When Helen arrived in her car, I remembered how small it was. I had stacked our equipment ready for the Rock Oyster Festival in my hall and it seemed a lot and that was not including Clarence Cod, our fish costume. But with careful placing and stacking we fitted everything in, with apologies to Clarence for the stuffing, now it was the time for the passengers but we managed it with ease, no shoe horn this time.
We were on our way to the North Cornwall 3 day festival to set up a stall to talk about the Be a Fishermen’s Friend campaign to get people to sign our petition fish, join the campaign, have a photo taken, be tattooed but above all be passionate about our fish and oceans. When we arrived we realised, that although in a beautiful location, in the Camel Valley, it was very, very windy. Our stall tent had not been put up yet, so we decided to pitch our own tents after much struggling and avoidance of tents being kites we had established our base camp. Then to the stall ready for the opening of the festival at 5pm again the wind was a problem but after much patience our tent was ready to speak to the crowds and get their support and above all become a fisherman’s friend.
The festival was very small but friendly it was a mix of a music and food festival and we had a steady flow of people signing our petition fish to be presented to our MEP at the right time, but also to visit our photo booth to have their picture taken in “fishy hats” or even a mermaid bikini top. Clarence Cod made a lot of circuits around the site to encourage people to our stall, have photos taken and get passionate about the campaign.
On the Saturday the steady flow of people continued, and again Clarence Cod giving more encouragement. Helen then took the baton to go and speak to the celebrity chefs on site, and see if they would support our campaign and Be a Fishermen’s Friend. After a while she came back with a beaming smile, Rick Stein, David Sharland, Paul Ainsworth, John Walton, James Nathan, Tom Scade and James O'Connor had all signed a fish and had promised to help us in the campaign, watch this space. No wonder she was beaming, she had done a fabulous job! Then it started to rain which continued all night.
On Sunday I regretted not packing a spare of trousers or boots, it’s Cornwall I should have known it would not remain dry. But back to the stall for more signatures, photos, tattoos and conversations about fisherman. The sun came out and a chance to dry off, taking Clarence Cod out through the mud and encouraging people to the stall, most of the people knew us and had already helped our campaign. So if was more waving at friends rather than making new ones. There was a quick live interview on BBC Cornwall Radio with a fabulous picture tweeted of Clarence “talking” into the microphone. Our new volunteers Ceri and Josh went out to find new friends in the sitting crowds with clipboards and and fish to sign. On my journey with Clarence I noticed a queue of people in the mud and wondered why, and on looking I saw the headline act Charlotte Church was signing autographs I returned with a fish and a photographer. Charlotte was lovely and willingly signed a fish and had a photo taken to support our campaign. 
So time to pack up, 450 fish signed 48 visits to the photo booth, celebrities met but most all lots of new fishermen friends. My thanks go to Vicki, Helen, Ceri, Josh and Clarence for their wonderful hard work to make this a successful weekend.
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