Monday 15-09 - Homeward bound

Woke up with a hang over and early. Got maybe 2 hours of sleep. The uses were backed up to the point that we had to wait more than an hour. The organisers apologised and did everything they could to fix the problem. They even sprung for taxis to take of us. We were pointed towards a taxi that we shared with 2 girls, still in their PJs and with mascara from the night before. We were all exhausted.



Getting on the train was painless and we got seats in an empty carriage. I let my eyelids shut and before I knew it we were at Waterloo station. We made our way back to Karens. We stayed around the flat, being tired. Our mum made us a nice dinner, before we passed out from tiredness.

Sunday 14-09 - End of the road day 3

Up late again.



This time breakfast was a fry up of egg, beans, potato and veggie sausage.



We started with Sons of Noel and Adrian. I was heavily impressed. Lots of strings and horns and a choir like sound.



The Wave Pictures were on next. Everyone seemed really obsessed with them. They didn´t thrill me. They were ok I guess but not worth the hype. We left as soon as they were over for the comedy stage.

We got in early and caught the end of the act before Darren Hanlon´s. The crowd got thinner and thinner until there was hardly anyone left. Darren had a small audience, but all the better for us. We got a really intimate performance from him. He told us all stories and sung his old and best songs. Nice and relaxing and full of good memories.



Lunch was a Moorish wrapped pastry with goats cheese and spicy lamb sausage. Excellent.





We found a hidden forest with masks and fairy lights hanging from the trees. I love this festival.





Beyond the forest we found a tiny outdoor dancefloor with 70s music and colourful flashing lights. I really love this festival.



We stopped in for Scandinavian treats and cinnamon buns.



Jeffery Lewis was on next. I didn´t know much of his stuff but he soon won me over with his adorable stage presence. His songs were funny and endearing. So were his comic book detective nior ¨films¨ that he read through on stage. All his stuff was good. Part way through John Darniel from the Mountain Goats ran on to do some guest vocal. I got really excited.







The Mountain Goats were better than I ever could have expected. After Low´s performance my expectations for the main acts was, well, low. So when John Darniel came on stage and broke the A strong before one song I had no idea what to expect. We waited another 5 minutes.

Then they started with one of my favourite songs, Palmcorder Yajna. And it was beautiful. So wonderful. Better than I could have expected. John was so funny and charismatic. He had this incredible smile whenever he wasn´t singing.



He played a couple of the songs I knew and liked from Heretic Pride. And from Sunset Tree he played Dance Music and Tetrapod. He jumped into a reggae style song and the crowd was absolutely silent. We cheered. He said that it was the quietest a crowd had ever been for that song, so to thank us here was a song about child abuse. Then they jumped into This Year. Amazing. I was in a joyful daze.



After the set we wondered down to the cider bus. We had cider with 2 shots of apple brandy in it. A bit too strong maybe. We decided to drink them in a well lit pagoda with half open wooden walls. Who should we find on walking into the same hut but Dani´s friend Sam and some of his mates. We sat next to then and got to talking. Some waves of tiredness washed over me at that point. Or maybe it was the booze, which is weird because it was the first I had all day. Either way the time jumped passed and suddenly we were on our way to see Zombie-Zombie play at the big top. Josh id us goodnight at this point. The band were good. We got to dance a bit to them, although i was still waking up a bit.



After zombie-zombie we weren´t sure what to do with ourselves. We happened to come across Sam again with some of his friends. And standing next to him was none other than Jeffery Lewis. For some reason they had met up with them and they were all hanging. We joined the group. Everyone was pretty drunk by that point. We all wanted to go back to the hidden dance floor with the glowing lights but that whole area was closed off. There were a few members of the group with Artist wrist bands on, so we hatched a drunk and hilarious plan. After practicing we went up to the security guard. We all said in unison ¨I - have - let - my - instrument - on - the - stage¨. It didn´t work like we had wanted and just left the security guard confused as we walked away laughing.

We made our way to a pagoda and tents belonging to some of the guys. They brought out a bottle of brandy and some red wine which got passed around. They also brought out a travel guitar and a melodica which got passed around. They played Bob Dylan. The one guy I was chatting with turned out to be from Sons of Noel and Adrian. We went on like this well into the night. Us, the guys from the bands and Jeffery Lewis. It was at least 5am before I got back to my tent.

Saturday 13-09 - End of the road day 2

We woke up late. Which is ok because nothing happens in the morning anyway. The night had been really cold. I woke up a few times in the night, shivering. I had two pairs of socks on. I got dressed in my tent and ready for the day. The place was still a field of mud so we continued to live in our wellies.



