I’ll say now that concerts are generally very loud, at least over here, which always bothers me but I love live music so whatcha gonna do?
Most festivals I’ve been to have a certain crowd but Bluedot is really quite varied which I think is down to the focus on science, as well as music, comedy and art. It’s pretty crazy how that slight twist changes the entire atmosphere from something that can be quite raucous to something that’s… I don’t know, gentler and more civil I guess. Kids being accommodated has a cooling effect too. Like, one day, my girlfriend and I were sat on a picnic blanket overlooking the main stage while Gary Numan was playing and suddenly a light spray of liquid went over us. Immediately after there was a guy on his knees apologising profusely with a half empty cup and I asked what was in it. “Gin, do you want some?” “No no, but that’s an expensive drink to be spilling!” Next thing this little girl comes just into view and his arm shoots out while shouting “Tig!” and then he runs off. He was just playing with his daughter it seemed. At other major festivals, that liquid would probably have been beer or piss with no apologies or tigging dad! We thought it was really funny and cute.
The thing is, and this is what draws me and my girlfriend to these variety festivals, is that you can float around and graze on whatever takes your fancy. The science talks were queuing out of the tents so you needed to be organised to get in to see those but the music was pretty damn accessible all weekend. Oh! On the Thursday The Hallé orchestra played to Blue Planet on a big screen behind them, shortly after a talk on Blue Planet 2 with some of the producers. It was a seated affair, which I’d never seen before at a festival, but it was a real treat as the sun went down.
Another thing is that there’s lots of stuff at festivals that you just come across and fall in love with. After The Elvis Dead ended on Sunday we were heading back to camp and I saw these rows of queues in the dark. I traced them to lines of telescopes and looked up to see the clear night sky – star gazing! We eagerly joined the queues and for the first time in our lives we got to look at Mars and Saturn for real. Mars was pretty boring, just a kind of warm dot in a sea of black but with Saturn you could see its rings and moons (like specks of cornflour), but bright white! I think we all had a moment peering at them and the experts helping people at the front were very friendly. I overheard some telescope geeks say that the equipment was worth around £1000-£4000 a telescope. I’m guessing we’ll not get a much better view down here!
So, yeah, I think my advice would be to just research different festivals and choose one that you think would appeal to you most broadly. Most folk I know just don’t like the idea of them because they’re away from their creature comforts or, I dunno, can’t wash their hair for a few days! I think it’s a shame to toss out such amazing and unique experiences for such trivial reasons. I’d also add that I’m not wild about crowds of people either (your pictures always look so wonderfully free of anyone!) but again, the festival sort of inclines the types you get.
The pictures were just taken on my LG G3 smartphone. It’s got a very capable camera despite its age but with bright, low and flashing lights it’s inconsistent. That was definitely one of the better ones I took amidst plenty of duds!
