Saturday 19 September 2009

The Electric Picnic 2009

After few days away from the blogosphere, it's scary to come back and try to fit in again. So much it's been going on and I haven't been part of it. Not that I'm much of a blogger socialite, but looking at my 1000+ unread posts on my Reader, I feel overwhelmed and intimidated. I'll take a step at a time and just post some photos of the festival I was telling you about. It was so much more than I expected. It's not just about the music, even though the thing that will stay with me forever and which is standing out from the whole experience, was seeing Florence and the Machine live. I tried to get tickets to see them again in Dublin but it was physically impossible. They sold out in minutes. So here's few photos I took personally:


I also really enjoyed Julie Feeney. She's so unique, and such a great performer, even though ever so shy when it comes to the talking bits.

Another gig I loved was the Flaming Lips. Such a show!
But if I have to be perfectly honest, the reason that made me decide to go was the presence of my beloved drag queens. They had their own tent, called Poptopia, and they were amazing.


Photo taken from Facebook, can't remember from who!

Especially Veda Beaux Reves. She should be a huge rock star, she looked stunning on that stage and the reviewer on The Irish Times loved her too!


I was saying there was so much more than music. It's not called Music and Arts Festival for nothing.The whole festival was so artistic. It looked to me like a big fun fair for adults. Everywhere you turned there was something to photograph, especially in the Body and Soul Area. It was so pretty!
This is a part of the stage there.
This is me inside the sculpture of an elk!

This is Natasha's food stall. She makes everything completely raw, with no dairy, no wheat, no gluten, no sugar. And it's delicious. The chocolate cake was the best chocolate cake I've ever had. No kidding.
The rest of the food stalls were also really good, if not cheap. The tofu burgers at the Vegan and Vegetarian place were a favourite. So were the "bloody mary" crumpets at the Strumpets with Crumpets stall. I wish I took a picture of those. But my camera battery barely lasted to take pictures of Florence on the last day.
LinkMore pretty things on the stalls.


A new thing I tried there was the silent disco. SO MUCH FUN!

I bought myself a wholly hat because it was freezing at night. Here it is, where is sort of makes me look like a hobbit.
So many parents were carrying their kids around in these carts, and so many kids were dressed up as fairies. So cute:)
The ground was very very very very veeeeery muddy, sometimes resembling quick sands. It was great fun. You would have been very brave (or very foolish) not to wear a pair of wellies. I don't think I've ever seen that many people wearing wellies all in one place. The variety was incredible, I was jealous of basically every other girl who passed by me. I had nice pink flowery ones, but they leaked so I in the end I had to buy sensible green farmer-style ones, which weren't fashionable, but they kept me dry and warm!

I only have good memories about this festival. Even though the last day our tents got flooded, and we were covered in mud from head to toe and had to leave the tents there. Even though at night I barely got any sleep because the wankers beside us stayed up 24/7, drinking and being really annoying (I wondered if they saw anything else in the festival beside their gazebo). Even though I was freezing at night, and I didn't take any shower for 3 days, and my hair looked horrible all the time cause there was no power to use straighteners and if you wanted to use 10 minutes of hairdryer you had to pay 10 euro!
So despite all this, I can't complain one bit. It was awesome. I'd do it all again tomorrow. (although I'd bring warmer pjs, stronger tents and would find a quieter spot to camp!)

7 comments:

Celine said...

*hugs to Val* You're back! I was a bit worried about you!

Lecci picnic looks awesome ( my daughter wants your hat!)

Laura said...

After my holidays+relocation my Reader counts 1000+ too -actually, it must be close to 2000- I'm really tempted to 'mark all as read' and start from zero...
I'm happy you had so much fun at the festival. You look great as a hobbit!

mariel said...

I love the hat!

I'm so envious that you got to see Florence and the Machine! I hear they are great live. Looks like you had so much fun, despite the mud. Good luck catching up on you reader!

Ana S. said...

Don't let the pressure scare you away, Val! Just click "mark all as read" and start again if it gets to be too much! The festival sounds SO fun. I really miss going to festivals...I can't believe the last time was two years ago already. I love The Flaming Lips, and I really need to check out Florence and the Machine!

And lol, the you-as-a-Hobbit picture is awesome :D

Melody said...

Welcome back, Valentina!
The event sounds loads of fun! :)

soleil said...

what a great festival! i also like your hat. :)

Kelly said...

Welcome back!

btw, there's no shame in marking all "read" in your reader so you can keep up starting now without a backlog hanging over your head. :)