Happy New Year to you all *clink* (that's glasses in case you didn't realise that lol)
I shall save telling you what fun I had on New Years Eve till another entry but it's Wednesday and that means travel journal :o) Here's the 2nd part of the V-Fest write up.....Enjoy
Coming out of the campsite and situated on a corner we found several fast food places. We ordered chips/bacon sandwiches and drinks and sat on the grass to eat. This was the moment when we realised we had walked back on ourselves to get to the campsite ~ how stupid of us!! Once we had finished, we walked down the way we should've come up and came out to where the stalls were. We walked past them all, stopping only to buy festival t-shirts. Well Sarah and I did anyway!! As I couldn't be bothered to carry mine, I put it on over the t-shirt I was actually wearing. Amazingly it didn't make me look too fat either!! We carried on walking towards the fairground and went past lots and lots of food places. Just after there was music coming from a tent which appeared to be a pub. There were lots of people inside dancing and there were lots of people outside dancing away. The music drew us in and they played 'Mr Brightside' by the Killers, so we stood outside singing along. Eventually we came to a decision that we weren't going any further so Trina and I went to get booze. £20 for 8 cans of lager (rip off!!) We didn't actually get inside as there was too many people so we stayed just outside and had a boogie and sang along. They were playing great tunes from the 90's and stuff from bands due to be playing the festival itself!! It was funny because when they played Amy Winehouse the crowd booed until it was taken off and replaced by something else. (She was due to play the festival but she was still in rehab and cancelled all the shows!!) Wayne and I started having a drinking contest, well it was more of a race really to see who could finish their can first. When you had finished you turn it upside down to show it was finished, simple really!! The amount of time for Trina to finish one can I had started and nearly finished my second. I was light headed and found everything rather amusing. Soon the pub started playing crappy music and Trina needed the loo, so we went back towards the campsite and managed to find some. There was a queue already!! My first festival loo experience ~ oh what fun!! Trina had come prepared so gave everyone some loo roll and we waited in line with everyone else. It wasn't so bad, but would it stay like that? As we came out of the loos we could hear decent music being played from the pub again so we ventured back that way!! We still had some cans of drink left so Wayne and I started another one. Unfortunately I was getting worse and couldn't finish mine (wimp) so passed it to Trina. She wasn't amused!! Whilst we were dancing away, Trina pointed out this bloke who was apparently giving me the eye...................(so rarely happens!) Everytime I turned to look I always caught his eye, damn it!! The pub started playing dance music and trancey stuff which Wayne was really getting into!! Not my cup of tea so I was getting a bit bored now. Plus it kept spitting, which wasn't a good sign!! When Wayne had finished his drink we decided it was time to move on again and ventured to look round the fairground after all!! To get out of the crowds we had to walk past this bloke that Trina had pointed out earlier. Apparently he had leant down and said something to me, which Trina (who had been in front of me) and Sarah (who was behind me) had heard!! Why hadn't I heard it? I swear I am always missing things like that!!
In the fairground there were quite a few rides, such as the one that's just a big pole with seats at either end. Wayne and I went and stood underneath it to see what it felt like to have it come down towards you. It was fun!! The other rides were all ones that twisted upside down and side to side. The way I was feeling I didn't think it would be wise to go on any of them!! There were a few more stalls in here too so we had a sneaky look round some of them. It kept trying to rain whilst we were looking too, but luckily it didn't do anything more than a quick shower. After a quick look around it was decided that we should conserve our energy and make our way to bed. I brought a pillow on the way back for a £5 which was ludicrous but I couldn't imagine not having one, it was bad enough I was sleeping on the ground!! I think we may have stopped at the food place on the way back and I know we queued for the toilets coz you just did every night, such a long queue by the time you reached the front you were bound to need to go!! Still not too bad!! We found our tents fairly easy but moaned about people having black guide ropes which are not easy to see at night time ~ you get the gist!! Got into my sleeping bag ~ I'm not sure how, but I did and slept with my legs on my suitcase. It was not the most comfortable thing ever and it was cold that night and the rain came!!
