time well spent

posted by yodi on Tue 29th May, 07 at 08:03:04

Day One (Saturday)

We decided to start the day early, 6:30 to be precise.  This would leave us plenty of time for making sure we did not miss anything on the day. We however (despite stopping mid way to collect the tent) awoke the sleepy camp site bang on 8:30. As soon as we could we started pitching the tent and cracked open a beer. My driving was over for the day and in life music and beer go well together. Putting up the tent turned out to be much harder than expected as upon dumping tent and pegs on the ground and chasing the fleeing bags we found we had no hammer.  Being quick and not easily deterred me and James proceeded to try monkey island style different object s from the back of the car. The woman’s handbag brolly and can of hot dog sausages just did not cut it to start off with but some trusty local stones soon did the trick. It’s odd that when bashing things with a rock how Stone Age you feel! I don’t suppose the grunting noises helped or well the grumbling when a misaimed rock flattered a finger or thumb.

Tent up we immediately started our journey into the local town to catch a bus to the concert. Communicating with the locals was difficult to start off with as (for only a joke I can guess) we were told to head to a street which only a local would know how to pronounce. The three beers before leaving helped though and we were soon en route to the concert. We knew when were near when the sound of the dance stage warming up was coming as clear as thunder.  Bus luckily dropped us off with only a quick walk down a rather random road where there were only a few stranglers’s heading our way.

The atmosphere in queue was amazing. People were obviously there to have a great day and once we had found our queue the lines were building up. We were nervous about getting in as there had been some things to clear up with the tickets. Luckily we were sent in without a hitch and upon entering you could see the three stages. The dance stage had already kicked off as the crowds poured in and people were v-lining for the bars. James and I decided to both v-line for the bar and at the same time poster spot. The plan was before people piled in to find as many as we could. Progress overall though was slow with my phone being down from the sun light. Who would invent a phone with a back light but no features to help it work in the sun? Anyway the posters were dotted all over the shop. We decided to flow with the crowds and find the posters by wondering on a little once the crowd had stopped.

I was disappointed not to find an access point to e-mail back photos. Yet I noticed that others were on the case as some of the posters had started to gather markings like “K-K”. By mid day the beer had sunk in and we had very much passed the one fatal leak of the day.  The performances of the day were off a calibre you would expect to pay through the nose for. The outside stage was one of favourite hanging spots as we had time to sit in the grass while just taking in the sights of the day. Before going to this day I had always watched them on the T.V and wished to be there. Being at the event was on the day hard to take in.

The one big performance of the day has to be grooveamada. I was not expecting that much off them but the performance was amazing and with the sun starting to go down the crowd was bouncing along to the music. They were energetic and quickly got the crowd stirred up .  Beered up I attempted to dance and I am glad that has not been recorded for all to see!

Day Two (Sunday)

The morning did not start to well with me waking up to find that to my horror the front door of the tent had been stolen. I quickly awakened James to try and throw some light on the matter who pointed out that I was facing the wrong way. I blame the fact that the tent was on an angle and somebody function must assume a door to be at your feet. Anyway problem sorted James went to shower and I had the job of lighting the BBQ for breakfast and supplies. We decided to cook all the burgers that we had in an effort to stop us from buying food during to performance.  Once James had returned I sleepily made my way to the shower room. James however forgot to warn me as of the seedy nature of the camp site toilets. The shower had been made so that the only way to get water out of it was to hold in a broken “push” button. The only reason for this was the very horribly positioned man hood sized hole that poked into the cubicle next door (I’m sure you all know the street name for it).  I ran from there before anyone got chance to join!

We were driving in so we had more time to sit around which came in useful to plan our great assault.  We decided to get there at the front of the queue and then run round to collect the posters before anyone else. We thought that all the hardcore concert people would still be hung over so we would beat them there and race round.

The plan worked well and we even got to follow round the guy putting up some more of the posters. We quickly texted them back to HQ but were informed that we needed a map to proceed. Being without an access point or any decent display on the phones we had to wing it by ear. Plus about midday people had started tearing down the posters. Which started to make finding anything very difficult. So much so that we missed to chance to go behind scenes  and stop CQ.

We spent most of the day at the dance stage on grass in the sun. The sound system was enough to make your whole body tremble when lying. We enjoyed the rest after our drinking the night before but little did I know that in process I was turning into a lobster. Some comments as “I have a very red knee” and “My face feels really hot” should have been a clue. The police were very busy around us though removing quickly anyone they thought to be causing trouble. It seemed like there was more people there that day. Not that I really took notice how many were there previously.

The performances were again amazing with the sterophonics rocking the stage in world elite band style. They came on, no fuss and then just said thank you and walked off. Was really amazing and Mika did a performance of Sweet Dreams, which was very unlike him. We did see the odd other player running round with the map but it was not to I got home that I realised I should of asked to have a look.

A truly amazing two days which with the buzz of seeing other players was just breath taking. It was hard to explain to others about the game but we just had to mention One big Weekend and they were interested. Very enjoyable and without a doubt James and I have to say a big thank you to Sue for letting us go in her place.

Yodi - this is a great report! Thanks for letting us know what went on. It was quite a responisibility being a secret agent - glad you got back okay :-) Wondered if you'd enjoyed the music too! Shame it didn't take place at the Download Festival instead. But hey - you got to see Mika!!