hellison | Electric Picnic report!

At least the bits of it I can remember

Saturday!
Drive down was grand, usual roadworks hold ups but otherwise fine. Got there too late for the main carpark tho and had to park in the one half a mile down the road, which mean traipsing up to find Grik and the others, traipsing back down to the car and back UP again with all the gear, THEN lugging it all to the campsite. Got there at about 1 and it was 4 before the tent was finally up and I could have a drink.

Went for a wander about to see the sights and sounds and buy a hat, watched a bit of the metallica film in teh cinema, stopped off at the bacardi bar for a few drinks, (tho somehow failed to find the part where they were serving mohitos, which may have been just as well) and nosed round the shops. Then met up with the others back at the tents again for Stereo MCs. Who were amazing! Used to listen to them a lot when we were at uni, was a great nostalgia trip.
Left them a bit early tho to try and catch the end of Goldfrapp, but didn't make it in time, so we wandered over to Lost Vagueness, discovered they were selling jugs of Pimms and spent the next few hours happily sitting under a tree in teh sun, sipping away listening to the very excellent ska bands playing inside. We even got champagne at one point.

After that it all gets a bit hazy :p Lost track of people, wandered into Royksopp to try and spot them, but couldn't, ambled over to the Southern Comfort stage to see was on there and eventually wandered back to the main stage to see Flaming Lips, completely forgetting to go and see Kraftwerk in between. Flaming Lips were... a bit mad. Had never heard any of the their music (and probably wouldn't recognise it again) but the show they put on!
The singer appeared in a huge bubble and bounced around, there were hordes of people standing round the stage in furry animal suits having balloon fights, all topped off with a big Bohemian Rhapsody singalong, with the words on the big screen. Crazy stuff.

By this point it was dark and late and cold, so I headed back to the tent to find a jumper, got lost on the way back from the toilets and ended up having a drink and a smoke with the group of lad in the tents next to us, listening to Fat Boy Slim (apparently he wasn't all that hot). Finally crawled into to tent, got v. cold and climbed into sleeping back 'just to warm up'. Woke up sometime later, music was still going but someone appeared to be shining a very bright light into the tent. Turned out to be the sun, as it was 7am ;p

Sunday!
Such a good day. Made a lucky early visit to campsite toilets (apparently by lunchtime they were overflowing), retired back to tent with painkillers and water. Got up again about 9, everyone else was still out cold - apparently they'd sat up til about 6 - so wandered off to find breakfast, chatting to people up trees and lounging outside tents along the way.
The shops and food places were pretty well stocked up, tho naturally somewhat over priced. Drank lots of tea and recovered slowly.

Once it was open again, I went to investigate the Body and Soul area and oh my. Best place to be hungover EVER. There was a little meditation garden, a shop selling herbal teas and cold water, yoga workshops, drumming workshops, a man carving patterns on random logs lying about, people playing guitars, hammocks to lie in and best of all, the massage area. Booked Indian head massage and reiki which turned into one blissful hour long session since the same girl did them both. Never had reiki before but it was a very nice soothing and gentle massage, tho it was kinda hard not to laugh when she did the wavy-hands aura-cleansing at the end. When that was over, sat in the sun for a bit then headed into the other tent for aromatherapy face and back massage, figuring anything that made me smell better had to be a a Good Thing. Then feeling somewhat dazed (and oiled. SO glad I bought that hat) headed to the chai tent for peppermint tea. Pure bliss I tells ya. SUCH a good idea.

Grabbed some lunch and headed back to the tents, where everyone else was just about waking up.
We eventually assembled ourselves and headed back up to the main arena to see Toots and the Maytals. Nothin' like a bit of bouncing reggae to start the day off! They were excellent - and you could have got stoned just standing around breathing. I've never seen so many people smoking :p Lots of dancing about and singing along, definitely one of the highlights of the weekend.
Next were Human League, mostly out of curiousity, but the switch from bouncin' reggae to dour electro-pop was just too much of a head wreck, so left after 2 songs (apparently they got much better towards the end) with Grik and Bridin, got food then went to the comedy tent, which was excellent. Very funny stuff, particularly when the annoying guy beside us on the phone got dragged onto the stage and his mother phoned.

After that... (this is getting very long winded :p) went back to the tents to drink some cider & skin up for later, then back for Mercury Rev. They clashed with Tommy Tiernan in the comedy tent, but for Miv's sake I forsook Tommy and stayed for MR - who were pretty damn good, another one on the list to chase up. Then it was the end of Bob Moulds Band (never heard of him, but he was good), followed by the Kills (strange, angry but very good), back to the tents for more cider and to get Viv's bags and finally De La Soul. Who blew the place away.
We passed by Nick Cave in the main arena on the way and he sounded good, but miserable and pissed off, which was wreckin' our buzz man, so we skipped him. De la soul were excellent, the tent was way too packed tho so after a bit of bouncing about and so on, sat outside on the grass to listen and breathe. They were very good tho and really got the crowd going. Things were winding down by the time they finished, lost people again on the way out so went and hung out at Lost Vagueness for a bit, where the ska band were on again, then headed tentwards.

People gradually straggled back, some had got into the party in body and soul, others wanted to head to the car park parties so we had a few beers to think about it, then remembering the drive home the next day, I went to bed. Sleeping wasn't exactly easy, but I managed some!

Monday was a gorgeous morning, people were up and about packing from 7ish, sat about in the sun drinking tea and lots of water, eventually got hold of Alan and the others and left for home about 11ish.

Bloody Good Weekend.

In Summary -

Things I saw - Stereo Mcs, Royksopp, Flaming Lips, Lost Vagueness, Cinema (v. briefly), comedy, body & soul with massages, Toots and the Maytals, Mercury Rev, Human League, Bob Moulds Band, the Kills, De la soul.

Things I missed - Asian Dub Foundation, Kraftwerk, the fun fair (we kept MEANING to go on the ghost train but never made it), Fat Boy Slim (tho we could hear him), Bosco and... lots of stuff ;p

A lot of it was geared towards dance/techno, so skipped all that, but there really was something for just about everyone - if there were no bands you fancied, there was the cinema, the comedy, body and soul, Lost Vagueness, the fun fair, or just hanging out in the middle of it all.
I was kinda worried before I went about not precisely going *with* anyone and ending up on my own - as it was I spent a good bit of both days just ambling about by myself and it was great.

The atmosphere was incredible - very chilled out and laid back. Even the security guys were great, there was no aggro of any kind, or at least none that I saw. There were a few cops and some undercover DS about, I heard of a few people who got their drugs taken, but that was it. There were people smoking everywhere in full view of security (myself included) and at one point I was offered a bag of Mystery White Powder by kaz, who said 'here have some of this, i dunno what it is'. I declined ;p

I have nothing to compare it too, not having done the tent festival thing before, but everyone who has said it beat Oxegen by miles for safety and friendliness and was more like Glastonbury, only with better toilets. Tho there definitely weren't nearly enough campsite toilets, they did at least clean them out every day (you just had to get in EARLY). The toilets in the arena were plentiful and not so stinky - I never had to queue once, and they even had loo roll in them.
The only other real drawback was the total absence of bins - there were a few near the shops, but otherwise none and by Sunday the arena and campsite were both a mess of tins, plastic glasses and other assorted detritus.

This was the first year they had camping tho so maybe by next year they'll have that sorted. If its on again, I am SO going back. And on friday night this time, to get the first night stupid drunkess out of the way so I dont' miss stuff ;p

One of the best weekends ever! Will get pics up later.