Hogsozzle 2015 - Looking Forward To 2016!

Last year I posted a write-up on my little blog here of the festivals I got to tag along to with The Turner Brothers. You can see all of those posts from 2015 by clicking here.

So, it's the start of Spring and I'm basically chomping at the bit to cast aside the jogging bottoms that I've worn pretty much every single day of winter and get back to rolling around a muddy field with my favourite band.

Last year the first festival we went to was Hogsozzle - and it's the first up this summer too! I didn't write about our experience last year for some reason, I have a feeling there's a draft post knocking about on my computer that never saw the light of day. This year I'm going to be documenting my weekends in much the same way, I'm hoping to discover and work with a bunch of new bands too - if I can get the courage up to actually hand out my business cards.

As I write this, the counter on the Hogsozzle website says it's 63 days, 8 hours and 2 minutes until the start of the weekend. I thought about putting a fancy countdown clock here, by the way, to indicate the actual countdown to the event, but I chickened out. Just FYI.

We arrived on the Saturday after some of the group had already been camping for a day. They had pitched a sweet spot directly under a floodlight at the entrance to the main camping area. The festival is set in three adjacent fields, one of the things making it a great festival site is the huge purpose built wooden bar overlooking the action - I really wish I'd taken a photo of it to share here, I will make sure I do this year. There were a number of other structures dotted around the site too - a wooden platform in the woods later became an impromptu venue for a dawn magic show - another real highlight of the weekend for me.

The Turner Brothers were playing at sunset on the Saturday night almost as soon as we arrived and unloaded, so I sneaked my way into the VIP area and set about introducing myself to all the extra band members that had started arriving, as well as bands that were on before and after. I wish I could remember who it was exactly that I chatted to, there was a well dressed band with Northern accents and some guys with clown costumes but their names escape me, maybe I'll get to see them again this year...

Here is one of my favourite photos of the summer...

Yes, I did wear a white fur coat to a muddy-field based event. That was probably a mistake in retrospect although it just about survived. The fancy dress theme last year was Out Of The Toybox and Into The Wild. I didn't have a huge amount of time to come up with a costume - I only found out that I had a ticket the day that we set off. I made do with a burgundy velvet playsuit (which I haven't managed to find another opportunity to wear yet - that's definitely coming out again this year) and a leopard print bra. This year, however, things are going to be different.

The fancy dress theme is Childhood Dreams and I'm pretty certain I know what I am going to go for. I've roped in a bunch of the girls that are coming along for the weekend to dress up as well - I haven't managed to convince any of the band yet but I'm working on it - and I'm going to document the process of choosing, creating and testing our fancy dress outfits here on my little blog. I'm hoping to show some DIY's that could be relevant for any number of festivals over the summer - I'm especially interested in making a feather headdress, a fancy flower crown and some fabulous, light-up wings :)

The Turner Brothers absolutely rocked their performance, in fact, hearing Sun Goes Down just as the sun set over the fields and the festival-goers was one of my highlights of the summer. You can see a video of their 2014 performance on the Hogsozzle pages here 

The whole group had a fantastic time over the weekend, from the great music, hot and intense dance tent, yummy hog roast, crazy paint fight and amazing people and atmosphere. I'm so excited for those 63 days to pass and get us all back to Sozzling the weekend away! Here are a few blurry shots of the night time shenanigans...

Some of The Turner Brothers with a person dressed as a giant inflatable penis. Out Of The Toybox and Into The Wild for sure ;-)

Follow my blog with your RSS reader, over the next few months I'll be posting the usual social media and online tips as well as starting to build up to the festival season with a series of DIY and inspirations posts as we create costumes for Hogsozzle's Childhood Dreams theme. I'll also be sharing more information about where you can see The Turner Brothers this summer, which festivals I'll be going to, as well as highlights from last year.

Katy x