Day 14 and the pace hots up.

The traders poured onto site all day yesterday, and we stayed well out of the way of the throng. Much of the morning was spent tidying up the Friday edition, and when we did go on site,we spent a bit of time talking to Festivals Chairman Ian West, who has oversight of what we do.

It's a situation which could become quite fraught – what journalist ever appreciated proprietorial input? – but Ian's tact and diplomacy makes it much less irritating than it might be.

The Lavender Boat began its service, collecting rubbish and, err, stuff from the moored boats:

Here it comes

It takes the form of a push towed pan and tug on loan from BW.

The Bantam tug

Hurricane Bob Metcalfe is in there somewhere, cursing the wheel steering, so much less direct than the tiller on his boat Glenfield.

Happy in her work

 Elaine Scott has been doing this job for 20 years. There's no accounting for taste (sorry).

Elsewhere on site, lunches were made and the Advance Ticket office personned:

Ladies who make lunch

 A team of blue shirt ladies come into the wrg compound every day to make the sandwich lunches for the wrgies and any blue shirt who chooses to buy it.

Waiting for trade

Edwina told us it was very quiet, but she was selling the occasional advance ticket.

We went and had a last look at the car park. Wrg have achieved a quite amazing amount, but I'm afraid it won't look very impressive to fresh eyes, and I suspect the car park team will have to take some heavy abuse from drivers worried about their undersides:

Remains of the first heap

Second heap untouched

Still slogging on

Pedestrian exit

Driver's eye view of the entrance.

 With the show due to open at lunchtime today, a last big effort is to be made. A heavy roller will spend the morning consolidating the spread hard core, and it may be possible to clean up the entrance area.

A reminder again that this is a personal blog, not an official IWA one, which allows me to express my own opinions. Frankly, this situation could be seen emerging for six months, and Festivals Team has, or should have, some hard questions to answer about how matters were allowed to get to this pitch.

Over the years, wrg has pulled the Festival out of some pretty deep holes, but this one was just too much even for them. Instead of relying on local Council reassurances, Festivals should have either:

• Identified a proper parking site for themselves
• or, if this location had to be used, diverted a wrg camp to it to prepare it
• or, if all else failed, hired in a contractor to prepare it.

Rant over, back to the good stuff:

Help!

Sharks were seen lurking at the stern of the LNBP boat.

Former FMC steamer President and butty Kildare arrived:

Threading her way through

Skilfull steering

They brought the pair through with barely a touch to any of the moored boats. A bit later, the converted to steam BCNS ice breaker Laplander showed up:

Sean Neill's pride and joy

Her tall funnel makes for interesting boating:

Too tall to pass?

Which is why it hinges:

Neat, huh?

That's it for today – I've got to go and take photos of the VIP guests being loaded onto a brewery dray at the Town Hall.