SATURDAY 18th AUGUST 2007
If I remember rightly Trina and Wayne woke up around 7.30am!! They came and knocked (if you can call it that) on our tent and asked if any of us needed the loo coz that was where they were going. Neither of us did so we stayed in our sleeping bags. Whilst waiting for them to come back, although I don't know why......Sarah and I chatted about the boys in the tent next to ours. It was huge and there must've been several of them in there, but during the night they had, had discussions about everything and anything from music to flippin' politics. They knew things about the Labour party that even I didn't know!! Not that I would know as I'm not a big fan of politics but that's beside the point!! Just when I was starting to think that Trina and Wayne had been gone a long time (and had mentioned this to Sarah), they came back, with tea's and coffee's. I couldn't believe it, it was the best cup of tea I had tasted all weekend. I also couldn't believe how much water there was in our tent. I knew it had rained the night before but that was ridiculous, Sarah thought it was condensation. Trina couldn't believe it either. My pillow was wet and so was my sleeping bag. As my legs had been on the suitcase all night and I couldn't stretch out properly so it was slightly uncomfortable. As Trina and Wayne's tent was bigger I asked if they could take my suitcase. Which they did!!
After the tea, Sarah and I decided to go to the loo and had to join the extremely long queue which Trina and Wayne had warned us about. Again even if you didn't want to go, you went anyway coz you would probably need to when you reached the end of the queue. Afterwards we went back to the tent to get ready for the day ahead. It wasn't even 9am!! We had a discussion about what bands we wanted to see. The first band on the main stage was a duo called Rodrigo Y Gabriela. I remembered and I hoped that I was right, that they had been at Glastonbury, they were a duo who both play guitars. The performance I had seen on the TV was them doing a Pink Floyd number and the whole crowd were singing whilst they played and it was amazing. I convinced the others that's who they were and that we had to see them. So with that agreed, we worked out a plan of action for the rest of the day and decided to make our way out of the field for something to eat. We had all cleaned our teeth and used some face wipes to clean our hands and face. The sun was shining faintly but we all decided to take our coats, to sit on if nothing else!! Corina and her friends were there for the festival experience rather than the music so had risen and was starting to cook their breakfast. They had come prepared!!
We went to the same place as we had the night before for food, bacon sandwiches and another cup of tea yum!! After eating we made our way down to the main arena, only to find we couldn't get in yet!! So we looked round some of the stalls, mainly the ones selling t-shirts etc. Trina and Wayne were also deciding whether to get a matress as well. As Wayne was still suffering from his broken back, he had not slept that great during the night. I brought myself some fingerless gloves. I had been looking for a pair for ages as when I walk to work in the winter normal gloves are useless for me as I fiddle with my MP3 player so much. I finally found myself a pair and they were perfect. They have skull and crossbones on them!! We saw a few people waiting by the gates so we decided to go and queue with them, only not really queue, just sit on the grass and prepare ourselves for the day ahead. A steward came over to us after a few minutes though and told us that because we were camping we could get in, the way we had gone the night before via the fair ground, rather than having to wait. We thanked him and made our way towards the entrance for us. It felt good being told that, like we were special or something!!
We got to the part where we could get in and flashed our wristbands at the stewards. It looked a lot different during daylight and it was still quite early. So we looked around a few of the stalls and I think Trina may have got something to eat. We made our way towards the main stage, only to find everything fenced off. There were quite a lot of people sat on the grass by this fenced off area so we decided to do the same thing. Actually I think it might have been at this point that we decided which bands we were going to see during the day.Also at this point the heavens opened and it started raining, but it wasn't just the rain it was windy too, so was blowing the rain in sideways. I was wearing my rain jacket and cut off trousers and after about 10 minutes the right hand side of me was soaked. The rest of the guys were fine, which didn't make any sense to me whatsoever!! It was decided that I couldn't stay like that and we went off in search of the rain poncho's that everyone seemed to be wearing. We found a stall that sold them and we all got one. 4 of us in white rain ponchos with our hoods up, caused a few comments, mainly from Trina and Wayne!! Trina managed to split hers as she was trying to put it on so it ended up being a togo poncho.
