Hop Farm Festival

Wow, not blogged in ages! But to be honest, it's because I either haven't had time (which leads to making notes of things to blog about on my phone...many, many lists!) & also because I've been a touch lazy on-line-wise recently. Been doing too much reading of other blogs & not enough maintenance of my own! Tsk. 
Anyway. 

This weekend just gone (the 2nd/3rd/4th) I went to Hop Farm Festival with The Boy, & a group of his friends. It was amazing! Although we only got tickets for the Saturday + camping, as opposed to Friday & Saturday, it didn't feel like we were missing out on anything! 
My trip of joy started on Thursday, when I went to Andover to see The Boy, and generally hang out slash be cooked for by his mum! Which was lush. I also discovered that although I'm shockingly shite at video games, Red Dead Redemption. is actually pretty fun! 

According to The Boy, it's a "sandbox game", which means the type of game where you just run around shooting things & doing missions - like playing in a sandbox, I suppose. 
 Although I didn't do any of the missions (aka couldn't, & didn't want to risk a temper tantrum by trying), it was pretty fun just riding around on the horse shooting people & finding different parts of the map, etc. 

And it looks pretty amazing.


But anyways! Back to my trip. 


So on Friday we went to the station & met everyone with all the bits & pieces, and got group-saver tickets to Paddock Wood which turned out to be a bargain! *Mental note - travel with four, or groups of four people in future! 
After a couple of hours traveling (car, train, train, bus) we arrived at the camp site & pitched the tents...another mental note is to never go camping ever again without one of these (although maybe not green...); 

After a night of strongbow-fulled fun times, it was was time for the music & shizz! 
 The lineup for the Saturday was (in reverse order); 
BOB DYLAN
RAY DAVIES
MUMFORD & SONS
SEASICK STEVE
PETER DOHERTY
LAURA MARLING
JOHNNY FLYNN
THE MAGIC NUMBERS
FOY VANCE


Foy Vance - Didn't see...Don't really know...not a lot to say!
The Magic Numbers - Saw the second half of their set, was really good! Really nice & chilled, bit of a sing-along going on in the crowd, was pretty nice yet mellow. 

Johnny Flynn - Erm...Didn't see...& honestly can't remember why! I have a feeling we were getting food. Which was pretty amazing, to be fair :]
Laura Marling - A lot better than I expected. I suppose this is because I thought that although I like a lot of her songs, I couldn't really imagine her performing live. She was really sweet though! Tried chatting with the audience a little, but seemed pretty awkward. Bless her. But I like that she tried. & the music was really good in that it really seemed to fit the summer-festival mood. Really nice way to warm up the day. 

Peter Doherty - I personally didn't see, as the sun was getting to me a bit & came over all funny...what a weeny. But from what I gather, he played some tunes & was generally okay. 
Seasick Steve - Highlight of the day. Absolutely amazing!! There aren't really words, apart from I think I'd like to marry him a little. Especially when during Mumford & Sons, the stage camera spotted his little head poking around the side of the stage, watching them! Too cute for words. And! His backdrop on stage was a blue flag, with a silhouette of himself, doing pretty much this pose (legend);

Mumford & Sons - Were really good, as expected. Played some real tunes that had pretty much everyone having a bit of a dance around, loving life! Great to sing along to at points as well. 

Ray Davies - Only saw the last couple of songs (due to more food-getting - fatties), but he seemed to be a really good live performer! When we were making our way back into the midst of the crowd, he really had everyone going which was really fun. He also had a couple of laughs with the crowd, & just put everyone in a really great mood! Which was almost a shame, seeing that he was followed by...

Bob Dylan - a bit of a disappointment. I think an article The Grandmother saved me from The Telegraph summed it up pretty well - "if attend expecting to hear the young man of Blonde on Blonde or Bringing it All Back Home, his powers undiminished by cigarettes & time, then you will leave disappointed...The encore - the almost inevitable Like a Rolling Stone - was the one song where Dylan's discipline slipped & he strained to sing like his younger self...Both old & young fans were happy to assist as his voice was left horribly exposed by the rousing melody". I think that the change in the way he sang his old songs, combined with his complete lack of 'performance', and coupled with all the hype surrounding his set was what made it fall a little short of expectations. Which was a shame, but at the same time it was pretty interesting to have seen him live, as it were.& not forgetting, he is 69! 

The rest of my trip consisted of another night in the tent(!), the train back to Waterloo & a mini trip along the South Bank where The London Literature Festival was taking place! A lovely surprise. The boys had some drinks & I purchased a second hand book (A Million Little Pieces in case you were wondering - a book I had previously bought a couple of years ago, read, loved, lent out to a friend & haven't seen since! Highly recommend it). 

I then returned home & had the longest & possibly best shower I've had in ages! & to top it off, someone at work said I looked tanned today! Which, if you know me, is quite an achievement! Ha. All in all, a laaavely weekend!

Now to start making plans for Camp Bestival over my birthday weekend! But more on that in another post. 

xo