F
ollowing several weeks of fine (and even, for
Yorkshire, hot) weather I was really looking forward
to this weekend but it suddenly turned as cold as
Jeremy Kyle’s career. If shivering was an exercise then
I had done a marathon. I pitched up in the same spot
that I’ve camped in for the last three years running, although
that’s actually by chance and not planning. One of the first
things you must do if it’s your first time at the Sledmere sight
is to have a walk around and get an idea of the layout because
there are several fields, not to mention finding out where the
food stalls, traders and toilets are (the latter is quite important,
once you know this you won’t get caught short because there
is rarely a queue and always some vacant if you know where
they are). Once you have your bearings, it’s time to party.
Once you get inside—well, we’ll call it a massive barn—the
two main halls will provide you with a different experience;
one is a standing area with a stage for the main bands, while
the other hall provides seating and tables. When I got in I
found I’d missed the first band. I have, sometimes in the past
at a rally, missed the last band due to alcohol intake, but nowI seem to have made a complete U-turn and done it all the
opposite way around. In the cold weather, this is the place to be
anyway, thanks to the halls being fully equipped with indoor
heaters. Now, some of you were hogging those things like a
baby on its first bottle, so a plea from the chilly factor, please
can we all take turns around those magical heaters next year,
or may sell tickets to sit around them for an allotted time...
Indoors and outdoors you can expect to find food served
with a variety to suit everybody and, as I may have mentioned
in previous articles, you can wash this down with a wide
variety of drinks from Bod’s Bar—but be careful because those
hop and fruit-based beverages are dangerously nice and rather
disappointingly don’t count as one of your five a day. I didn’t
make it into the bar hall this year to watch the entertainment
but I am sure it was as enjoyable as the stage hall where, on
Friday, we got to see Reloaded, Overgoat and AudioFire, all
of whom were excellent. To finish the night off there was also
a DJ, although I didn’t hang around because by now my very
cold bed was calling. The wife insists on taking two quilts to a
rally and this time I was more than happy that I’d agreed.The very name Into The Valley probably conjures up the idea of camping
in an idyllic green dale between hills. And that was indeed how the event
started off, almost twenty years ago. But the climate in Yorkshire can be
a contrary beast and, after weather that threatened the very future of the
rally, it was moved several years ago to a flat site, albeit with plenty of wind
breakers just in case of hurricanes and the like
INTO THE VALLEY
WORDS & PHOTOS: ROBERT INGHAMHOME FARM BARNS, SLEDMERE, EAST YORKSHIRE
82 | 100% Biker | issue 238 | http://www.100-biker.co.uk
EVENT FEATURE INTO THE VALLEY