Festivals by David Waddell

Summer is approaching and there is no better way to spend one weekend than sitting in a mucky field drinking booze and watching live music with thousands of equally drunk people. I am of course talking about the summer music festival!

For the last four years I have attended T in the Park festival in Kinross, Scotland and I have had the time of my life on every visit. As soon as it finishes you cannot wait until next year to do it all again. There is just a sense of freedom in the air, a feeling that nothing can go wrong and your only worry is do I have enough beer? T in the Park runs for four days, doors open on the Thursday about 3pm and it finishes on the Monday morning. If you have been lucky enough to spend roughly £200 on a Thursday weekend camping ticket then I would suggest leaving as early as possible on the Thursday morning.

We all meet at Irvine Cross at about 6:30am and set off in our hired mini bus. Although it is early hours in the morning we still have a crate of beer for the bus journey.  Regardless of the time, the mood is always high and a drink goes down well. The journey to Kinross from Irvine is about two hours max depending on traffic. When we arrive at the car park it’s time to get your weekends supplies on your back and carry them round to the entrance. This is about a two mile walk and is by far the worst moment of the weekend. It is important to keep thinking that things are going to get better because at that moment when you feel like your back may break and you cannot go on, you need to just power on through and it will all be worth it soon enough. After the long torturous walk we finally meet at the entrance and at this time we are usually not far from the front of the queue. This is the sole purpose of leaving at that time in the morning. Getting up early is worth it when you are in that queue, near the front and you are sitting on your little fold-out chair and there are still loads of people struggling on by you to get inside the campsite.

After the long wait for the gates to open it finally happens and it is met with a huge cheer from everyone waiting to get in and enjoy the weekend. Once the gates open and you make it through security, they search you for any illegal items. Sometimes the gate keepers are more concerned with people bringing in glass bottles than any other item and other times you will avoid the search completely which is always a bonus because pulling out all your neatly packed gear is a right pain in the arse. After we make sure the entire group, usually about ten of us, have made it through the security check we get together and all head for a good camping spot. Once we find a suitable area we get our tents put up in a circle with an area in the middle to sit.

We usually take about five or six tents, giving us our own wee mini village. We always take a large square sheet of tarpaulin that goes down in the middle area and that keeps the ground from becoming a swamp. This is an in incredibly innovative idea and you are a fool if you do not do the same. Once everything is set up it’s time to sit in your chair and open a fresh can of beer. That moment there is possibly the greatest feeling known to man. You know now that there is no more carrying loads of heavy gear about, no more queuing for hours and no more waiting to party. The time has finally come to get the weekend under way with no stress.

There are no bands playing on the Thursday night so it is all about drinking and having a good laugh. You would think sitting outside in a field for hours upon hours would be boring but with good company and good music on a portable cd player the good times keep coming. There are plenty of food stalls about the campsite for your dinner on the Thursday night. These places charge an absolute fortune so bring plenty of cash. After about eight cans of beer all you want to do is eat your weight in food and at £6 for a roll and bacon then you’re going to need some major cash. The next day is the first day of the bands playing and the drinking starts as soon as you wake up. The only way to avoid a terrible hangover is to get in about the drink as soon as possible. The next few days of the festival is spent drinking during the day and watching live bands at night.

I would recommend this experience to anyone and everyone. It can be a scary thought going to your first festival but once you are there it is excellent, regardless of the weather or even the bands that are playing. The overall party feeling of a festival makes it a must do experience!! Bring it on!!