Lushfest.

The Thursday before Canada Day is not just the Thursday before Canada Day if you are a lucky employee of the hand-made soaps and cosmetic company, LUSH. No, no, in that case, it is also LUSHFEST! A festival, an entire, big! (three stages! Silent disco! Two different ice-cream vans!)festival put on exclusively for Lush employees from all over the world, from Vancouver to Dubai (to the UK. All of them, to the UK for this festival).

I don't work at Lush, but I do work as a freelance violist, so I, too, got to experience this. I was hired in to play, along with the other beans, with the Nightjar Orchestra (we all wore matching red shirts with nightjars on them), a band that composed and performed the soundtracks they have playing in the Lush spa when you go to get your massage or pedicure. Lots of viola required for that kind of relaxation, of course.

I got so much free soap. I got to make my very own bath bomb, filled with whatever I wanted. I filled mine with christmas holly and vanilla pods. Because I love christmas and vanilla pods are expensive. I got a giant block of something that looks like chocolate but isn't edible, really. Instead it can dye your hair, somehow. And lots more.

What an amazing thing for a company to do for its employees. If I'm honest, I wasn't a huge fan of Lush, it was too smelly for me, generally. But I'm impressed by this. If, for some unexpected reason, I ever need to buy soap that looks like food or soap that explodes in your bath, I'll be happy to give them my custom.