Preview: Kicking Off A Summer Of Raving At We Are FSTVL

For those who would like to read my preview story for This Festival Feeling on We Are FSTVL (which I am reporting on this weekend for my birthday). Here is a copy of my preview along with a link to the full version.

Is it just me or is anyone else struggling to remember the last time they saw the sun shine? It may have been a mild winter, but it has been a dark one for us festival-lovers. We’ve all been knuckling down, working those extra hours and praying for summer sun and smelly tents – what have we been working for? To pay for that first festival ticket – that first taste of freedom and madness that will set the tone for the next six months.

For some of us – the luckiest ones who managed to snag tickets – that first taste of festival fun will come in the form of We Are FSTVL this weekend. I couldn’t be more ecstatic at the thought of going to a festival so early in the summer but also being able to ease myself in to a non-camping one. After not having put up my tent in over six months – I wasn’t quite ready to break that streak yet.

My friend and I have been chomping at the bit to go to We Are FSTVL since before the line-up was even announced. After hearing last year’s incredible electronic offering, we knew it would be right up our street and after last summer at Hideout Festival, we needed a hefty dose of bass to get us all warmed up. The huge sell-out success of last year’s event was more than I needed to tell me that I just had to be in the huge crowds packing out this year’s event, and the fact that it is just a day before my birthday seems even more of a perfect excuse! Friends who went to the festival last year said they were more than impressed at how big it was despite still being such a youngster in the festival world, and with the event doubling on the number of days this summer and growing the infrastructure of the festival itself – I’m sure those returning will be in for a treat when they see how it has grown in just one year.

I’m not sure there are enough words in the English language to explain how incredibly excited I am for this line-up, but I’ll give it a go. The Saturday will see a huge nine stages for us revellers to wander amongst, I know when I arrive I’ll be instantly battling myself and praying that my favourite DJs have enough time between their sets for me to run between stages. Over on the main We Are FSTVL stage I’m just dying to see Disclosure and Maya Jane Coles playing alongside Hot Since 82 and Maribou State, but let’s hope there’s no clash with Knife Party over on the We Are ELCTRNC stage because I have been waiting for an opportunity to see these guys live for years!

I can never turn down any stage curated by MK after seeing his set on one of the Hideout Festival boat parties last summer. He’s an amazing DJ and I’m sure he’d have only the best lined up to join him which we can see instantly from the likes of Ninetoes, Route 94 and Shadow Child. The Hospitality stage is the one I am most excited for because if I manage to get myself over there, know I could stay there happily all night long listening to huge summer sounds of Fred V & Grafix’s latest release Forest Fires which is on repeat in my car at the moment. But even when they finish up there’s more from Camo & Krooked, High Contrast, Shy FX, Danny Byrd and Friction among many others. Wow. What a huge line-up! The other stages are equally packed with huge DJ talents and I just know my head will be spinning as I try to keep up with each set.

Sunday will just blow my mind as the one-and-only Fatboy Slim headlines with Annie Mac and Duke Dumont – just brilliant. After seeing Fatboy Slim the first night of his Eat Sleep Rave Repeat tour in the UK, I know how incredible he is and it was one of my dreams to see him headline a festival and blow up the main stage. Over at the Cocoon stage I’ll have to catch some Sven Vath to give me flashbacks to when I saw him at Glade Festival two years ago – again an amazing set. A RAM Records girl through and through, I’m so excited to see Andy C leading the charge with special sets from Sub Focus and Noisia, and with Calyx & Teebee, Loadstar and Mind Votex also lined up – there’s a chance I’ll never get away from the stage. Over on the Desperados WHSE stage, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs are not to be missed and I know I’ll be spending a lot of time at the Toolroom Knights Ibiza stage, soaking up the Ibiza sounds and reminiscing about Hideout Festival with the likes of Mark Knight, Tensnake, Tough Love and Pete Griffiths.

Phew – just writing all of this has blown my mind, I can’t imagine what it will be like in reality but I’m expecting big things and hopefully lots of glorious sunshine to help me start off my summer tan. Here’s to the first festival of the summer!

Rediscovering the beauty of ballet at Swan Lake

When I was five-years-old, I first discovered the beauty of ballet and longed to dance all day long in my pink tutu, silky little shoes and my unruly, curly hair tied firmly back into a bun. My mum sent me along to ballet classes at my insistence, but I soon lost interest and told the teacher I didn’t want to do it any more because it was boring (mainly because each week the class had new members and I was bored of repeating the basics). I never had the staying power, or probably the dancing talent, to make it to the big time. My mum’s hopes of a ballet dancing daughter were dashed when she took me to watch Sleeping Beauty and I fell asleep through the whole thing!

Despite this, I’ve always loved ballet and thought the dancers were just so elegant and effortlessly graceful – as so many of us aspire to be. So when I had the opportunity to write about young dancers from the area being given the opportunity to perform Swan Lake alongside international principal dancers from the English Youth Ballet on the Norwich stage, I was very excited to be offered tickets to review the performance for the newspaper as a thanks. I took along one of my best friends who also loves dance and was never far from her tap shoes growing up.