We wondered around to the festival site. Our breakfast was a brekkie burrito with organic savoury potato, egg and some other greasy carb-y bits. I loved it as a woke up from the night before. The other two seemed to regret the eating of the burritos.



By the entrance of the camp site were two tents: the making tent and the doing tent. The doing tent had some storytelling activities while the making tent had creative stuff. Dani and I painted pictures with the kid safe paints. I painted a sloth while Dani made duck. Then we stuck them on the wall.



We went to get money out of the cash point. Only to find out that it only took British debit cards. Fuck. And according to the info guy that was the only atm for 6 miles. So for now we would have to rely on Dani. We did manage to by a jug of Pimms from the garden bar. The garden bar was the only place that used cards and the pimms had a 10 pound jug deposit that we got back. So we managed to get another 10 from that.

I wanted to see Darren Hanlon play at some point, I hadn´t seen him play for ages. His main show was on at the same time as Jeffery Lewis who I wanted to see. But he was also set to do a set at the comedy stage. So we wondered down there. We discovered a beautiful garden area with green grass for sitting.

The comedy stage was a small building with wooden floors and a low stage. Every had to take there wellies off first and left a forest of gum boots sitting on the stairs outside. We sat in socks.



We sat for a while listening to his guy do his stand up. He was self proclaimed whimsical and brought up a volunteer to insult his whimsy. He brought up a young boy with scary face paint like the joker. It made for an interesting show. Only then I glanced at the timetable and realised Darren was only on a day later.



Then it was time for Noah and the Whale. Everyone in London seemed to be enthralled with these guys. I hadn´t really heard of them until I got here. They were pretty good, but they didn´t make me swoon like everyone around me was swooning. I enjoyed the set.

We drank more Koppelburg cider and ate gourmet hotdogs for lunch.





We sat on a garbage bag in a muddy tent for a band I had kind of heard of, Seabear. They turned up with their gorgeous Icelandic accents and thousands of instruments and just blew my mind. I wanted to marry everyone in the band for being so damn adorable. And funny, with this great dry wit and dead pan honour. For sure the high light of my entire day. I went back and bought a vinyl copy of their album after the set and Dani ought the cd.





We had coffee and cake an the tea garden, a cafe set up with polkadot tables clothes and green hedges.





We wondered around for a while and had some more cider. We saw the peacocks and the macaws that were supposed to live in the gardens. It reminded me of the peacocks at UWA.



Before Low was another band people were crowding to see It made finding a good spot a bit hard but we ended up second row from the barrier on the right side.

As Low were starting a guy pushed in front of us to his friends. Josh got really angry about it but I thought Oh well, I would have done the same thing. I only got angry when they started making out in the middle of the set and blocking everyone´s views. I started passive aggressively standing on my toes to see and ´accidentally´ losing balance and falling onto them. Soon after they left and I got the spot on the barrier.

I realised that Low must have released a record while I had been traveling around. They played mostly songs I didn´t know but that everyone around me seemed to know very well. It dulled the joy of the experience slightly, but they still played some of my favourites.





It was an interesting set, with interesting banter from Alan Sparhawk the vocalist. It went along the lines of ¨I know you all had a great day, but I had a crappy day. Today everyone I loved told me they hated me¨. His wife and bassist replied with a upbeat ¨not everyone¨. At the end of the set Alan started to swing the guitar around like a madman. Then he let to go and sent it flying into the crowd at high speed. Everyone was shocked and a gasp. I thought it would have definitely hurt someone. Later the bassist came back out and apologized and asked if anyone had been hurt. It seemed that everyone was ok and some happy Low fan had earned himself a guitar (or what was left of it).

After the set Mercury Rev played. We were at the back of the crowd for this one and I just wasn´t getting into it. I enjoyed the Pukkelpop set more. So we listened for a while then went to get late night burritos for dinner. We chatted to other people from the Low set. Everyone gossiped about how shocking the nights events were and talked about if it would make the papers. I didn´t think it would.

To keep us up we got cider at the cider bus. We danced with people and played limbo with a tree branch. We didn´t stay up too late. The day drinking left me exhausted. We made our way back to the tents.

Friday 12-09 End of the road day 1

As of 7am we had no train tickets, no festival tickets and no tents. Good for us.

I got an email from the festival organiser. On ringing Sophia I found out that the tickets were sent to Karen´s flat and not to Australia. I was so relieved. It just meant an extra stop. So we split up. josh went to Argos to get the tents while Dani and I went to Liverpool station to pick up the train tickets.

