29/08/2026
Well, that was a devastating end to the festival.
Our stall was just starting to pick up yesterday afternoon. Elodie had gone off with her grandad to enjoy the festival when an announcement was made asking everyone to return to their tents because there had been a serious incident.
When you don’t know what has happened, your mind immediately fears the worst. We had no idea whether there had been some kind of attack or what was going on. We closed down our stall and headed back to our tent. Grandad took Elodie back to his tent in the volunteer area, but we didn’t know that at the time.
There was zero signal on site, and we had Grandad’s phone with us on charge, so there was no way of getting hold of him. With the site locked down, they couldn’t get back to us either. We were worried sick, not knowing whether Elodie was okay.
Thankfully, Elodie had our number written on her wristband, so someone was able to get a message to us to let us know that she was safe and where she was. The hardest part was that we still had no way of getting to her.
We had heard that a sign had fallen, but had no idea how serious the situation was. We waited, hoping the site would reopen and we would be able to get to Elodie.
At around 8.30pm, someone came to our tent to tell us that the festival was now closed and that we could either leave that evening or the following morning. We spoke to a member of staff and explained that our daughter was stranded on the other side of the site. She kindly arranged over the radio for us to meet Grandad and Elodie at an access point, but when we got there, we were told we couldn’t pass through.
We stayed put, and thankfully Grandad eventually managed to make his way through from his side.
The reunion with Elodie was incredibly emotional. She had been worried about us too and had seen the police cars and ambulances. She was completely overwhelmed, as was I, to be honest.
As I settled her into bed, she suddenly sat up and said, “Oh, but Mummy, all your hard work.”
Darling girl. You were all that mattered.
This morning, we learned the devastating news that a young man who was volunteering at the festival had lost his life while helping to get a child out of the way of the falling sign.
The sign was huge and formed a gateway between our stall area and the main festival site, one that Elodie would have passed through multiple times that day. I am incredibly grateful that she was not caught up in what happened, but my heart goes out to the family, friends and everyone who knew this young man. I cannot begin to imagine the pain they must be feeling.
We get to head home now. We’re tired, disappointed, and have a long journey ahead of us, but we are together, and we are safe and well.
