Obviously I'm not very good at blogging, this post isn't even relevant anymore considering Reading Festival was 3 weeks ago. However if you are reading this disgustingly late post, thank you, hopefully it won't be as testing as some of the experiences I had over the bank holiday weekend.
Right from the start my Reading Festival was looking bleak. I spent most of my time in the week running up to the weekend checking BBC weather and dying a little inside when all I was faced with were 'severe weather warnings' and those unsettling little graphics of angry looking storm clouds.
I sacked most of these unpleasent feelings off and on wednesday night began to feel the first waves of excitement creeping up my spine until a friend quickly doused these feelings with a text that read something like "bring wellies, it's a fucking bog here". Now no one likes rain really but I don't know if anyone hates it as much as I do. Rain actually has the power to annoy me, to the point where my face gets a bit warm and I can't really hold conversation for long in case I snap at the person unfortunate enough to be in my company at the time.
So with some stylish new wellington boots I got to the station and went to collect my tickets from the handy machine situated in the lobby. To my horror I didn't have the card I used to purchase the tickets. I could have kicked the fuck out the machine there and then I was so angry so I reluctantly handed over £20 of my 'reading fund' to buy yet ANOTHER ticket.
So I dragged my sorry arse to the platform and thought to myself, no worries it's just one train ride and then it's party time for 96 wonderful hours. But no delays on the line meant waiting another 40 minutes for a train. At the time I didn't think this would cause to much of an issue, until I got to the queue for my wristband.
If I had got there in time I may have missed out on the 2 hour queue in the pouring rain and foot of mud I had to endure. Now a lot can be said for dressing appropriately for festivals, If only I ha listened to my parents and taken a 'sensible' mac. The coat I chose to wear could probably take about as much water as there is in a toddlers sneeze before soaking right through, not ideal for the 2 inches or so of rain we had that day.
Now the campsite itself was an absolute disgrace it's certainly not about clambering through a foot and a half of mud to get everywhere and it's certainly not about almost having to swim through mini streams that had decided to run down two parts of our camp.
Also, if you want to party all night at a festival, take a gazebo and camp chairs, I had neither and it made it almost impossible to want to stay up and drink when you have no shelter and your legs feel like your veins are on fire. However over the weekend the weather changed and we had the full meteorological spectrum to endure, torrential rain, freezing nights, blustery mornings and then blazing afternoons. This made choosing suitable clothes a nightmare because you don't want to be too hot or too cold. Especially when you're too drunk to regulate your own temperature.
However when I finally saw some bands all the bullshit of the previous day faded away much like my feeling of what it life used to be like sober. I won't go into massive detail about every band I saw that weekend but here are some of my favourites.
PULLED APART BY HORSES - I can only really describe their music as indie thrash, that girls can dance to. But yea if you like your music with a bit more energy and your live shows full of guitar throwing and equipment climbing get these guys smashing their way through your ear canal.
QOTSA - Purely because Josh Holm was full on wrecked but still managed to play a beautifully tight set. He even stopped playing to comment on what a beautiful evening it was and how happy he was to be playing for us 'beautiful mother fuckers'. Amazing.
CRYSTAL CASTLES - Because Ethan Kath is the bleakest man alive whereas Alice Glass assaults security guards who wont let her crowd surf. She also crawled onto the stage on all fours at the start of the set amid seizure inducing lazers and a fuck ton of dry ice. Also Doe Deer sounds even filthier live.
ARCADE FIRE - Purely for their politeness. Only headlining act I've ever seen who were genuinely grateful and touched to be playing the main stage.
ROLO TOMASSI - Eva Spence, if you don't know who she is watch the video for 'party wounds', then you'll understand. Also I have a lot of time for walls of death at 11 in the morning. Again if you don't know what this is, google it.
LIMP BIZKIT - Fred Durst did the rollin movement during rollin, my life is complete.
BIFFY CLYRO - Ludicrous beard/hair colour combo.
DARWIN DEEZ - For his, and his bands, excellent choreography and dancing skills in between songs.
BLINK 182 - Fucking Blink 182 man. Also upside down drum solos make the solo 100% better.
And so Monday came and with it the feeling of dread and despair that comes after drinking for 90 of the 96 hours of the weekend. The thought of taking my tent down and carrying it home almost made me cry so it stayed there, a stark reminder of sleeping rough. My head felt like it was made of lead, I could feel each and every one of my internal organs and my legs felt like they belonged to somebody else. Upon leaving the festival and joining the outside world, part of me felt scared, it was time to be a normal member of society again, feeling sober felt new and strange and I looked like the ghost of a ghost. However if you haven't done irreparable damage to your body, you haven't had a rad enough festival.
Reading 2011 anyone?
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