Kriston's Stagfest in Kent

Kriston dressed in his Stag outfit

Just got back from my older brother Kriston's stag doo (or Stagfest as I am naming it!) in Teynham, Kent. It was a truly awesome weekend of drinking, music and mopeds. I arrived on Friday night around 9pm after a long journey on the slow train out of London Bridge - taking in the country side through the window helped pass the time.

My travel kit

Travelling through familiar towns such as Strood (Billy Childish wrote a Song about this place), Chatham (home of the famous Dockyards) and Rochester with its Castle. I soon arrived to an empty house, so proceeded to investigate the orchard out the back. In the distance I could see some tents so went to investigate.

Site from a far

I soon found myself enjoying a nice pint of Master Brew with the stag group kindly provided by Gez who works at Faversham Sheppards Neame.

Kegs of beer from Sheppards Neame

Saturday started with a megaphone message from Grant (Best man) "Good morning campers, ballroom dancing will begin shortly, so rise and shine" which made me laugh and got me up and out of my socking wet sleeping bag (forgot to close the outer door of my tent in a drunken state the night before - Doh!). The start of the day involved helping get the site ready for the arrival of more stags later in the day. Three large marquee tents, a Hog Roast, Archery, BB guns, Golf, Wood Chopping for the fires...it took a little while but soon people started to arrive.

Archery target

The group arriving

Things got more and more drunken and generally messy (not just the floor that had know turned into mud after raining for sometime). Kriston was now very drunk, as where most of us. I would never condone drink driving and think it is a stupid thing to do. We did however have a few mopeds at our disposal.

We where on private property and tried to remember to put head protection on whenever taking the bikes out for a spin. My dad had a go and proceeded to fall off more than once (nothing new there) there was even a spot of moped jousting - great fun! As dusk approached it was time for a bit of music. The band arrived in their range rover and unloaded their kit.

The band set up

The band

We watched and listened

Canopy set up to prevent rain getting on instruments

It was still raining so a few of us constructed a canopy to stop the rain getting onto their instruments. They played two stonking sets and sounded great considering they had a pretty tough audience of twenty or so drunken men. We all then stopped for a lovely hog roast and a few more drinks.

Hog roast being served up

We enjoyed the food

The fire kept us warm

The night was lively

The night finished around 1pm and the following day involved a good clean up session.

Clean up time

There was a bit of food and drink left over so I bagged myself some hog roast, cheese and pittas for the journey back. Its easy to forget that life goes on outside of the big smoke - must make more effort to get out and enjoy it.

My travel kit with additional food supplies

Cant wait for the wedding at Whitstable Castle in a weeks time!