The one with the Festival

(I had thought to name this “The Running Man part III (The Sleeping Man)” but decided against it to give him a reprieve this week)

Last weekend I went to the Summer Sounds Festival up near Silverstone with my cousin and a few of our mates. We were fortunate enough to be driven there by Chrystal (which led me to quote one of my favourite bands – when somebody asked me how we were getting to the festival I got to reply “We are taking the Crystal Method”) however the other less fortunate lads had to get a bus there. This meant we had the luxury of leaving for the festival when we wanted.

The story began on the Friday night, when I had decided to catch up with the Running man in Clapham Junction for a couple of pints after work. The Wolf and his flatmate also came along. Unbeknownst (yes - I had to spell check that one) to me they had arranged to head to a birthday party in Clapham Common for a girl they new. As this was close to the tube station on the line to my place (Clapham Junction is not) I thought this to be a good idea.

We proceeded to the bar and found out that our table received free shots for booking in advance. This was rather good considering there was about 7 of us – although we told the barkeep there was 20 of us (for a couple of shots each) which set the tone for the evening. Just after midnight I realised my last tube would be soon so I made a hasty goodbye to everyone and departed for home. Needless to say I was in a rather drunken state but managed to find my way home and into bed.

I got up about 9 (with a rather sore head) to make my way to Chrystal’s to go for a quick shop and grab a lift to the festival. Having seen 3 missed calls from the Running man (logged at around 3am) I figured the festivities must of dragged on further into the evening. The drive was rather long (bank holiday traffic is a nightmare I am told) so I took the opportunity to grab a few extra z’s on the backseat.

Once we arrived we carried our gear (probably only a mile but seemed like I was walking 10 with a collection of gym weights), set up the tents and headed into the arena. At this stage I texted a few of the boys with no response. I didn’t find this particularly surprising considering the event of the festival.

As the afternoon progressed into the evening we headed to the main stage where I was confronted by a very desperate Running man exclaiming, “Holy shit I can’t believe I found you!” He then proceeded to tell me the past events of the evening. Basically, he had not really remembered me leaving the bar – and certainly had not remembered how he got home, but woke up at around 11.45am with his bus leaving at midday. Not really knowing what his next move should be he frantically searched for his phone only to come up empty. (At almost a simultaneous moment in his recap my phone buzzed a message from the Wolfe enquiring as to whether or not I had seen the Running Man, apparently they had been calling him for the last 9 hours trying to find out what had happened). After he realised he didn’t have a phone the Running Man headed into the bus station to see if he could grab a lift on one of the later ones. It had taken until the last bus of the day for a spare seat to crop up, but he was finally on his way around 3pm. I am still at a loss how he had expected to find anyone at a festival of 60,000 punters, with no phone or clue where to look for people. I guess it is one of the good things about these events – you do actually bump into people regardless of how packed it gets.

The festival had fantastic weather (I don’t know how to type sarcasm but the last sentence was soaked with it). The wind howled, the rain fell from the sky and the pitch turned muddier than last nights curry. I was rather glad I had gotten a half decent tent as everyone else I know ended up sleeping in a river. By the Monday afternoon, with the wind and rain still causing havoc I decided to ditch the tent where it lay, and not surprisingly estimated at least 90% of my fellow campers had done the same.

The drive home was met with another well deserved sleep and I would have to say a rather good weekend was had by all. Unfortunately on the first night a man was found dead in one of the tents. The circumstances have not been released but I must say it is good to go to a festival with a group of close friends so that everyone looks after each other.

I will now post my highlights in case any of you were wondering my thoughts