I'll admit it, I have serious festival blues. It might be because our tents, sleeping bags, costumes and the remains of a picnic we packed last Thursday are scattered around the house and I haven't managed to motivate myself to do anything but eat Chinese food and look through photos. Or it might be because we had a seriously great time and I feel most happy rolling in sun drenched fields with warm gin and warmer sausage rolls. Or maybe it's that there's now a whole year until I get to Sozzle with the best Hogs around again *sadface*
The band were starting the afternoon with a rehearsal just down the road, which meant I was left with very strict instructions to select an optimum pitching spot. Not too near the stinky festival toilets, not on the path (like last year!) not under a floodlight (also like last year), near the fence so we can chuck stuff over to the car when we left and not at the bottom of a hill. This last instruction comes courtesy of a bad experience the band had of waking up with their heads in puddles of water at the bottom of a muddy landslide a few years ago. It seemed like sage advice. Luckily, when we arrived, a few members of the usual crew had selected what turned out to be the best spot in town, they'd saved a large area for the eight tents in our group and we pitched in a loose circle, getting the tents up as quick as possible so we could start some shenanigans.
The band started arriving just as the tents were set up, it was time for them to go on. We were pretty excited at this point as it's been a while since the boys have done a gig like this, plus I knew they had some new material to share...
The organisers had done an amazing job of making the main arena look incredibly fun, I wish I had more photos of the various installations, including superb up-turned boat which had been DIY-ed into a giant rocket ship over-looking the crowd, a beach area and loads of raggedy old sofas all over the hill to relax with a drink and take in the craziness.
And then they were on! Playing a selection of recently-penned tracks and older favourites, The Turner Brothers got the whole field jumping, dancing and skanking along to their mix of ska, reggae and pop. There were a couple of technical issues (I've learnt that many technical issues can be avoided if everyone brings the right cables. Maplin would probably do well to have a concession at festivals, right next to the main stage. I might write to them with this idea) that meant the set was cut slightly short, but the band absolutely smashed the last two songs they played, Sue and Hand's Up. I hope to share a video of their set once it's been edited, they had the same videographer responsible for this incredible video from Victorious last year - I dare you to give it a watch and not wish you were there, he's awesome.
photo courtesy of Emma Bridgewood
Festival food is one of my favourite things about these events. Last year, Hogsozzle had a rather ropey food truck that served us a 'mega breakfast' that was like something out of your nightmares (if you dream about breakfast foods chasing you...that's normal, right?) but this year, all my hipster food desires were satiated. There was pizza from the Rustic Oven guys, beautiful lamb wraps from The Cauldron, and my personal favourite, the sparkly-eyed Wingmen.
That Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich was incred, and the bacon cheesy fries (which they added to their menu this weekend) hit the spot perfectly. Look out for the guys knocking about festivals and shows over the summer and go make your all your cheese river dreams come true - you can follow them on twitter here. Big thanks to Emma Bridgewood Media for these photos and the one above that I used in the title image - please give her a like on Facebook :)
Here are some more photos from the weekend...
We had an amazing time with The Turner Brothers and all of the friends and family that came along to support them. I have an EPIC fancy dress round-up of the weekend in the pipeline but a million photos to edit first, it should be up by the weekend if I can knuckle down! Then we are off to Strawberry Fair, the UK's biggest one-day free festival, to the Love Music Hate Racism stage with Diverse Collective. Come back for that fancy dress post on Friday!
Katy x
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