Wi-fi - It's now become one of the main things to check when looking at potential campsites. The last one outside Rugby you had to sit out on the bench near reception - this one (nr Bridgewater) allows me to sit in the comfort of my own van, surfing the world.

We left Cropredy today heading for Bideford. I was going to say that Fairport's Cropredy Convention was the best organised I've ever seen, from the way they guide you into the camping sites, to the best festival toilets ever (the days of a piece of wood over a big pit are long gone), to the stewarding, to the time between acts - and then this morning they left us to our own devices getting off a very muddy field after 24 hours constant rain - if it hadn't been for a couple of festival goers with a Range Rover and a tow rope we (and a lot of others) would still be there now.

As to the music - a mixed bag. The festival started as a Fairport Convention reunion concert and they headline the Saturday night - so there are a lot of Fairport fans their lapping up every bit of Folk Rock. For my own part, they are a band I'm aware of, have liked bits and pieces, but it was only as they played their set and included a section in tribute to Sandy Denny who died 30 years ago, that I realised that it is largely the Sandy Denny material that I have noticed and enjoyed over the years - the rest, I can take it of leave it.

The other acts felt a bit incestuous, people that the Fairports have played with over the years who are still churning out the same old stuff - hearing a Prog Rock band playing the stuff they played with Frank Zappa you remember why Punk was such a breath of fresh air in my teenage days. Having said that, amongst the highlights were Joe Brown and Dave Edmunds - crashing through some great standards - good music crosses generations; Legend - a Bob Marley tribute band brought some Jamaican sunshine to a very grey wet Saturday afternoon; John Tams & Barry Coope were brilliant (shame that Supergrass headlined that night - the streams of people leaving early said it all); Siobhan Miller & Jeana Leslie were the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award Winners - beautiful music, as was Julie Fowlis' set, didn't understand a word she sang (It's all Gaelic), but it goes straight to the soul. And the Levellers might be growing on Chris - this was quieter than last week she says!

Church this morning was St Mary the Virgin, Cropredy, for what was advertised as a non-denominational Fairport Sunday service. The usual congregation was boosted by a reasonable number of people who had been to the festival and the guest preacher was a regular Fairporter. But that was about all the acknowledgement that their village had been taken over and there were more people than normal in the church. It was a fairly straight forward MOR Anglican Eucharist, with three bland modern hymns and one standard sung in unison - an opportunity to be creative in the way music and word was presented was lost. Although a preacher using a Blackberry for sermon notes was a new one on me - I'll stick to a scrap of paper I think.

Chris's highlights were 96 toilets all in a row (she tried every one) and Bodger and Badger playing to a tent of students and parents.

So on we go to Bideford and what should be a very different type of festival.

I'm interested in space. Not the far away up in the sky full of planets, satellites and aliens sort - but the space we use all the time - the way we create space for ourselves, defend it, encourage others into it or use it to influence a mood or an atmosphere. It is one of the themes that this sabbatical will explore.

Hallfold and St. Andrew's ( well Hallfold more that St. Andrew's) know that I like to change our worship space to fit the occasion - sometimes the church is set sideways - creating a semi-circle and/or making use of the long wall for display purposes.; other times it is in the round - creating a focal point in the middle - the lenten/Easter Well being the most successful example; but normally the congregation are in nice straight rows - and I stand at the front raised and miced - lecture mode, performance mode - at a fair number would prefer that it is always so.

So in our performance arenas are there any differences. The logistics and size of such an events means that the performers are on stage - raised above the audience and wired for sound. They are capable of being seen and heard - and the same must also be the case in a worship setting even when the chairs have been moved (I was annoyed - as ever- at Anglican worship this morning not to be able to see the priest breaking the bread or able to hear the bible reader). On first reflection, the big difference at a festival is that if you want a chair you provide your own and decide where you are going to put it - within certain ground rules; now that might feel novel in church - but was the system before they put pews in! The rules that must be adhered to are that the area nearest the stage is for standing and dancing, there is then an area for those willing to sit on the floor and then the chairs - and if you can't see because someone is standing in front of you then stand up! The sit on the floor and standing areas are quite fluid with people moving in and out of them as the mood takes them, but the seating area is a big hard to shift block.

We like to be floor sitters, we even bought some chairs that support the back whilst sitting on the floor - it allows us the freedom to come and go as we please, but able to be near the stage and able to see what is going on. This worked well for the first two days at Stokes Bay - the unwritten rules were well adhered to, but come Saturday the day trippers arrived, plonked their chairs in the floor sitting space, brought out the cool boxes and settles down to the read the paper . Space had been claimed and was being defended when we turned up looking for a bit of floor to sit on - unable to do so, forced to peer round a post and through the backs of heads) or stand in the middle and obstruct view and I found myself full of resentment.

Why the resentment? I wondered. Amongst a whole host of negative feelings was a sadness for a loss of freedom, I had lost the ability to come and go as I pleased - I also needed to defend the bit of space I had managed to find. I felt blocked out, marginalised - there was a blanket on the floor, no people just a blanket and a book, in prime space - I wanted it, but the rules say leave it, its claimed - and I'm essentially a rule keeper who doesn't like to create the potential conflict (stop laughing!) - so I left the space alone, watching it, resenting it, wanting it .....

At Cropredy the rules are enforced - Stewards set a chair line and stopped anyone from setting up a chair in front of that. We spent the first evening happily on the floor in front of the chairs - a great position to be, but my little back rest couldn't take the strain, so on Saturday we took the camp chairs and joined the seated masses, claimed our space and defended it - just like looking after a pew!

This was written a couple of years ago within
Circles, Squares, Space and People"

AN INTERLUDE WHICH LOOKS AT OUR SENSE OF PLACE
I belong here
This is my territory;
my bit of the world;
my safety zone;
the place where I am familiar.

Marked by regular route,
spatial pattern,
a book, a seat, a view.
Take comfort, relax,
be at home within this space.

You belong there.
That is your domain.
We know the lines,
to cross and uncross;
we have made this place our own.

Joined by mutual need,
connected pew;
a look, a smile, a sound,
relax, take comfort
be constant within this place.

Tread carefully upon identity;
Walk gently over memory
Move gracefully within landscape
for here; we have been formed.