From the second the curtain went up, the dancers had the whole audience hanging on their every step and pirouette, from the very youngest right up to the principal dancers. I had no choice but to look on in awe as they completed routine after routine, each more complicated than the last with a gentle grace and the most delicate of footsteps.

As a writer I feel ashamed that I don’t think myself capable of finding the right words to describe how utterly stunning the performance was, but eyes sparkling with tears and emotion throughout the audience, and the riotous applause at the end said it all. I was overwhelmed by the amount of time and thought that had gone into every intricate step, lift and movement – all planned to the very finest detail. Particularly with the youngest dancers who had been selected locally to perform, these dancers had spent just two weeks training with the English Youth Ballet and yet you struggled to tell them apart from the professionals. There was some serious up-and-coming talent on that stage and the audience certainly agreed, bursting out into applause at the end of a particularly detailed routine or clapping longer and harder than any audience I have previously come across.

Both me and my friend were left speechless by the performance – the only words we could use to sum it up were “Wow” and quite frankly I’m not even sure I’m doing the production justice in this post. All I know is that I have firmly rediscovered my love of dance, particularly ballet, and that it has certainly inspired me to watch other ballet productions. I am now rather desperate to go and see Matthew Bourne’s all-male version of Swan Lake, which I’m sure is equally breathtaking. For those unsure of whether they would love ballet of not – I can’t tell you whether you would or not, but I had thought I would find it boring when in reality I was transfixed. I would recommend going at least once in your life for an experience that is completely incomparable to theatre or cinema.

Are you a lover or a hater of the ballet? And have you seen a production by the English Youth Ballet?

 

Thinking about next season’s festivals is giving me chills

I had such an amazing summer this year and before the dust has really settled from all those festivals, I am already going full speed ahead with plans for next season. The main festival my friends, boyfriend and I are hoping to get tickets for is Tomorrowland in Belgium – an electronic rave of epic proportions! The stages alone are immense and I am so excited at the prospect of being part of the crowds of thousands I witnessed on videos of the last few years at the festival. Watching this video gives me chills!

I’m also hoping that my status as Editor of This Festival Feeling will give me the freedom to claim free tickets to some of the following – WeAreFstvl, Secret Garden Party (if we don’t get tickets for Tomorrowland), Bestival, Shambala, Boomtown Fair and any others that come my way. I hope to make it to at least two on this list if nothing else!

Last year I went to Hideout Festival in Croatia which was billed as one of the biggest of the year with some of the most sought-after tickets – I’m curious to know which festival will be the same this year…

What festivals is everyone else looking to go to next year?

Reliving my HUGE festival summer as the official videos are released

Hideout Festival 2013 on the Island of Pag, Croatia, was the biggest week of my year. I partied around-the-clock for seven days straight with my boyfriend and amazing friends from home and university. I even made some new friends while out there that have since become my raving buddies. It was a huge week and so much fun. I watched the sun rise and set every single day, I danced on stages, sand, in pools and the sea, on buses and boats and anywhere else I could find. I made incredible memories and can be sure I’ll never forget them. It’s amazing to see the final video, but to be honest this is a very tame version of the Hideout I experienced. However, I can’t deny that when I hear that beat and bass kick in, it’s like being back on Zcre Beach! If only I was, instead of in chilly old England!

Boomtown Fair 2013, in Winchester, was officially the craziest weekend of my life. I saw so much while I was there than my brain felt like it was melting and my eyes couldn’t take in any more. The festival was vast, the stages huge and the music was incredible. I loved every second, again went with fantastic old friends and made some new ones there. It was such a peaceful place and yet so intense and mind-boggling. The theatre acts and side-shows were my favourite because they were always what you least expected and transported you into crazy new worlds. I still don’t believe, and can’t explain half the things I saw there. It was like falling down the rabbit hole.

The best is yet to come – forgetting my post-festival blues

After a busy summer of travelling around the country, and further afield, to some really amazing festivals – much of which was spent either looking forward to the next event or enjoying the moment at one. I was left feeling pretty bereft when it hit me that there were no more as the season drew to a close. My excitement over my promotion to editor of This Festival Feeling helped to ease my post-festival blues for a short time as the thought of next summer’s festivals sent a thrill down my spine.

But now that too has eased and one must think ahead to the wintery months ahead in which I plan to continue dancing and raving with the same good friends I spent my summer with. It’s funny, during the day I’m the sort of girl that loves vintage clothes, acoustic music and a good book. But at night, I’m the girl who lives in her denim shorts and bum bag, and dances until the sun rises in trainers.

Right now, it is just two weeks until I do just that in Norwich, when I will be seeing one of my favourite DJs, Sub Focus, playing at the University of East Anglia. I downloaded his new album just yesterday and have yet to listen to it, but I think it will definitely spice up my workout and drive to work this week. Here is the video for one of my favourite songs by him, it’s just one that always gets me dancing and singing along.

He headlined the dance stage at Glastonbury this year, and I was gutted he wasn’t at Hideout Festival. I have seen him before at UEA and it was an amazing night, I’m sure it will be even more so this time because we are taking along some amazing friends, and joining in a Zombie Fun Run during the day! There are still tickets available here if anyone else is interested! I’ll be sure to post a review of the night afterwards.

