Last year I lost my Festival V at V Festival. It was my first festival ever – on my ’30 before 30′ list – which probably sums up my attitude to cutting loose.
The Daily Mash’s recent article, ‘Nice girls pretending to look forward to Glastonbury’ resonated with me. Basically I am the “conventional, upbeat women” they describe “focusing on the practicalities of the weekend, like whether to bring an inflatable pillow, to avoid considering the hellish reality of survival in a massive ditch full of caners.”
Despite dry gagging at the stench of the campsite; collapsing in the mud carrying four bags twice my body weight; trying to exist without sleep after our friends were robbed as they slept; and falling upon the kindness of strangers at 10pm to assemble our tent, V Festival was a great experience.
I watched Beyonce, along with (among others) Paloma Faith, The Vaccines Ellie Goulding, JessieJ and Tom Odell and drank so much cider I decided I was ‘high on life’. Jesus.
Once I realised I could cope with the chemical toilets far better once pissed I totally let go…of reality, personal hygiene and my city- living-self. These are the ten things I learned to get you through:
- Carry hand-gel, toilet role and orange lipstick with you at all times – this will minimse self-loathing
- You will spend double your budget on booze and slices of pizza – this will all be worth it
- Allow (hell, encourage) people to plait your hair, adorn you with flowers and paint your face – this will make you feel younger, and given your biggest concern may become feeling like an octogenarian compared to the teenagers wearing neon crop-tops, this will help your self-esteem
- Don’t give anyone attitude, anything goes and this could make the difference between them helping you carry your bags across a massive distance or throwing their own shit at your tent
- If you decide against my advice and are going to give someone attitude (say for pushing in front of you to watch Beyonce when you queued to watch her for 5 hours)…at least recruit everyone else in the crowd to support the cause
- Invest in one of those custom-festival wheelie devices – you will come to hate everyone who was clever enough to buy one
- Drink through any moments of self-doubt when you question why you are there
- Sleep with your money in your sleeping bag
- Turn off your phone and only use it for emergencies – like taking photos at crucial points
- Don’t agree to go to the toilet with a girl you have only met once and let her guard you as you crouch. This will become awkward as you both sober up.
This summer, I’m learning from the above and tweaking the formula. I’m trying two different festivals Latitude and Wilderness, which to my naive mind will attract a slightly older, calmer crowd ( hoping to escape the 16 year-olds doing drugs off spoons at V).
I’m looking forward to the line-up and the broader arts/comedy offering at Latitude – Damon Albarn and Haim are on my list.
Whereas Wilderness sounds like a bloody mini break – set in the Cotswolds, I’m booked up for the The Lakeside Spa and a five course lunch banquet by Angela Hartnett.
Who knows what the reality will be like, but I will report back. And in case anyone else is concerned about whether to bring an inflatable pillow (the answers is always yes by the way ) I will be sharing my ‘packing list’ in the coming days, so we can all bury our heads in pointless organisation to block out the reality of the chaos to come….
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