The tube was packed with peak hour traffic. We gave up and took the crowded bus. We got the tickets and made our way to Karen´s. It was becoming more and more clear that we weren´t going to make the train. But at least it was only a case of a new train ticket and not new festival tickets. We met up with Josh at the flat, where we ate take out egg sammiches with coffee.

At the train station I went to get new tickets. It turns out they are open tickets so we could use them on the next available train. We jumped on but couldn´t find a seat, so we perched in the hallway. Sharing our perching spot was an assortment of trendy types also on their way to the festival.

We were sitting next to the bathrooms. A blonde women was standing in the queue and started up a conversation with us. Turns out she was the scandinavian relative of the organiser Sophia who had helped us and was on the very same train. We sent our thanks for all her help.

At Salisbury there was a long wait for the couch bus that would take us to the festival grounds in the middle of nowhere. It cold,rainy and generally miserable. We also realised we had no food or alcohol. We didn´t get a chance to buy any plus this tiny town had no visible shops.



The coach bus took us past tiny towns and through green pastures. We moved deeper and deeper into the country. This place really is in the middle of nowhere, otherwise known as Dorset.

At the camp site I was surprised. The only camping experience I had with festivals was pukkelpop. The tents were crammed and dirty. This was different. The tents were spaced out and there were garden gnomes. We set up our cow tents.



The whole festival was kind of like that actually. Every stall was locally sourced, organic, fair trade and mostly vegetarian. Stalls with Goan fish curries and Moorish wraps. Kids everywhere with family activities, clay and paint. An ´arabian´ cinema tent showing short films. All very excellent.



All the first day it rained, much like in Belgium.



It made the ground a field of mud. I think the ground was filled with clay so it stuck to everything. It splattered onto my pants and everywhere else.

The Acorn were the first band we saw that day.



They were spectacular. I was instantly in love. They played songs that I had been obsessed with the entirety of my travels. Even the rain couldn´t spoil this amazing set.





A hawk and a hacksaw played next. I had heard good things about them. I wasn´t disappointed. A lute?, a violin and a piano accordion are strange instruments for a band but they work. We danced around and watched they spin tunes. Also, I watched the one guy´s enormous and charismatic moustache. Dani and I did more of our beloved synchronized hand dancing and then skipped around like a barn dance.

The rain started to clear. We were peckish so we found organic chocolate cake for tea.



We walked around. At the Scandinavian food tent we were delighted to find Koppelburg pear cider for sale.



Dinner was pizza and pear cider.



We went to the big top tent to see Akron/ family. I only knew one song but really liked it. It was a slow, pretty song. And not representative of the rest of their work, which was loud and crazy and funky. They shouted and had guitar solos. They even got the entirety of The Acorn on stage to play with them. The guest band took up drums and melodicas and aanything else they could get their hands on. The whole tent was full of music and movement and life.





Josh went to bed soon after. Dani and I got some warm cider to keep us going. We returned to the big top tent where the End of the Road DJs were playing prince and other dance classics. It was a great time had by all. We skipped around in the mud to New Order before making our way to bed later in the night.

Thursday 11-09 - Freak out

We started the day with breakfast at a bakery. I had chai and a lemon meringue pie cupcake. It a was filling and deceptively large cake. It was awesome until I accidentally got sticky lemon meringue in my hair.



After breakfast everyone went their separate ways. I got ready for the upcoming festival. I made a decision to leave the backpack at home this time. Instead I would use my sports bag that tucked away into its own little bag. It was perfect because it became a tiny bag and didn´t take much space inside the tent. I packed only the bare essentials for this trip. just enough shirts and only one pair of pants. It weighed about 5kg all up.

Mum, Karen, Aiden, Josh, Dani and myself met up with Paul, Josh and our friend Mara all met for lunch at Wahaca. We ate excellent Mexican food. Everyone had a chance to catch up with each other.





After lunch we walked around with the boys and stopped in for a drink. I had pear cider and we talked about boys, girls and relationships. A nice afternoon. We parted ways and made our way to Argos to pick up our tents. Stopping in for a drink wasn´t the best idea. Argos was closed by the time we got there. Sigh. We would have to get one the next morning.

We got to Dani´s and decided on a whim to check the e-tickets. My heart almost stopped. There were no e-tickets, or any tickets on the internet at all. All there was, was a paypal receipt with a billing address that read Perth, Australia. Fuck. Where had I sent the tickets the tickets. Had I sent the tickets to Australia? I couldn´t for the life of me remember. I freaked out a little.

We called the festival organisers and left a message to inquire. Then we drank red wine and watched Anchorman. I just needed to calm down. I had troubled sleep.