Part 3: A busy summer touring round as many festivals as possible – V Festival

Finally, a very busy summer ended abruptly with V Festival – a birthday present from my sister – day tickets to go and see Beyonce! Now V Festival was easily the chavviest festival I have ever been to – definitely not one I would go back to because of the type of people who go, but amazing opportunity to see an incredible singer perform live!

Laura and I headed on the train down to Chelmsford where we made it on to the festival site quickly and worked out where we wanted to go…

We started the day with a bit of a lunchtime rave, at my request, to see Netsky DJ for the second time this summer.. a bit of moshing and heavy beats

Unfortunately, this tent was also where I witnessed a girl getting punched square in the face and carrying on slamming herself into people despite blood pouring out of her head.. Then another guy whipping out his manhood and start peeing all over the feet of the people in front of him (and laughing about it) – Gross.

We checked out the smaller tents and found hip-hop karaoke in the Carling one – we hung around to laugh at the attempts and we amazed when Wretch 32 leaped on stage to perform Blackout! Amazing performance!

 A bit rainy later on, but we managed to see Katy B, Labrinth, Fun, Of Monsters and Men and a lot of others!

 These guys were the best set of the day other than Beyonce! Amazing and will definitely be downloading their album.

Beyonce was incredible, but a shame some members of the crowd were more interested in starting fights than enjoying the music.

It was a great day, but I was glad to go home and not have to stay and camp.

A few weeks later, we had been due to go along to the new Pearl Festival with a group of friends – more press tickets I had blagged. But sadly the festival folded and was cancelled just days before! A huge disappointment for those of us looking for one last furore of the summer!

Travel: More from Ireland as I search for my ‘pot of gold’

The next day, I awoke bright and early feeling refreshed from an amazing night’s sleep in a cosy bed and lay there for a little while, watching the boats from the bed. I was thrilled to see the sun was shining and that my beautiful new shoes would be safe from the heavy rain I had been warned about. We headed downstairs where a delicious breakfast of cereal, juice, yoghurt with fresh fruit, toast and a full fry-up was awaiting us. We filled our boots knowing full well that we wouldn’t be eating again until dinnertime with the wedding taking place at 2pm at a church that was 30 minutes away. We smartened ourselves up and headed over to meet the others.

I wore a Love by Topshop floral dress which I customised by sewing up the slit at the front of the dress, with a black New Look blazer, a Topshop necklace, my bargain Dorothy Perkins shoes (a steal after the were reduced to £15) and a Primark bag.

Mark wore a River Island suit, with River Island shoes, his tie and shirt came from Topshop, he also wore a waistcoat from River Island and red braces.

We were first in the hotel lobby and made the most of it by having a sneak around to look at the reception rooms and have a drink.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful and suited the couple, Brendan and Liza down to the ground, they are very big on family and the importance of everyone being involved – when we visited them last year they did everything they could to make me feel incredibly welcome and they are endlessly generous and kind.

For the service, they started with Liza walking down the aisle to the tune of Mark’s uncle playing the fiddle.

The couple made their vows, interspersed with readings from several members of the family, in front of priest (Great Uncle) Richard, who had made the journey from South Africa where he works as a missionary in order to conduct the service. Such a lovely touch and he made it so personal to them. I was thrilled to finally meet his after hearing so much about him over the past six years.

Later on, after a champagne reception back the the hotel, with strawberries to dip in our glasses, we enjoyed a hearty meal of a large seafood vol-au-vent, followed by prime Irish beef with gravy, roast potatoes, mash and vegetables (all in endless supply) and finished the meal with profiteroles and meringue. Just what we all needed after such a long day. And the meal was later followed by sausage sandwiches for an evening snack!

Then the dancing started. The entertainment was a rockabilly band which later turned into a disco with the best playlist I have ever heard at a wedding – all good, party anthems such as Cornershop and FatBoySlim – perfect to get everyone dancing!

After dancing until our feet could take it no more, and the DJ closed down for the night, we retired to the bar for more drinking and a lot more laughs. Myself and Mark finally left at around 4-4.30am but heard the party was still going on until 6.30am! We stumbled back to the B&B and hit the deck fairly quickly.

The next morning, after missing breakfast in the B&B, we got our stuff together and headed out for a walk and lunch by ourselves, to make the most of the final day before catching our flight. After a gorgeous lunch of linguine with fresh prawns and a garlic, white wine sauce as we sat outside overlooking the ocean, I insisted on dipping my toes into the water – something that means a lot to me. I love the sea and to be close to it is a big part of my life.

I achieved what I came to Ireland to do – I ate heartily, drank heavily, chatted to everyone, danced merrily, made people smile, learnt to smile again after a stressful few weeks and most importantly, it gave me the break I needed.

By dipping my toes into the chilly Irish sea, I feel like a new woman and that is the most important thing.

Ireland is a stunning country and the views, especially in this part, always leave me breathless. I would recommend that everyone visits Dunmore East at least once – as you can see from my pictures, it really is beautiful.