Woke up early and started packing up the gear as we are leaving for Melt Festival this morning. We decided to lock our bikes up and leave them at the campsite and put the rest our gear in one of the lockers located in the mens shower room (Barrymore's bucking room to those in the know).
After a few hours of getting merry we began to walk down to the festival entrance, along the 1.5km or so of path that follows the edge of the huge lake that spans the entire festival site all the way to the next town in the distance. After getting to the point where I exchanged my ticket for wristband last year I was told that had to walk all the way back to a white marquee located on the edge of the campsite, 30 minutes walk back along the path. A minor hitch we thought, clicking our heals as we walked back against the tide of people who seemed to be more clued up that we were, sporting freshly adorned red Melt wristbands.
Highlights tonight were mathias kaden, cobblestone jazz, Boys Noize and Mr Oizo who completely tore the roof off with an amazing set. I crashed out at about 8am and managed about 2 hours kip before everyones drunken chat drew me from the tent. Bramers and Wally looked a little worse for wear but were still glugging neat sambucca like there was no tomorrow. They both eventually passed out on the grass outside the tents, Wally was dead to the world. Within about 10 minutes Wally had half of the campsites left over food hanging off his face and body, kind of like a christmas tree but less festive and pepperoni instead of baubles .
Street Piss! 
We got to the festival without any problems and found the spot where the rest of the lads and lasses were staying and set up camp. Benson ('98) also arrived on the solo mission and quite soon drinking was underway to mark his arrival.
Base Camp..
Rain clouds :-(
The wicked lake with the festival site in the distance. Those crazy metal structures are old mining machines that form the backdrop for a unique location.
Crew!
After a few hours of getting merry we began to walk down to the festival entrance, along the 1.5km or so of path that follows the edge of the huge lake that spans the entire festival site all the way to the next town in the distance. After getting to the point where I exchanged my ticket for wristband last year I was told that had to walk all the way back to a white marquee located on the edge of the campsite, 30 minutes walk back along the path. A minor hitch we thought, clicking our heals as we walked back against the tide of people who seemed to be more clued up that we were, sporting freshly adorned red Melt wristbands.
Once we got back to the spot near to the campsite we discovered that the white ticket marquee was about the size of a tennis court and literally thousands of people were trying to get in through the tiny entrance. Inside it got worse as the visionary festival organisers had placed metal stadium barriers zig zagging in a vain attempt to stem the flow of frustrated revelers. People pushed, shouted and jumped barriers while ramming the security jocks out of the way to get to the 4 ticket kiosks at the front. A few times people got lynched for jumping the barriers but there were too many to stop every opportunist jumper. How many fish can you catch at a time with one rod? I fell on my arse and still got away from the rent-a-cop dick heads, disappearing to victory next to the kiosk.
Apart from the shambolic entry process and the heavy showers throughout the evening it was a great night with everyone having a skinful and dancing their cotton socks off. One of the personal highlights for me happened not at the techno stage but actually at the gravel path just outside the toilets. I witnessed someone so off it they believed that the gravel path was actually a stretch of water and he was swimming along it. Before long he was strapped face down to a stretcher and held down by 5 paramedics. Simply amazing!
Got back to the campsite at about 7am and went straight into the lake then lazed around chatting shit until around midday when I finally managed around 2 hours sleep, most didnt even bother trying..
Kenny B throws the towel in
Brammers heart beat drops to 25bpm..
The rain got worse during the afternoon and every hour it would be sweltering one minute and pissing it down the next, pretty annoying but you just gotta make the best of it.
We got into the festival a bit earlier today since we already had our wrist bands and we watched a few acts before the heavens opened (again). We made our way into one of the only covered up areas just before it started to come down heavily, we shimmied our way through the crowds and managed to snag a few choice seats on the raised balcony part of the room so we could watch everyone else stuggle to get in like cattle.
Highlights tonight were mathias kaden, cobblestone jazz, Boys Noize and Mr Oizo who completely tore the roof off with an amazing set. I crashed out at about 8am and managed about 2 hours kip before everyones drunken chat drew me from the tent. Bramers and Wally looked a little worse for wear but were still glugging neat sambucca like there was no tomorrow. They both eventually passed out on the grass outside the tents, Wally was dead to the world. Within about 10 minutes Wally had half of the campsites left over food hanging off his face and body, kind of like a christmas tree but less festive and pepperoni instead of baubles .
Going..
Going..
GONE!!
I know, its hard to believe this is not a photo of a tramp laying in a bin.
Cheese head
Cookie caught in the act!!
Dragon fruit nips!
sweet corn makes a welcome addition
Street Piss! 
We sat and laughed at his miserable plight for a while until suddenly the beast rolled over, lobbed out his Johnson and dropped the street piss right there in front of us.. What a knacker!
Our bus back to Berlin was picking us up at 2pm so we started packing up at around 1.15pm so we had amble time to catch the bus. Everyone except Wally who after several attempts to wake him failed. So we picked up our gear and made our way to the pick up point leaving Wally in his tent to get on with it. We waited and waited and still the bus didn’t turn up. Wally even dragged himself to the supposed rendezvous point by the time we realised we had missed it or were standing in the wrong spot. The tickets clearly stated that they would pick us up from the same place they dropped us of, dicks. Fuck 'Cool tours'!
Our bus back to Berlin was picking us up at 2pm so we started packing up at around 1.15pm so we had amble time to catch the bus. Everyone except Wally who after several attempts to wake him failed. So we picked up our gear and made our way to the pick up point leaving Wally in his tent to get on with it. We waited and waited and still the bus didn’t turn up. Wally even dragged himself to the supposed rendezvous point by the time we realised we had missed it or were standing in the wrong spot. The tickets clearly stated that they would pick us up from the same place they dropped us of, dicks. Fuck 'Cool tours'!
We made it back to Berlin and collected the bikes and bags from the campsite which were all in one piece thankfully. We headed across town completely shattered to the Odyssey Globetrotter Hostel where we will stay for the next 11 days….sleep
1 comment:
FUCKING AMAZING story John!
Post a Comment