For my high school yearbook, I have been voted as "most likely to be found at a music festival". There is a reason why my superlative is so accurate and why I love festivals so much, despite the mud, the grubbiness of camping, and the far from ideal toilet situations. It's hard to put the feeling that music festivals give me into words (or bad quality phone pictures) but I'll attempt to take you through the journey of my unforgettable memories made at the three times I've been (so far) to music festivals.
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| The first festival I went to was Sziget festival in Budapest, Hungary in 2012. |
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| Not only were their fantastic artists, |
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| but there was also entertainment to be found in body paint (I'm on the far right), |
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| Pretend gay marriage, |
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| Friends to be made (I made sure to meet the people carrying the South African flag) |
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| And bungee jumping (one day I'll be brave enough to try it!). |
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| The week after Sziget, I was off to my next festival: Reading (which I have been to twice now). This is our campsite, equipped with a poor quality tent (which flooded), lots of mud, and fold up chairs. |
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| I discovered festivals are the best way to get closer with friends. Sharing a tent and waking up looking your worst is a great way to cement friendships! |
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| These are some of the crowds (there are 100,000 people at Reading), featuring someone standing on top of someone else's shoulders and the typical festival fashion of shorts and wellies (suitable for the widely varying weather). |
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| There are always people dressed up at festivals! |
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| A surprise visit from Green Day. |
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| Carefully going over the schedule for the day to minimise missing as many bands as possible. |
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| The emotional moment when the final song plays and confetti fills the air. |
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| Two dedicated fans with the 'Black Keys' album title written across their chests. |
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| One of my favourite parts of festivals - the signing tent. I got to meet some of my favourite bands, including one who I asked to sign my chest. |
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| My friend and I relaxing and listening. |
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| A selfie with the crowd taken from on top of a kind stranger's shoulders. Face paint, band shirt, and flower headband included. |
Me in the crowd |
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| The memories will be forever remembered on my wrist. |
One of my greatest memories, not pictured, was seeing Foo Fighter's perform for their very last time after a long and monumentally successful career. That was spectacular in it's own right, especially as Dave Grohl (frontman, as well as drummer for Nirvana) made a very emotional speech halfway through and then continued to play songs with 100,000 people singing along every word with him. Not only that, but it was his mother's birthday (she was standing on the side of the stage) and Dave Grohl got 100,000 people to sing happy birthday to her. At the end of their set, confetti and fire blazed from the stage, making one very unforgettable memory. On top of all that, I was standing next to a couple in the crowd, and between songs, the man proposed to the woman and she said yes.
I think perhaps it is this eventful memory that really sums up why I love music festivals so much. Music brings people together, whether it be lovers, good friends, or complete strangers. It's a chance for you to feel the same emotional experiences with bands and artists that you've idolised for your whole life. There is something about hearing lyrics that you deeply connect with, but there is something even more special about singing those lyrics at the top of your lungs
along with the artist who wrote them.
As Dave Grohl sums it up:
"That's one of the great things about music. You can sing a song to 85,000 people and they'll sing it back for 85,000 different reasons".
I hope 2014 (year of my high school graduation) is full of new festivals and experiences for me to always remember.
