Finally, we stopped at a garage and asked directions. This led us down some suspicious looking country lanes, and eventually we came to a roundabout on which somebody had tacked up differently coloured signs on the exits reading simply "Car park this way". We made a wild stab in the dark that this might be something to do with the festival, and followed them… It was not a particularly auspicious start to the day!

Upon arriving, we got hopelessly lost trying to find our way into the car park. The road into Belhus Park led straight into the band's private car park, and we realised that we should have turned off onto the grass further back. This we now did, and had to navigate through an assault course of barriers and fences and across a bridge to get to the public car park. There were no stewards to guide us until we got to where we were supposed to be.
In the organisers defence, we have to say that there was a small sign on the gate AFTER we had parked and walked back to it which apologised for last minute problems with the car parking arrangements - but by then red smoke was pouring from peoples ears. Would it have really been so hard to put the sign at the entrance to the park before we went in, to warn us of what to expect?

But all this, of course, was incidental. We had come to enjoy good music and soak up the festival atmosphere. The Thurrock Music Festival is now in its fourth year, and has sprouted extra bits and pieces such as a funfair and expensive helicopter rides around the site. Stalls had been set up all over the place, selling everything from cakes to five-foot wooden carvings of giraffe. Then, of course, there was the drinks tent.

The advertising clearly stated there would be six stages, but we thought this was a bit sneaky. We had a good look around in our capacity as nosey people, and came to the conclusion that there were actually four stages, plus an enclosed disco area called "The Freaky Disco" and a tent known as "Biosystems" in which a very large sound system had been installed with speakers that were clearly designed to blast your hair backwards from your head should you be foolish enough to stand in front of them! I couldn't help feeling this was a little like a nightclub advertising a music stage and then providing a DJ instead when you got there.

Our initial scepticism over the arrangement of the four main stages was put to rest straight away. At first glance, it looked as though they were arranged so close together that we would be able to hear all the music mixing together - but having listened at each stage, we have to thoroughly congratulate whoever was in charge of the acoustics. The playing areas were arranged in a diamond shape in the middle of the main field, and as we walked from one to the other the sound just gently faded away and was replaced with music from the next stage - we knew that, just a few metres away, the "Frantic" stage was blasting out the latest moshing sounds, and yet we could hear nothing but the relaxing blues being played in front of us!

Throughout the day, 56 bands came and went from the four main stages. They were divided sensibly into genres, so that people sitting at the "Compound" stage didn't suddenly find a soft guitar band being followed by a punk act. Visitors were able to select the stage that was playing the music they liked, and plonk themselves down in front of it for the day with a ridiculously overpriced can of coke and a hamburger.

Around midnight, the headlining acts came on to entertain us. Some of these, we had never heard of - others, such as Blutarsky and the Gwyn Ashton band, are well established. The only down point was that Eugene Speed was not playing as billed in the guide, and we didn't find this out until the time we expected him to come on. Still, you can't have everything.

We had a great time, despite the few niggling problems I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, there were not anywhere near as many visitors as we had hoped - and the people we spoke to agreed that this was probably down to the apparent decision to do most of the promotion on the Internet this year. Nobody I spoke to afterwards had heard of the Thurrock festival, so read into that what you will.

Over the next few weeks, we will be featuring some of the bands that were playing right here at KlubKat - so check back soon for more info.

And to the young woman in the fairy outfit, which would've made a perfect festival photo for this article, I'm sorry to say that the shot didn't come out! If you're reading this, and you have a photo somebody else took of you at the festival, we'd love to use it on the site - just drop us a line at webmaster@klubkat.com

You can read the original promotional article for the Thurrock festival (uploaded July 2000) here.