The Radio Room

Adams restaurant, July 2022

After my first two shifts volunteering for the Warwick festival on the main gate, my next two shifts were in the Radio Room. I had no idea where this was or what it would entail, but it turned out that the 'room' was a large motor home inhabited by Radio Man plus a lockable shed and a lot of radio equipment and two more Radio Assistants.

I turned up at the start of my shift and was given an introduction by the previous volunteer, as Radio Man was nowhere to be seen and the two Radio Assistants were at a site meeting. The radios were being used on different bands by the main site, the security team, the gate team, and the 'Wombles' - the term used for the volunteers who clean the site and the toilets. My job involved keeping an eye on all the kit, receiving and handing out the radios, and being the link to the outside world via a separate mobile phone for proper emergencies like fire and child abduction. 

The key impressions I formed during the first hour of my first shift were as follows (in order):

• There doesn't seem to be anything to do
• That previous volunteer keeps talking at great length about himself - oh good, his shift has finished now
• Ah, Radio Assistant 1 has arrived and he is actually giving me some useful information and insight into the role
• Oh, now he's started talking at great length about himself
• He's still going
• I'm getting a really detailed account of his trip to Thailand where he was sent by the RAF to do a couple of hours work and got to stay for a whole weekend
• Hooray, Radio Man has emerged from the motor home, maybe I will be saved
• Oh dear, Radio Man is standing behind Radio Assistant 1 just rolling his eyes at me; that's no help at all
• My goodness, the RAF paid for him to become qualified to teach and now that's what he does. I feel a little bit sorry for his students
• Radio Assistant 2! Maybe... no.
• Some people have arrived who appear to need something and are being helped by Radio Assistant 2, which has distracted Radio Assistant 1 who has gone to join in, thank goodness, at last
• There really doesn't seem very much for one person to do, let alone four people
• Now Radio Assistant 1 has gone to get something to eat
• Radio Man, who seems to be the one in charge, reassures me that yes, there isn't much to do at the moment, but things will get busier once the Great British Public turn up and start causing trouble. He shows some interest in me. This is novel.

As soon as they could see I was a fairly sensible and responsible person, Radio Man and Radio Assistant 2 went off to have something to eat, leaving me on my own with all this gear after a few minutes of instruction and an hour of listening to people mostly talk at great length about themselves. They reassured me that they would have radios with them and would intercept any complicated questions that came in for the Comms team.

The job was quite strange. My role involved handing out radios and cleaning and recharging them when people bring them back, and showing how they are used if someone really hasn't used one before. There was a sheet about what to do if a child or vulnerable person is lost, which was fairly terrifying, and I was told there would be a rehearsal at some point, which thankfully took place while I wasn't working. While I was on my own there were a couple of calls, one asking me to look in the tent next door (where they didn't have radios) to try and find a missing bus driver, and another to point out a mistake on the child/vulnerable person sheet.

Eventually Radio Man and Radio Assistant 2 came back. Radio Assistant 2 was a jolly man who liked to talk, so he was often up and chatting with his mates. Radio Man was quieter and more interesting - he lives in South Africa much of the time, and the comms stuff is as much a hobby as a profession. He's been working with the Warwick team for about 30 years, but he doesn't much like folk music. Towards the end of my first shift he started showing me how the radio comms works using diagrams of transmission and receiving frequencies.

I didn't have to work on Saturday, because I'd been invited by a friend to go to a VERY fancy meal in Birmingham (I have included pictures of three of the 'courses'), but I volunteered for an extra shift on Artists Reception on Sunday morning. If there wasn't much to do in the Radio Room there was even less to do in Artists Reception by that time on Sunday, as very nearly all the artists were already there. But I could have a chat with interesting people as they wandered through asking to borrow a biro or some tape, and two performers did turn up within my 3.5 hour shift.

After lunch I was back in the Radio Room, and there was much less talking about themselves and much more talking about how the lost child incident the previous day had not gone all that well, and because the event was drawing to a close lots of people stopped for a chat as they brought their radios back.

I haven't said much about the music. If you imagine a continuum, from the real folky end with a cappella tunes from Ireland or Scottish jigs: all mouth organs, fiddles and accordions, to the folk/rock end with amps, guitars and drum kits like my favourite Oysterband or even Billy Bragg, then Warwick Folk Festival is nearly all at the hardcore folky end of things. While I like folk, I prefer it to be towards the folk/rock end of the continuum, and I did catch a couple of acts that I liked, but most of the fun for me came from being part of the team and meeting and working with interesting people in a field. And thankfully it didn't rain and the temperature dropped, otherwise we would all have been cooked inside the marquees.

Radio Room, Warwick Folk Festival, July 2022