“Did you just take a photo of me?”
The question comes as something of a surprise. I'm so wrapped up in capturing the glorious sunset currently enveloping the glens surrounding Loch Fyne in the west of Scotland that I don't notice the people caught in the frame. The fact that I had also spent all day thoroughly enjoying myself at FyneFest—the annual festival run by Scottish brewery Fyne Ales—may have also factored in.
“Ah, yeah, um, I don’t know the other guy, actually,” the bottom half of the human totem tells me as we take a look at the shot on my camera. “I was only carrying him because he said he’d give me a packet of cigs if I did.”
Completely by accident, I'd captured the essence of FyneFest, an event that's not quite a beer festival, but nevertheless includes loads of great beer. The location and the conviviality that it inspires allow it to transcend its existence as an everyday fest, becoming instead something truly unique. You should go next year and experience it for yourself.
“So, what are you going to do with that photo?” my new friend asks.
“Put it on the internet, of course,” I reply as we part ways.
