The Carling Weekend comprises of two concurrent festivals in Leeds and Reading and is (I think) the biggest music fests in the UK. The line up this year was impressively huge and varied, including the likes of Pearl Jam, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, Muse, The Streets, Wolfmother, My Chemical Romance, Slayer, Less than Jake, Bullet for my Valentine, Killswitch Engage, Peaches, Coheed & Cambria, Jet, Reel Big Fish, and Millencollin to name but a few!! Think of it like a three day long Big Day Out with a much larger number of people, a much more international lineup, and way way way more drunk people!
So my weekend went as follows....
Thurs midday: pick up ticket from acquaintance in London desperate to sell (their spare ticket)
Thurs 11pm: board bus bound for Leeds
Fri 8am: board bus from Leeds to festival grounds
Fri 10am: meet up with local friend Deb who was awesome enough to reserve me a spot for my £12 one man piece of sh*t of a tent
Fri 11am: bought a six foot long Aussie flag on a stick and went to find the beer tent
Fri midday-midnight: errmm.... alcohol induced mental blank!
Since that day flashes of memory have come and gone. I remember having loads of English people ask me if I knew any of the cast of Neighbors... possible an uncanny ability of northerners to predict someones nationality simply by looking at them, or more likely the massive Aussie flag I was drunkenly waving around and jabbing passers by with! I also remember one or two of the bands (including Killswitch, Slayer (how very old these guys are getting), and Pearl Jam), and how many people were crammed into the main arena. And I remember that it rained for a bit, then cleared up again...
What I don't remember is losing my Aussie flag somewhere, spending about 65 quid on booze ($150Aus), getting regretfully wankered from the ubiquitous herbs that flooded the festival, or getting the Chinese symbol for 'pimp' henna tattooed to my forearm! Well, they say you must have had a good time if you can't remember any of it...the really funny part is that I managed to convince not one, but two girls to get my name henna tattooed on their arms (hence the pimp tattoo)! Bare in mind that hennas normally last for 2-3 weeks, so I'm sure these girls had some explaining to do when they went home...
Another comedy/unfortunate event I vaguely recall was some poor bastard at the communal latrines who slipped on something and grabbed the nearest thing for support, which happened to be a majorly flooded and highly unstable urinal troph. You can probably picture what it looked like when he inadvertently tipped the better part of 10-15 litres or fresh festival-goer piss all over himself! The poor guy lay there in a puddle of this filth for a moment before he realised what he had done and lept about 2 meters in the air while everyone one who had witnessed backed off in a 'there is nothing more we can do for this one' kind of way. Just as the guy was about to break down into tears someone did the only thing they could think of to help, and threw their beer on him in an attempt to wash him off. This followed immediately with about another 2 dozen people (including myself) throwing whatever they had directly at the pee soaked reveler to do their part in helping him out. I don't think my vodka & redbull would have helped that much but its the thought that counts!
The next morning I went back into Leeds for the day to catch up with a mate. The lineup was uninteresting for that day so I didn't feel like i was missing much. On the Sunday morning I went back to the festival for a far more sober version on the first day. I spent the day watching bands and getting sun burnt and had a really great time chilling out in the gorgeous sunshine until the inevitable rain came in and turned everything into a mud pit. I managed to stay dry under my poncho but unfortunately my tent and sleeping bag weren't so lucky. Note to self: Never buy a cheap tent from Argos again.
The musical highlights that day were Reel Big Fish, Coheed & Cambria, Millencollen, The Streets, and Muse who finished the festival off the weekend with a cracking show.
It was a really interesting experience going to an English festival, heaps of little differences. However the main aspects are much the same as at home but everything is on a much bigger scale; lineup, crowd volumes, camping area, etc. Plus there is no chance of bumping into fifty people you know like there is at the Big Day Out.
Anywho, I had a great time and I'm just sorry that I cant remember most of it!
Later
Roh
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