When we ventured back to where we were sat, more stewards had appeared with trucks to take the fencing down, so we made our way down to the main stage. (Please note the rain did not stop unless otherwise mentioned!) We got about 6 or 7 rows from the front and stood and waited. Whilst waiting the TV screens at the side of the stage started playing adverts and music videos. When it wasn't doing that we could text in and see our messages up on the screen. I didn't do it but during the course of the weekend there were some hysterical ones posted. (More of that later!) Rodrigo Y Gabriela came on stage, I'm not sure if they were on time or not!! Their set was awesome!! The whole crowd stood there with their mouths opened in shock I think half the time. Gabriela did an amazing thing where she would tap her hand against the guitar and the way I am describing it sounds a bit pants but she did it so fast we wondered how she wasn't hurting herself. I am not sure how to describe them to make them sound as good as they were!! None of us were disappointed that we had gone to see them. They played a wide variety of songs and snippets of things that we knew!!
When they finished we decided to wait for the Goo Goo Dolls and watch a bit of them. In between the bands was when the text messages started. Several of the best ones were: "Please god stop it raining." "This is God, no it won't ever stop raining." "Harry dies. Voldermoort lives," etc etc............During this break as well as the crowd changed we got more comments about our ponchos. Very embarrassing!! Anyway the next band came onto an annoucement that they had recently played a sell out show in London. Istood there thinking well they are alright but how the hell did they sell out?? The guitarist or was it the bassist?? He was the campest bloke ever and seemed to be really old and past it!! He creeped us out completely!! We heard Iris and Slide and got a bit bored to be honest with you. I decided it was time for alcohol and I was fed up with being wet. So we made our way out of the large crowd. Trina decided she wanted the loo so we queued for them and ended up in the Virgin Union bar. Not the big tent where the bands were playing but the smaller tent. It was packed in here with people trying to get out of the rain. At some point Wayne got a burger too!! We managed to get in and found some seats that someone had just vacated so made ourselves comfortable for a while. We had some time to kill before going to see the Cribs on the Channel 4 stage.
Trina got some lager and we sat and listened to the music that was playing. In this tent they played the session from the larger tent so we heard the tail end of whoever was playing (I think it must've been Passenger from what it says in the programme!!) In between the bands they played more music and it was starting to get really good when it was time for us to leave but nobody apart from me, actually wanted to go!! Plus it looked like it was still raining! So we stayed in there and danced around to the songs, well sung along anyway and was getting looks from some bloke who was also singing along and looked like he was enjoying himself!! Eventually I convinced them we had to go, plus they had finished their drinks, so we made our way over to the channel 4 stage. The Cribs were halfway through their set and there was quite a few people watching them. We didn't actually wanna go into the crowd itself so we stood on the outskirts. Trina decided that it was time for food and went to get some noodles with Wayne. Sarah and I stayed watching the band. The rain did hold off for a bit longer, which was nice. Trina brought back the noodles which were on a paper plate for me and her. So we sat where we were eating them but the amount of looks and comments we got put me off eating them!! I didn't see what the big deal was that we were eating noodles in the middle of a field with a band playing. Just cause we were probably sat in the walkway!! Why couldn't they walk around us and not comment??!!
(part 3 next week :o)
oooo a sig I made :) wooo me lol no link coz you're already there ;)
(This pic was taken 2 years ago or is it 3?? On our way to Hyde Park to see Queen + Paul Rodgers and she looks better in that hat than I do!!)
(both of us with Roger yummm....in 2000 and something!!!)
(here she is in the Hard Rock cafe with the Queen signed guitar in 2006)
(I do not remember when that photo was taken but i think it was sometime last year :o)
