I love festivals. Music, people, fun - what's not to love? I also really love working at festivals - not only do you get a free ticket (whoop!), but I find it also gives me a bit of structure and a different perspective on the experience.
Over the last couple of years, I've been helping to run treasure hunts at festivals, taking a team of my friends and running fun and unusual activities for festival goers. Yes, it's been partly about getting into nice festivals for free, but also it's a good feeling to offer something a bit different for people there. This year, there's a bit more of that on the horizon (see parts 2 and hopefully 3), but my first festival of the year was a different story.
Earlier this year I met Marcus who runs a festival called Cloud Cuckoo Land. I was introduced through one of my friends after enquiring as to which festivals theloveofit should go to this year, and Cloud Cuckoo Land was their top suggestion. I'll write more about Cloud Cuckoo Land another time, but suffice to say that it's a really great small and environmentally concious festival with awesome music and great people. Marcus invited me to go with his team to Sunrise festival last weekend, to run an area that was called "Occupy your tents". The premise was simple - bring back a bit of the festival atmosphere to the campsight. For me, it was an opportunity to run some creative workshops and be involved in something a bit different. And so off to Sunrise I went.
For me, it was a really great opportunity to go to a new festival as well. I've never been to Sunrise before, and in all honesty, I probably wouldn't have gone if someone hadn't offered me a place on their team. It's a very eco and green festival, aiming to "partake in the ushering in of the new paradigm of holistic, sustainable living, natural wisdom and the loving unity of all beings". Not entirely sure what to expect, I pitched up on Thursday lunchtime, armed with my tent, a sleeping bag and two bags of miscellaneous games and craft. I'm used to going to festivals in a group of my friends, so going on my own was an entirely new experience for me.
My first impression during an initial amble around was that it was much more alternative than I was expecting. I'd anticipated a slightly more eco version of a regular festival, but it was far more so than I'd imagined. A friend described it to me as a collection of the most hippy people from Glastonbury festival all in one place, which was something similar to my first impression, and while I loved it, I wasn't sure if I would fit in. I was also a bit bemused about a lot of the programme - I come from a pretty traditional background, and a lot of talks and workshops were on spirituality and things that I just didn't understand (I genuinely have no idea what esoterica, entheogens or geomancy are). 2 hours in, I was a little bit uncertain about whether this was a good idea.
And then I sat down in a cafe for a coffee, and got chatting to the two people at the same table as me. A couple of hours later, they headed off, giving me their phone numbers to keep in touch if I needed people to hang out with during the festival. What nice people, I thought to myself, continuing on my way. But that kind of openess and friendliness was something that I found continued throughout the whole weekend. Hands down, it's the most friendly and genuine festival I've ever been to. People talk to you, smile at your, and occasionally hug you for no reason.
And given the weather situation, hugs were needed. There was a bit of rain. And by a bit, I mean a lot. Which then of course resulted in a slightly epic amount of mud. Fields became mud baths, and paths became treacherous pits of sticky-slidyness. The sun came out, but it was too little too late.
This put a bit of a dampener on our creative plans. Gone was the outdoor stage and the firepit. In came the free tea and craft workshops. All in all, I think we made the best of a bad situation, and still had fun doing it. I also found the time to make it to a few talks and workshops - some of which were things that I would probably not otherwise have gone to, but I'm really glad I had the opportunity to go. Sometimes I think it's good to gently nudge at the boundaries of what you find easy or comfortable.
I also met some great and fascinating people. We were working very closely with the Up-Cycle team (partly due to overlapping friendships and team members), and so there were a total of 16 of us between the two groups. It was great for me to meet several people who are living in different ways and running or helping out with some amazing projects along the way.
Going to a festival on my own was definitely a different experience. I missed my close friends and the ease of having people always there, but it definitely pushed me to meet new people and have the guts to go to things I really wanted to see on my own (one of my highlights was seeing Yes Sir Boss on the Sunday night, which I went to by myself). And now I'm back in the real world with new friends, inspirational thoughts and a whole heap of muddy clothes...
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