If you hadn’t
already heard, I went to Isle of Wight festival a few weeks ago. I phrased that
statement the way I did because I plastered the news POSSIBLY OVER EVERY SOCIAL
MEDIA CHANNEL EVER INVENTED. Without a shadow of a doubt, IOW 2015 provided 4
of the best days of my life. What started out as darting eyes and a nervous
flutter in the pit of my stomach as we approached the campsite slowly but
surely subsided until the flutters became waves of excitement and the waves
became happy exhaustion. I stood beside the Spice Girls, I drank more vodka
redbull than should ever be legal and I probably took more photographs than
Mario Testino at a Vogue shoot. To put it simply, the festival was knackering,
loud, hazy, unexpected and FULL of amazing music. While all the acts I saw were
suitably impressive, Fleetwood Mac absolutely stole the show for me, and
watching them on stage at dusk surrounded by some very cool people is something
I’ll never forget.
In saying all
of this, the week did have its rocky moments and I’ve noted a few below so you
can learn from (and laugh at) my mistakes, observations and misfortunes. Enjoy!
1. You will be drunk A LOT of the time. Plan
accordingly.
I go to a
university city where 3 treble and mixers cost £5 and I like to think I can
handle a drink or five, but drinking in a festival environment where the grass
is both your bar and your bed definitely tested my stamina. Most festivals have
a no glass rule, so we’d pre-poured a litre of vodka each into an old bottle
and grabbed a bottle of double strength blackcurrant cordial to mix with water,
which (sort of) saved us from paying the equivalent of a month’s rent at the
bars inside the arena. If you’re like me and need a bit of a pick me up the
next day but can’t stand long enough to queue for a coffee, Pro Plus is your
absolute saviour. Keep it close at all times.
2. You won’t
be able to put your tent up, but it’s a great way to make friends
We marched into the campsite full
of naïve hope with a stupid amount of determination in our eyes, before sitting
on the grass about five minutes later feeling dejected and defeated.
"I put up a tent at
Guide camp when I was ten” and “I definitely put one up when I went to a
motorbike rally” were genuine words spoken by two of the group who will remain
anonymous out of respect for their dignity.
Thankfully a lovely couple came
to our rescue, and one shared packet of cigarettes and six badly mixed vodka
and lemonades later we were friends. A few minutes later a stag do came and
joined the party and the rest is history. The long and short of it is, yes you
will probably be shit at putting up a tent, you will probably look like idiots,
but you just might make some friends out of it.
3 3. It will
probably rain and you should probably not care
For the
most part Isle of Wight treated us well and the sunshine skies and fluffy white
clouds made a nice little backdrop to the music stages. We’d been sitting
outside in the sun, absentmindedly drinking and chatting, before one
treacherous night gave us a serious reality check. One apocalyptic storm, a
serious amount of thunder and a few bolts of lightning later and we all ran for
the tents. After sitting miserably for an hour, sharing kit kats and moaning
about the weather, enough was enough. We put on our macs, shoved on our wellies
and slipped and slid down to see The Prodigy with our festival pals. Oh my god
it was muddy, but it was also one of the best nights we had. If you’re in the
same sitch this festival season, my advice is just go with it (and bring a
trillion packets of baby wipes.)
4. You really CAN wear whatever
you want
Before
Isle of Wight I already knew festivals were famous for their freeing nature,
but I didn’t really have any concept of how much everybody let go. From barely
there bikinis to full on tiger onesies, IOW festival had it all. Since I was
little I’ve always been someone who often makes a daring choice with my
outfits, hair and make-up, but I definitely still have moments when I put
something back in my wardrobe for fear of looking stupid. My advice for packing
for festivals is of course to cover the essentials (wellies, A MAC WITH A HOOD,
copious amounts of dry socks) but mostly to pretty much pack whatever the hell
you want. A few temporary tattoos, a bit of fancy dress, an outfit made
entirely of sequins – whatever you feel like, this is your excuse. Go wild!
5. The trip home will probably be the most miserable trip of your life
At the ripe old age of erm, 20, I
thought I knew sadness. OH how wrong I was. Troublesome teenage years, boy
drama, finding out the pair of boots you had your eye on in Topshop have sold
out in your size – none of these travesties compare to the utter misery you
will experience on the coach ride home from a festival. You can approach the
situation in one of two ways:
a) refuse to let the festival
spirit die by continuing to talk about your favourite acts in excitable tones
and pretending to enjoy a can of leftover cider, or the more popular option;
b) sit AT LEAST two rows away
from your mates, plug your earphones in and listen to your fave festival act whilst
staring sadly out the coach window. (Guess which one I chose)
You can make the trip slightly
more bearable if you have any nutritious snacks leftover – I found a lovely,
lovely, squashed cereal bar at the bottom of my bumbag. Happy times.
Speak soon,
Sara x
