Dartington Arts College end of year show

Lovely Lucy McConnell contacted me through the Facebook Group and expressed a huge amount of enthusiasm for having Choc Star at her college's end of year show.

"It's a bit odd down here" she warned me, "you'll see what I mean when you get here".

And as soon as I got within sniffing distance of Totnes I could already see that this weren't no ordinary town. It's a crystal and flotation tank hot spot. It's a craze of health food shops, mental health offerings, vegetarian cafes, hitchhikers, protestors, factions, organisations, groups - all dedicated to living an alternative lifestyle, away from the constraints of the system.

And yet it turns out that Totnes is the 6th most expensive place to buy property in Britain. Fancy.

I trucked through the speed bumps that carry you in to the college campus and was shouted and yelled at - "I love you!" they cried. "We love chocolate!" they yelled and, though the rain came down, I spent a few cosy hours in the van with the hot chocolate machine cranked up (Make it a Jamaican with rum went down well), Beres Hammond on the Bose and lots of excitable art students running over to indulge in a bit of Choc Star action.

Later I went down to the student bar with them all. Foppish artists threw willowy shapes on the dance floor, bathed in red lights. Some went techno and jerked away, entranced by the hi-speed Drum 'n' Bass. I swigged my Red Stripe on the sidelines and waded in to rescue Lucy's dad when guys approached him asking if he wanted to get high.