Cambridge Folk Festival - Part 2 – Folk Power

The sparky boys go to great lengths to protect people on site. The electrical installation is managed by Pearce Hire. As well as their bizarre habit of using cable ties to tie cables, they dig most cables which cross a public area. This is not unusual but these chaps do it with some panache. Rather than plough a furrow with a blade attached to a forklift which rips the grass, the turf is lifted and folded back, cables are buried and the grass is replaced - very neat, like everything on this site.

But it does not stop there. They then go on to spray zig-zag lines along the replaced turf to mark the location of the buried cable. Where the cable trench passes trader pitches they add a little narrative detail, such as DANGER ELECTRIC CABLE with little lightning flashes between each word. Adding a belt to the braces, they will then visit any trader with a pitch in the vicinity of a buried cable and point out the location and nature of the hazard. What could go wrong?

This is a potentially slanderous generalisation:  Traders are a particular breed and have their own rules. They are usually charming and helpful on the way in to ensure they get the best pitch, good vehicle access, passes that make life as easy as possible, parking and camping space as lose to their pitches as possible any other facilities that may be available.

At this point tunnel-vision sets in. They become fully focussed on getting set up to trade and they turn into an altogether different animal tending not to take much notice of anyone else. In their single minded determination to start taking cash they can instantly forget anything they have been told and ignore their own carefully documented procedures.

The observant reader will notice a small hole next to the letter ‘D’ on the picture above. The cynical reader will probably deduce that some spiked object made that hole and a reader possessing a  combination of these two characteristics may suspect that the sharp object is the steel pig-tail holding up the orange netting. They would be right.

The pin went through the cable, and between the inner cores without touching the copper wire. A millimetre to right or left wouldhave delivered a lethal number of volts and amps and other elelctical technicalities into anyone in contact with the pig-tail. 

Seldom has the phrase ‘more luck than judgement’ been so appropriate. See also The Darwin Awards.