Coume’stock part 1 – Can I still get it up?

While we were walking out of Vals, C said “Is that not Bee-Boy”. I turned round to look at the three people that we had just walked past, and sure enough it was he, his girlfriend and a fellow apiculture. We exchanged greetings and he said that this meeting was most propitious. He thrust an A6 size flyer into my hand. It was for a music festival that he was helping to organise called Coume’stock. The festival was taking place the following Friday and Saturday. C said that she would like a flyer too, and he also gave me one for Madame.
There were to be 2 days of music and theatre in the evenings and 3 workshops in the afternoons for sténopé, gravure and sérigraphie. The festival and camping was free.
For the last 2 months I had been thinking of buying one of those pop-up tents. You just take them out of their carry case, throw them into the air and they open out into a tent which just needs a couple of pegs knocking in round the base. No guy ropes or anything strenuous. The reviews that I had read spoke of broken fibreglass poles and the difficulty of folding them back up again ready to pop back into their carry case.
I still had the tent that had been used on two separate nights in 2003 and I got it out of the shed to see if all the bits were still there. I told Madame that it was probably too difficult for one person to put up. As I talked to her friend I heard a zip being opened and a clanging as the contents of the tent bag were tipped out onto the grass.
“I have put up army tents” she said, it’s been about 12 years since I put up a dome tent she continued, as assembled the poles and started threading them through the loops on the outside of the inner tent.
Here are the instructions I said. Pfaff, she said and continued assembling. Her mate meanwhile was supporting the need for me to buy a pop up tent, demonstrating with arm movements and suitable noises, just how easy it was to put one up.
Ten minutes later the tent was up (the guy ropes were not deployed on this occasion).
I then had to dismantle the tent, fold it up, and put it away. Why do women never finish what they start?
The tent was in perfect order so no justification for buying a pop up 
Throughout the week I watched the weather forecast. Saturday promised heavy rain.
The family phoned. Was I still going to the festival, if so, they would come along for the afternoon and part of the evening?
So the die was cast. On Saturday morning I went to Decathlon, looked longingly at the pop up tents, but contented myself with buying extra tent pegs, a supplementary ground sheet to aid the built in one, and a pack of 2 spare guide ropes.
I also went to LeClerc and bought some small cakes, hot chocolate, spare gas canisters for my little sunigas camping stove. A pot noodle snack, three tins of things that I could heat up in my small saucepan if required, 3 x 2 litre bottles of still water, and a bag of Werthers originals.
I was now ready for anything. Time to go home and pack......