We woke up a bit later than we probably should have, but it definitely didn´t seem that late considering how much we had to drink the night before. When I´d gone to sleep the night before it was quite chilly and I had rugged up a bit in my sleeping bag to try stop myself from, well, freezing to death. In the morning though it was like a sauna. Really. I had to strip off layers and layers and open up the tent a bit to get a draft going through.
We all got up and ready to go. This included using the wellingtons and making a trip to the restrooms on the camp site. The boots were vital - very vital - in conquering the thick layer of slushy mud that surrounded the toilet area. I hoped that it was the rain from the day before that had made it all slushy like that.
The four of us (Luries and Michael) then headed off into the town to try and find some breakfast before we headed into the festival grounds themselves. We searched for food at a bakery and along the roadside stores that were set up. None of us ended up finding. Instead, we headed into the festival site and got some slices of thick pizza. We sat and ate them while I put my phone on charge at one of the phone charging stations. Very clever things those, with a multitude of different cables for different phones.
There wasn´t anything on the agenda for us really until the early evening when British Sea Power were on, so we thought it might be nice to have a relaxing sort of day around the festival grounds. It was getting slightly chilly and the clouds were really threatening us, so Dani and I went back to the camp site to get our hoodies.
When we returned we found that Emma and Michael had gone and collected 100 plastic cups laying around on the ground. What was the point of this endeavour? Well, naturally it was to redeem them for t-shirts at the recycling stall. What a brilliant way of getting the festival goers to do half the work of cleaning up the place.
We drank our bottles of Flugel, the wierd shots of energy drink and alcohol that we had bought the day before. They tasted of Red Bull and a lot of cough syrup.
We sat on the grass and had some lunch. There was actually a great food stall with fresh healthy food, not carnival fried stuff. I got a box with salad, pasta and chicken. Very good. Dani went and bought us some Poffertjes, Flemish pancake things with dusted sugar on top. They were so incredibly good.
We chilled for a long while on the grass there before heading in to see British Sea Power play. I only knew a few of their songs, but they were really very good.
The next thing we went to see was Henry Rollins perform his Spoken Word. The guy, formerly of the band Black Flag, is a truly amazing person, with a mind open to everything in the world. I think we are all so so glad that we decided to see him instead of other good bands that were on at the same time. His set was a brilliant recollection of some of his travels, how he went out into the world ¨Just to see what was going on¨and to meet people. Brilliant. He is one of those people who just inspires you to go and live your life, to see things, do things, meet people, and just experience all that this crazy existence we are in has to offer. He was talking constantly, without break, for an hour and a half, but it went so quickly. I wish we could have seen him for longer.
We then headed over to the Marquee stage where Mercury Rev was going to be playing. I wanted to see them, but it also gave us the opportunity of getting a good spot for the Flaming Lips who were on the same stage after them. I didn´t really know a lot of Mercury Rev stuff but I knew of them and I knew their general sort of style. They didn´t disappoint. They put on, like all experienced bands should, a fantastic show, soundwise and performance-wise. I´m really in love with their song Holes now.
After the great set by Mercury Rev the Flaming Lips were up. You can already see just how amazing they are when Wayne Coyne (the lead) comes out to personally manage the setting up on stage, check that everything is going well, and get personal with the crowd. He was riling us all up, talking with fans and shooting streamers out of pressurised tubes, into the crowd. The clean-up people must have hated him. Before the show started Wayne came onto the crowd in a giant blow-up hampster ball. Brilliant.
When they eventually started their set they opened with Race for the Prize, one of the list of songs that I desperately wanted to hear them play. It was amazing. They did their balloon and confetti into the crowd thing during it and the experience was - as I might describe their shows in general - magical. Their set included a light piano version of Yoshimi, which was very arms over shoulders and swaying worthy; Yeah Yeah Yeah song, awesome to just get into and sing or shout your heart out; Vein of Stars, very atmospheric; and Do You Realise, in which the girls and I just ended up hugging eachother tightly. They really do put on an amazing show, even if half the fun is the performance and not the music.
We were all very very tired by the end and didn´t make any effort to see other bands after the Lips. Well, I think part of it was also because it´s the sort of set that you just want to let sit in your mind for a while and not get anything else in the way. So, we headed back to the camp site and got some sleep.
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