Craft Services at the coast

May '26 was shaping up nicely anyway then I secured a tender to provide craft services for a local production company on location at the coast.

Securing work of this nature is incredibly exciting in my view, however once the initial adrenalin subsides I tend to catastrophise, a lot. It's because I care deeply and I'm a perfectionist which comes from decades of working as a professional musician. Thoughts such as, what if I get there and my equipment doesn't work, what if the van falls apart on the way there, what if they don't like the service I provide and many, many other troubling thoughts!

So I plan and plan some more then check the van and fire up all of the equipment the day before. There's not much else I can do, things go wrong, things break, this can't be helped in mobile hospitality. Everything is as it should be so I pack everything in advance that can be and leave myself a list of everything else that can't.

Bass Notes Coffee van setup with a view of Alnmouth beach behind

I have to be up early, really early. So early that I wonder whether I should stay up instead but I've done that before for flights and it's deeply unpleasant so I decide to go to bed, early. I have to leave the house at 4.30am as I'm to start service at 7am in Alnmouth which means arriving no later than 6am but I like to allow extra time if I'm unfamiliar with where I will be located as decisions around this can sometimes take a while.

I arrive, find my spot, turn everything on, it all works - yay! And get myself setup. I'm booked to serve for two hours and it's intense as the runners come with orders for up to 10 drinks at once. Some have it written down on paper so fairly easy, others on their phones so less easy as I try and remember the order without having to ask them to repeat it too many times. As I near the end of service requests begin to slow and I get to chat to a few people and I even get to make a flat white for a well known local actor who compliments me by saying "that's been made with love".

Bass Notes Coffee van in a car park overlooking Bamburgh Castle (not pictured)

9am comes all to quickly and I'm done for the day. The cast and crew are caffeinated for a gruelling day of filming. I'm happy that everything worked and there were no disasters. Then while cleaning and packing up there's an alert on my phone, am I free for more of the same tomorrow, hell yeah! A little further up the coast to Dunstanburgh Castle, this however doesn't come off as the venue is fairly inaccessible. The following day however does, even further up the coast at Bamburgh but with a much later start time - happy days!