There is something I must confess.
Well, I was...
A couple of Saturdays ago, Jade, my cousin, met me at King's Cross after she finished work to catch out train to the North, on our way to Leeds festival!
We arrived in Doncaster late and were met by my uncle Anthony and Eddie who kindly put us up for the night. After some Northern fish & chips and exterminating a couple of spiders from our room, we woke up feeling fresh and ready for a festival.
We had a day pass for the Sunday, thanks to my festival guru Lucy, where the Red Hot Chilli Peppers would be headlining.
The consensus from everyone I asked about what to take to a festival was all pretty much the same: not a lot.
Wellies, shorts and a portable phone charger. Oh, and baby wipes (essential).
As is compulsory when we see my wonderful uncle, we had a mini photo session. Not least because I always like taking ten thousand photos to document my life, but because my dear uncle is a photographer, did you know?
I'd like to say I follow in his footsteps, but he is ten million times better!
I always like to pick his brain when I see him, as he is a fountain of knowledge and has captured some pretty incredible moments. Check his work out here Robling Photography or his Facebook Page, all I ask is that if you work with him you mention his favourite niece (BIG GRIN).
We had heard terrible rumours of awful mud baths at the festival site with Eddie giving us regular updates from the news and so forth. Even Lucy text me to say "It's awful here. Mud everywhere. Avoid if you can".
Avoid? Oh hell no! We were prepared for the mud, this is what we came for!
As we were getting ready, Jade presented me with the most wonderful surprise.
Can you guess what it is?
My wonderful, amazing, beautiful flower crown.
I was gobsmacked when she presented this to me.
"Where did you buy this Jadey? It's amazing. I love it!" - I said.
"Buy it? No, I made it" - she replied. My jaw dropped.
"You made it! But how did you know I liked them?"
"Pinterest. You seem to always pin photos of girls with flower crowns in their hair, so I thought I'd make you one for the festival".
I could've cried. That's why Pinterest is so amazing! I wasn't even dropping hints, but maybe I should start pinning photos of Chanel Handbags and see what happens...
It's true, I have been pining flower crowns they are just so beautiful and romantic right? Check out my garden fairy board on Pinterest here.
Jadey is a very talented florist, but I never knew she could make something so beautiful.
A mixture of fake and real flowers, I was all set to go!
Anthony & Eddie kindly dropped us into Leeds to drop our stuff off at the hotel. There was a festival vibe in the city with tons of people wearing muddy wellies, glitter in their hair, shorts and colourful outfits.
The bus transfer to Blenheim park seemed like the cheapest and most convenient way to get to the festival ground.
It was a rather long and tedious drive we just wanted to get there.
We wouldn't want to disappoint our fathers.
We arrived expecting the worse, but there was no mud.
What was everyone talking about?
We walked through the mud-less guest campsite and were temporarily optimistic about going in to the main arena.
Leeds, we are here for you!
Then we were greeted by the mud.
Oh.
Serious mud.
No, but serious slushy slimey mud...
This is why you wear shorts to a festival and not trousers. You can wipe the mud off your legs, but they will stick to your trousers foreverrrrr.
Or until you bung them in the washing machine.
We sloshed our way through into various different tents. Bands playing to willing crowds who didn't care about the mud. It was all about the music and that's what I loved.
There was a buzz in the air and I was drunk with the atmosphere.
This particular tent had Lany playing. An uber cool band from LA, with Californian laid back tones to their tracks.
I can imagine listening to their music at the beach or a rooftop pool party please. Not to mention the cute lead singer with floppy hair and the hot drummer.
It was warm and humid and nothing beats the sound of live music.
We moved into the BBC Radio 1/NME Stage to catch a floor thumping, crowd jumping performance from Sigma.
Banging tunes, colourful lights and absolute crowd pleasers.
We stayed in the Radio 1 tent for most of the afternoon, only nipping out to grab drinks.
Two at a time, as the queues were way to long.
It was rather annoying the food stalls didn't sell any alcohol whatsoever. They could've sold a cheeky beer here and there, that would've gone down a treat.
We were both blown away by Jack Garratt. I have heard him on Radio 1 (he's on like all the time) and everyone raves about him but I never got it.
Until I saw him live.
My god, that boy is talented!
He takes the stage by himself. It's just him surrounded by a semi-circle of instruments and he plays and sings them all live: drums, piano and guitar. He gets lost in the music and his lyrics and everybody just watches him in awe. I am mesmerized.
He is like a mini Ed Sheeran, who Jadey & I saw live at Wembley last year, and he just captivates the audience.
I am in love with how down to earth Jack Garratt still is and how much talent he doesn't know he has.
Watch out for Jack, he is about to take over the world.
People were friendly, stopping and talking to us, complementing our outfits, saying they loved my crown, parting the way the get by, asking if we wanted our picture taken - am I still in England? Or is the North just different?
It was like we were all a community brought together by the music and the mud.
Kimono H&M | Similar here | | Similar here
Black top from H&M | Similar here | Similar here
Frayed denim shorts Zara| Similar here
Imagine Dragons were playing on the main stage so we trudged through the river of mud to the other side of the camp.
Knee-deep in mud.
I'm on top of the world, Demons, Warriors, Radioactive... so many hits which I knew all the words too.
A few hours in and I already needed my power bank. We all know the batteries on the iPhone don't last, let's hope the iPhone 7 has longer battery life.
The lead singer of Imagine Dragons had an insane voice and was a perfect live performer, not to mention had a very good torso (WINK). We didn't mind staring at him rocking out the stage with his shirt off (WINK).
I was amazed at how many compliments I got for my flower crown. Paloma Faith I was nicknamed.
I have such a talented cousin, but she doesn't always believe it!
She has a new flower stall on Southbank, in front of the Swan Pub (next to Shakespeare's Globe) in London. She caters for events, weddings, bouquets, restaurant decorations, any sort of Christmas decorations and now festivals!
She is insanely creative and could do with some more love as she has only just started. Check her out (and like if you are feeling generous) on Facebook and on Instagram.
The main attraction for the evening were the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. They had the biggest crowd of the whole weekend and it quite doesn't surprise me.
The only problem with a huge crowd and lots of mud is little short asses like me can't see the stage above the crowd. The more I tried jump or stand on tip toes the more I sank into the mud. Jadey narrated their performance to me but eventually we made our way to the back and (finally) bumped into Lucy!
She was looking all important in her yellow rain jacket and radio ear-piece like she was running the place, which she pretty much was.
We only caught here for a few minutes but she will be back in London soon so we can play.
We finished with a bang!
I guess you could say I'm no longer a festival virgin but I still haven't had the full experience of camping for the weekend. But with all that mud? I'm kind of glad we didn't.
The only let down of the entire day was catching the bus back to Leeds. We waited for 3 hours to get on the bus. There was no clear lines, no staff to support, no clear barriers and everyone was starting to get pissed off. Eventually people stampeded towards the buses which could have resulted in a real big accident, especially as there were kids around too. Very poor management on this front.
Have you been to a festival? What was it like? Let me know in the comments below :)
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