Your First Festival and Cheesy Chips

With the harsh monochrome sky above me today, I struggled to think of what to post due to the lack of sunshine. I thought about the things that make me happy and I realised that I have never made a blog post about the festival that I went to last Summer, Boardmasters, an event that kept me grinning from ear to ear everyday that I was there. You must be thinking why are you doing a festival post in March? The season is coming round quicker than you think and most people are purchasing their tickets or have already so I thought I'd give a little about my experience at this particular festival to hopefully spark some ideas as to what festival you would like to go to this year.

Festivals aren't for everyone, but they are most certainly great for those who love them and people's opinions differ as to why they are so fantastic. Around 50% of people who go to festivals go for the music, whilst the other half come to socialise, I personally think it's a bit of both. Carys and I originally decided to go because our favourite band Catfish and the Bottlemen were playing and the line up was suited to our music taste - we got to see Faithless, Rudimental, Bastille, Clean Bandit and Groove Armada - to name a few. But sadly not Catfish because of recording commitments.

Nevertheless this had no impact on our time. Not because we aren't fans, but because festivals aren't just a great opportunity to watch your favourite artists, but also for finding new ones. We were fortunate enough to discover Fickle Friends, an Indie Funk Pop group and from that we found new songs to listen to on the bus, and went to one of my favourite gigs where we got to actually meet the band - to me that is a dream come true.

In general, even if none of the people we'd planned to see were on, there was always music on everywhere, and it was all fantastic. Sometimes the line up isn't the best forecast for how good of a time you'll have, because you could end up finding new artists anyway or be so smashed you don't realise what you're doing.

To the other 50% of the population who go for the social aspects, it really was a chance to meet new people and we ended up meeting five new friends who I'm sure we'll know for life. Even if you aren't looking for 'BFFLs', people on a whole at festivals are so friendly and fun, possibly because of the level of alcohol they are in-taking, even if you went alone, you certainly wouldn't be alone for long.

The 'vibes' I guess people call it will differ from festival to festival. Some festivals like Download will be a 'rockier' vibe to others due to the Heavy Metal genre being played there. Other's like Wildlife or Bestival are quite hippy and chilled. Boardmasters was by the sea, and I mean right by the sea, and in Cornwall at the beginning of August. This gives a good chance of sunshine and warmth and because Newquay is the surf capital of the UK, the feel was very, yep you guessed it - surfy. So consider why you're going and what sort of atmosphere do you want, because the only aroma that you'll find exactly the same in each festival is the aroma of a "herbal" substance - everywhere.

I was quite shocked at how many people were 'intoxicated' shall I say ( maybe not the guy in the grey hoodie above), probably due to my young age and very little exposition to things like that, however you soon realise who you don't want to be around and where you don't want be if you aren't interested in that sort of thing. It shocks some, but not others, it really depends on the individual, but I wasn't harmed at all and if I noticed something that made us uncomfortable we just walked away, the only thing you can do (then went to get cheesy chips).

To wrap things up, Boardmasters was amazing and I can't believe how lucky I was to have gone and experienced what I did, I'm not going back this year as I'm on holiday but I have put here's a link to the line up (it's amazing). I will be going to Reading Festival in August though, and I hope to do more festival themed videos nearer the time like essentials, outfits and tips.

Til next time.