This giant spiky monstrosity meant the freshest juice on site and I worked there for a ten-day period between Christmas 05 and New Years day 2006. This was my first real foray into working at an event and I LOVED it.
The owners of this particularly noticeable structure were an English couple that spent half their year travelling around the UK summer festival circuit with their English set up and then flew down to Australia to do the summer festival circuit here. They’d been doing this for a number of years when I met them and I thought this sounded like the greatest way to spend your life that I had heard of yet.
That year at Woodford was the hot dry extreme as opposed to the freezing wet alternative and juice was the greatest thing on site. This particular juice bar was dedicated to the freshest, and the healthiest. It was fantastic. As soon as they had set up they went and organised a barter system with the neighbouring catering stalls so that all their staff could swap a fresh juice for whatever they served so that we didn’t have to worry about buying meals. And we got all the juice we could drink. Such a detoxing week!
Each day we would get a delivery of boxes and boxes of apples, oranges, pineapples, mangos, celery, beetroot, lemons and limes, carrots, lettuces, ginger and numerous other fresh ingredients that I can’t remember. This was added to the stockpiles of Echinacea, lemongrass, ginseng and a bunch of other on hand supplements. We had a menu of things as suggestions but really we’d just wack whatever the person wanted into the juicers and put out refreshing, delicious cool juice. Ice was gold that year as everything was so hot and dry so having fresh juice with big pieces of cool ice was magical.
There was a Rawie at Woodford that year who was ecstatic to find us as all the other catering places only had food that had been processed in some way. She would stop by a few times a day for a meal of fresh lettuce with carrots, beetroot, celery, and an apple or something. Was fascinating. She assured me that it’s fantastic and she feels amazing just living off that but I’m still unsure if I could handle it.
One day a guy with a crazy hat was buying a drink and I jokingly called him Jay Kay from the band Jamiroquai. An hour later when he was still there stealing peoples juice cups to sign them ‘for his fans’, I decided that may have been a bad idea. Everyone seemed to be enjoying it tho.
That year I camped in the Crew Camping area at Woodford called ‘Cloudland’ a massive trek up a hill but commanding a gorgeous view of the festival site and surrounding areas. A number of other people had set up their tents in a circle including mine and each morning we would all roll out of our tents shortly after sunrise, when they became unbearable hot, and lay sleeping on the grass. We would start our day all lying around in our pjs, chatting with our tent neighbours and then head our separate ways for the day. One girl was particular difficult to include in conversation. She claimed her name was universe, and when we asked her how old she was she would answer ‘eternal’. Most questions got similarly pointless answers.
Mostly what I remember is working really hard, not seeing any shows and loving it. At one point the juice bar owner negotiated free foot massages for all of us. It was heaven. And drinking juice. Lots and lots of delicious, refreshing, healthy, nourishing, zesty juice. Man I want juice.
So, if you’re looking for a detox, sore feet and to meet a never ending stream of the craziest people you’ve ever met for a week, do this job! And remember, the secret ingredient is always beetroot. If you need meat every day, like going back to your own home at the end of the day and don’t like the idea of bartering with juice for everything you want, there’ll be something else out there for you.
Mmmmmm… refreshing!
