My Favourite Festival Moments - The Good, The Bad and The Downright Weird
At a festival, you’re almost guaranteed to have something outrageous happen either to you, your friend, or your friend’s friend. When you combine a myriad of different, excitable people from around the country (or world!) who may or may not be on drugs, what else do you expect?
Most of the festivals I attended were when I was a teenager or in my early 20s (I’m fast-approaching 33 now), but that isn’t to say that I’ve lost my interest, I’ve just become a bit more frugal. At fifteen, I went to my first festival: Reading Festival 2004. I saw the likes of The Hives, Franz Ferdinand, The Darkness, The White Stripes and more. I had such an amazing time that I vowed to go every year thence, regardless of who was on the bill. This didn’t last, but nor did the long list of rock bands that would normally play…
So, without further ado, take a trip through history with me to see the good, the bad, and the downright weird moments I’ve experienced at festivals.
One of the best moments that happened to me at a festival was during Marilyn Manson’s set at Reading 2005. At the time, I was obsessed with Manson to the point that I made a badge out of paper, Sellotape, and a safety pin for his birthday – January 5th 1969… – when I was sixteen and told everyone in my class that it was his birthday. It was the first time I’d ever seen him live and when I found out he was playing, I mildly attributed it to me writing to Interscope Records before said festival, asking if he could play (coincidence??).
Anyway, I’m enjoying his set and a person nearby notices my enthusiasm and asks if I want to go on his shoulders so I can see more. I wholeheartedly accept and start screaming with joy when I’m hoisted onto this 6ft-something person’s shoulders. When his set finishes, me and my friend invite this guy to see what other bands are on. We end up exchanging email addresses for MSN Messenger, kiss, and date for a few months. Seventeen years later, it’s still the best location I’ve met a partner.
The second story is one of the worst experiences, hygiene-wise, I’ve had at a festival. At Download 2011 – cracking line-up, by the way – I was waiting to see Korn for the first time, a band I had loved since around 2003, and Bring Me The Horizon had finished which meant that Korn would be on next! I could barely contain myself, and…neither could the guy next to me: he whipped his penis out and started pissing down my leg as if it were a standard festival greeting. I can’t quite believe what’s happening and state, ‘dude, what the fuck, you’re peeing on me!’. In a dazed slur, he apologises and continues, despite multiple protests from me.
Luckily, I had a spare pair of jeans.
Another good anecdote comes from seeing Pendulum live for the first time: they were on the bill for The Prodigy’s World’s On Fire day festival in 2010. I anticipated crying as soon as they came on, but instead I just stood there, eyes wide, in silence. Nothing beats seeing a band you love for the first time, from the moment you know that they’re going to play, seeing the act before them finish, and listening as the music from the speakers shuts off before the stage goes dark and the crowd start screaming.
I'll finish with the story that I always tell whenever a conversation regarding festivals, moshpits, near-death experiences, or Foo Fighters comes up.
Let’s revisit Reading Festival 2005. For the whole day, I was thinking about Foo Fighters, and my aim was to be at the front of the crowd, something my friends wanted to avoid. Me, being my headstrong/stupid self was like, ‘I’m going, I’ll meet up with you guys after!’ which turned out to be a terrible mistake.
Kings of Leon were on first, which caused everyone within a few metres of me to go wild… and by ‘wild’, I mean that all of us were sentient, fleshy domino tiles being simultaneously knocked over. People were falling on top of me, pushing into me, and I couldn’t stand up for half of their set. The only thing keeping me going was knowing I was going to bear witness to Foo Fighters in all their glory, but there was only so much I could take: I start screaming non-stop because people kept knocking me to the ground and either falling or standing on my ribs.
When Foo Fighters come out I am a bag of mixed emotions, but I still manage a smile and a cheer. They start with All My Life and I know that at the chorus, the crowd is going to lose it again. They do. And it’s so much worse than before.
After some more screaming and flailing, a burly guy beside me lifts me up and I get crowd surfed to the front (I am SO CLOSE to Dave Grohl that I could cry) and taken to the medical area so they can check me over. I’m fine, physically, but when I was out of the danger zone, I just wanted to be out there again. Sadly, I missed the rest of the performance as I couldn’t find my friends.
The one gig I was anticipating this year was Foo Fighters in July to make up for 2005. However, they cancelled their upcoming shows due to Taylor Hawkins’ death, which is more than understandable.
So, there you have it.
It was fun strolling through memory lane and recalling things that I forgot had happened, and it makes me eager for my next festival experience.
Written by Shanade McConney
My name is Shanade and I’ve been passionate about writing for as long as I can remember. I've been known to play Fortnite for an obscene amount of time, I love putting a good outfit together, and I speak to people in mortgage arrears in Bristol, where I’ve been based for 4 years. I’m trying to live my best life, whatever that might look like, and hope I never lose sight of the things that bring me joy.
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