Red Cross Blogs

Festival fun with Noah and the Whale

By Mark Cox
August 14, 2009 at 5:29 pm

It’s high holiday season, and doubtless many of you spent last week basking by the pool in Costa Del Packet, a cool drink to hand. But Cox, who is made of much hardier stuff, instead made a bee-line for the Belladrum Music Festival – and all its attendant midge, trustafarian and chemical loo horrors.

Your roving reporter was there to make a short film about our event first aid service. I watched on agog as volunteer teams provided round-the-clock cover for 12,000 people – seemingly unfazed by the hordes of bleeding limbs, reeling drunks,  stubbed-toe rock stars and wailing sprogs needing treatment.

Then, just as everyone was heading home, two volunteers had to fight their way through the crowds to save the life of a woman who’d suffered a massive cardiac arrest and stopped breathing. It was full-on, to say the least.

Shadowing the volunteers, I was – obviously – struck by how impressive, admirable, selfless, yah-de-yah, blah, blah it all was. So far, so predictable. But then something else happened. There, in the belly of the first aid beast, the whole volunteering thing suddenly also started to seem just a little bit – whisper it gently – cool.

How so? Well, from my reading of it, being a first aid volunteer at the Belladrum festival involved the following:

1. An exclusive backstage pass: which meant hob-nobbing with the bands, on-site free café and proper, flushing loos. Oh, the luxury.
2. Being smiled at and flirted with by attractive members of the public. It’s the uniform, apparently…
3. Giving first aid to – and chatting away with – half of Noah and the Whale, one of the headline acts.
4. Getting to wear one of those jazzy ear-piece / microphone gizmos without looking like a prat.
5. Being treated like a proper professional by the police and ambulance people, and feeling valued for your contribution.
6. Getting to see all your favourite bands for nothing.
7. Feeling justifiably smug and happy for having helped so many people.

Really, what’s not to like? So why not think about becoming a first aid volunteer yourself? Sure beats paying for tickets…

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Tags: ambulance, bleeding, CAR, event first aid, First aid, News, People, police, public, run, team, UK, UN, volunteer, Volunteering, volunteers

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