My Lot
Strawberry Fair – It was my first time at this fest and it was a really good day out. We saw some good acts in the green area. Did anyone see the Don Bradmans? They had me in stitches. We got a bit merry throughout the day and the Shivers and Broken Family Band finished a great day off in style.
Big Sexy Fest – Another great time: arrived after the footy finished and chilled by the reggae tent, spent some time outside that mental punk tent , but the highlight for me was having a couple of hours stomping in my bare feet to Chris Liberator at the top of the hill

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Wireless Wednesday - I Got free tickets to see this at short notice, so I popped along after work. I was gutted I missed Gogol Bordello, but I doubt there would have been much of an atmosphere for them at that gig anyway. I enjoyed the Raconteurs and thought the Strokes were a bit poor. The sound quality was terrible as well. I did get to meet Michael Eavis though

he was in the crowd watching Carl Barratt’s band with Emily.
Wireless Friday - I’m not a huge Massive Attack fan, I do like them, but put them on the stereo if I fancy an early night. We only really got tickets for this to see the Flaming Lips, who were superb and chucked in a Bohemian Rhapsody cover for good measure. We spent most of the day getting blasted on pear cider. At both Wireless days I felt like we were surrounded by Kate Moss wannabe’s, with big sun glasses and short skirts etc. It’s not got a proper festival feel about it and I won’t buy tickets again; definitely seeing as the promoters were giving them away free a week before.
Rise – Too many people and too much booze and nose are my memories of that day….I have snippets of not being able to hear Coxon and singing along to the Wailers, but that’s about it.
Fruitstock - Again far too many people, but this time all spread out on picnic rugs with bottles of bubbly. Saw Nouvelle Vague, who were ace and then left.
Sziget Hungary – If you ever want to go a foreign festival make sure it is this one! It is absolutely amazing. It’s over a week on a large Island in Budapest on the Danube and had big name headliners like Prodigy and Radiohead etc. But the most fun was to be found in the smaller tents and bars, and there are a hell of a lot of these. Most of the acts I enjoyed were ones I had never come across before like Pannonia Allstars Ska Orchestra and Anima Sound System and loads more I can’t remember the names of. They had a covers band tent as well which was a good laugh.
The music gets going each day about 6pm and goes on all night at the smaller stages and dance area. The prices are cheap: less than £1 for a beer and £2-£3 for a good meal and they don’t ram the island full of people so you never feel too crowded. It’s near the centre of Budapest so you can explore the city in the day as well. The only bad thing was we could not find any drugs, but we didn’t need them to have a good time there. Highlight of the fest: Gogol Bordello on the last night. Best gig ever

. I could go on about how good this fest is for ages
Reading Festival: Probably not a popular fest here due to it’s corporateness, but in the absence of Glasto my friends wanted to go and see some bands and I thought I’d give it a go for the first time. I don’t like the whole separate arena-campsite set up and having to smuggle booze into the arena was a pain, and it could do with more late night entertainment, but we had an absolute ball regardless….probably because we had good drugs though

. Musical highlights for me were Gogol Bordello (again), Peaches, Primal Scream, Body Count (I wanted to see them so much 10 years ago), Dizzie Rascal, Soulwax Niteversions, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’s and Pearl Jam who were absolute legends for me.