{"id":6160,"date":"2015-08-09T07:00:17","date_gmt":"2015-08-09T06:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6160"},"modified":"2015-08-09T07:00:17","modified_gmt":"2015-08-09T06:00:17","slug":"an-englishmans-knees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6160","title":{"rendered":"An Englishman\u2019s knees"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The main tent at the Wickham Folk Festival – welcome shade on a very hot day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s August and the sun is shining (well \u2013 occasionally) and that means I am to be found on most weekends camping in a field listening to music with fifteen or twenty thousand of my closest friends.<\/p>\n

I always know it\u2019s festival season by the sudden appearance of that strange and rarest of creatures \u2013 the Englishman\u2019s knees.<\/p>\n

English women\u2019s knees appear as well, but they really quite common and you will understand of course that I am predisposed to notice the male of the species.<\/p>\n

The outbreak of knee exposing plumage is best witnessed in that sub-category known as the festival roadie. The festival roadie is a busy man, charged with providing sound and lighting and guitars and cables, glasses of water and the occasional pint of beer to the artists who perform on a stage constructed for that purpose by other festival roadies.<\/p>\n

The ritual will vary according to festival \u2013 whether\u00a0a tent is part of the setting and of course, rain matters. At a music festival, rain matters a lot.<\/p>\n

As do the shorts worn by the roadies.<\/p>\n

For some \u2013 pockets are a necessity.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The up-the-ladder roadie needs pockets for holding tools.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Camouflage is popular, this helps the roadie, or indeed any shorts-wearing Englishman to blend into the background. Cut-off jeans are more likely to be found among the younger males. They have the advantage of being inexpensive and can act as enticements to young females of the species.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Cut-offs and camo – popular plumage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dark plumage works best for the roadie, allowing him to remain relatively inconspicuous on a darkened stage. However, there are those for whom inconspicuous does not apply \u2013 in the colour of shorts or underwear.<\/p>\n

\"Pink<\/a>
Pink check shorts are not a good look – anywhere or any time.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In general terms, however, the bad-shorts roadie is a fine pre-cursor of the more common bad-shorts festival goer. It should be noted that both species are almost invariably cheerful, thirsty and songful.<\/p>\n

\"Festival<\/a>
Festival bar design, however, can negate the effects of camouflage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They are the perfect accompaniment for the passionate and moody folksinger \u2013 a breed I have discussed on this blog on more than one occasion. Not to mention, a perfect excuse for me to spend time between acts taking photographs of men in shorts.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My favourite act of this particular festival – the fabulous Show of Hands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s August and the sun is shining (well \u2013 occasionally) and that means I am to be found on most weekends camping in a field listening to music with fifteen or twenty…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-1Bm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}