Please excuse the long and lengthy post. It's also photo overload!
So festival season is just around the corner and i'm already getting excited. Whether you are a seasoned reveller or a newbie to the whole shananigans, i'm hoping to provide a bit of an insight into what to expect and most importantly what to take and what not to take. I'm going to make this into a 3 part special over the coming months. Part 1 is about my festival experience, part 2 will be about the must take essentials and part 3 will be my top looks for the festival season. Now i am not the most experienced festival goer, i am only here to try and share my own experiences.
I've been going to festivals for 5 years after accidently stumbling across going to V festival in chelmsford (buying a last minute ticket) Now i love camping, i love music and i love partying, so to me a festival is the perfect excuse to live like a pig for a weekend whilst listening to some of my favourite bands.
V Festival 07 (Chelmsford)
I was a festival virgin, i had heard stories, i had read festival forums briefly and all of them included only taking the things that you wish to get ruined. So i listened...i took a disposable camera, so my digital one didn't get lost and all i wore all weekend was jeans and hoodies with bare or no make up. As you can imagine i looked a state after the first 5 minutes. Now i'm sure your not going to believe me, so much to my shame i am going to share a few pictures that are laying around on facebook from that weekend. Please look away if you are easily offended by a dirty, scruffy girl!
 |
| This was the first day...trust me they get worse. |
 |
| It's getting steadily worse, fashion disaster! |
I'm pleased to say after looking at these pictures, that one i have lost a bit of weight and two i now take greater care of myself! But these pictures also hightlight how under prepared i was, i only took 1 pair of shoes (crappy trainers) and when it pissed it down on day 2 and kept raining for the rest of the festival, this led it wet feet syndrome!
This festival also highlighted the need of safety at a festival. On the first night we were unlucky enough to get robbed (just before the photo above) My friend had come back to the tent quite merry, had taken off his jeans and left his wallet and phone in the pockets. Man opens tent in the middle of the night, swipes the jeans and festival ruined for the rest of the weekend for my friend. He luckily had his jeans and phone handed in, but the wallet was never to be seen again. Please safety is such an important part of a festival. Please keep yourself and your belongings safe, i will touch more on this in part 2.
Memories - Rain / Ponchos / Pink / Buses / Ben from shipwrecked ate my cheese / bbqs / The killers / Wet feet / Smurfs / Lily Allen / Old friends & new
V Festival 08 (Weston Park)
So we went back to V festival, this time armed with some invaluable information. We got early bird tickets, do this if you can, camping choices are So much better and arrived early. We got a nice big bit of field to lay out our tents, well away from paths with our own bit of fencing, which was not too far from the toilets/arena but far enough not to smell/hear going ons. This was also the wettest festival i have ever been too! The Mud is not something i will ever forget.
 |
| The fashion stakes were raised |
 |
| The rain set in |
Let there be mud! We are actually in this picture. Once a few strongbows have gone down the neck, you may think mud wrestling is a great idea. I can tell you this, IT'S NOT, it leads to you looking like this...
safe to say, that none of these clothes came home with us. Also we only had babywipes to get clean with, yes seriously and of course buckets of cold water. We were quite disappointed to find out the showers were broken but of course i will always remember it and it was fun!
Memories - Prodigy / Amy winehouse & booing her off stage / car crashes / mud / random guitar playing / peter kay / tweezers / kings of leon / rain / great friends / laughter
Reading Festival 09 & 10
By this time, we had become accostumed too the festival way of life. We had expectations and we had knowledge. This led to us bringing this beast with us
 |
| A wooden cart, life saver! |
It also became great entertainment over the weekend. This quickly became the best experience we have ever had at a festival. The mixture of great bands, awesome group of people and gorgeous weather definitely helped. I could share the whole entire album of photo's with you (well over 200) but that would be mean. Instead i have chosen just a few.
Memories - Kaiser Chiefs / Space Pirates / Free Hugs / Military / Amazing Friends / Sausage gate / Arctic Monkeys / Whips / Angie Flanange / Them Crooked Vultures / Moustache Friends / The man who wee'd for 2 hours / Sleeping Lions / Comfy Airbed / Suntans / Weezer / Tuborg / Enter Shikari / Dust / Yorkshire Puds / Drag Queens / Cooked Breakfasts / Camp fires / Limp Bizkit /
I will never forget the memories made.
I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of my memories, again sorry for the lengthy post but festivals are a major part of my year.
The only festival planned this year is Sonisphere. There will be a few firsts from this festival. First 'heavy' music festival and the first time it is just me and the boy and not a million other people.
Have you been to a festival? What's your favourite memory?
See you in Part 2
