Start wearing purple for me now
I came back from the Roskilde festival a few hours ago, and I thought I'd be feeling better by now because of the shower (I have never been that covered in dirt before in my life!) and the good 12 hours of sleep I got on the boat on our way home. But not so. I'm still tired and uncomfortable, and I think the fever might be sneaking back -.- Since I don't feel I can go to bed quite yet, I'll write my festival review post instead.
You won't get a day by day/concert by concert summary this time though.
Hot This really should be nr 1-4 or so, because damn it was hot. I can honestly say I have never been that sweaty or spent that much time wishing for clouds before in my life. Heat is fine, lovely even, as long as you have a chance to get away from it if you want to. It's not fine when you have to drag yourself out of a tent at 8 am every morning because you are getting boiled alive. Especially not if you went to bed at dawn. People who wish for sunshine while at a festival clearly have never been to one.
The festival people did what they could to help - water, free cold showers, hugh tents that offered some shade (and the last two days they even conjured up one of those gigantic snow blower things that are used in ski centers and stuff!), but we still spent some rather uncomfortable afternoons in the sun and the dust.
Beer This is clearly the official festival drink, and I have never felt more left out because I honestly can't stand the taste :/ It's just so nasty, and I can't for the life of me understand how people can enjoy it. I actually gave it a try and drank a few cans, but nope, it still taste like death. Bleh.
Alcohol My beer problem did not stop me from getting drunk however, as there was still plenty of cider and spirits to be had (much cheaper than back home I might add, and without that annoying 20 year limit ;)) I'm a bit upset with myself that it took a year at a school with zero tolerance for alcohol to make me realize how much fun drinking is. Whaat? Anyway, festival means it's more or less mandatory to be drunk pretty much all the time. Not that we were that bad (with the exception of one member of my group who was stone pretty much all week) - I limited my drinking to late evening/nights, and not even every day. But wow, even crappy concerts can be wonderful fun after a few drinks xD
Socializing I loved how easy it was to meet new people, even if you are hopelessly shy like me. There was always a random camp where you could sit down for a while, or new friends of friends that you hadn't met yet. I spent a lot of time with Tin Tin, but I did manage to make some new friends too.
Concerts The concerts are not as important in Roskilde as in most other festivals - there is after all five days of warm up and only three days with concerts. And from my pov the line up this year was kind of suck, which of course didn't help much. I miss seeing bands that I really love - the kind where you know all the lyrics and are absolutely delighted if one of the band memebers as much as look in your direction. But I got to see some great shows anyway:
My top three bands with the best music
Faith No More They might be old, but they still rock. Mike Patton has the most amazing and diverse voice, and the fact that he reminded me of Tony Stark both in looks and the way he acted did help a lot haha
Gogol Bordello The ultimate party music. It's fast paced, creative and just pure old happy. I loved it!
Amon Amarth They are one of few bands that manage to sound melodious without being symphonic, and the growling and the growling fits nicely with the music and the lyrics.
My top three concert experiences
Gogol Bordello The band was happy and energetic, and the crowd was with the every step of the way. For me this was two hours of jumping and dancing and pretending to know the words, and it was great fun. At one point the guy next to me actually took my hand and we danced for a while - complete with twirling and lifts! Afterwards he bowed, I made a little curtsy and he kissed my hand. That's way high on the awesome scale :D
Skambankt A Norwegian band that I had never listened to before. The music was not exactly my cup of tea, but the audience was extremely enthusiastic, and it was most deifnietely contagious.
Slipknot One of this year's bands I have listend the most too, and to be honest I kind of dislike their music. To put it nicely. And te band themselves didn't help much either - they seemed kind of uninspired and a little tired of it all. But it was a great two hours of jumping, headbanging and trying to avoid the most violent mush pits anyway :D
And it figures that the first time I manage to catch something at a concert, it had to be a band I make a point out of not liking. But still, I got a drumstick! I celebrated for a little while, until I realized that it was a damn Slipknot thing, and what the hell do I want that for? So I acted like a perfect saint and gave it away to a real fangirl next to me. And she nearly cried.
Most positive surprise:
Kanye West His music pretty much sums up all the reasons why I don't listen to the radio anymore. BUT when played on a frightfully hugh sound system, you got some almost mesmerizing drum beats. If you had just removed all the synth crap and his voice, I'd be happy to just listen to those drums for an hour.
Most negative surprise:
NIN One word: boring. I kind of think it was just me though, because the show got pretty good reviews afterwards. Oh well..
Err this turned out a good deal longer than planned, as usual *sigh* Anyway, to sum it up: Did I have a good time? Yes, most of the time at least.
Do I want to go back next year? Maybe, if the company is good.
You won't get a day by day/concert by concert summary this time though.
Hot This really should be nr 1-4 or so, because damn it was hot. I can honestly say I have never been that sweaty or spent that much time wishing for clouds before in my life. Heat is fine, lovely even, as long as you have a chance to get away from it if you want to. It's not fine when you have to drag yourself out of a tent at 8 am every morning because you are getting boiled alive. Especially not if you went to bed at dawn. People who wish for sunshine while at a festival clearly have never been to one.
The festival people did what they could to help - water, free cold showers, hugh tents that offered some shade (and the last two days they even conjured up one of those gigantic snow blower things that are used in ski centers and stuff!), but we still spent some rather uncomfortable afternoons in the sun and the dust.
Beer This is clearly the official festival drink, and I have never felt more left out because I honestly can't stand the taste :/ It's just so nasty, and I can't for the life of me understand how people can enjoy it. I actually gave it a try and drank a few cans, but nope, it still taste like death. Bleh.
Alcohol My beer problem did not stop me from getting drunk however, as there was still plenty of cider and spirits to be had (much cheaper than back home I might add, and without that annoying 20 year limit ;)) I'm a bit upset with myself that it took a year at a school with zero tolerance for alcohol to make me realize how much fun drinking is. Whaat? Anyway, festival means it's more or less mandatory to be drunk pretty much all the time. Not that we were that bad (with the exception of one member of my group who was stone pretty much all week) - I limited my drinking to late evening/nights, and not even every day. But wow, even crappy concerts can be wonderful fun after a few drinks xD
Socializing I loved how easy it was to meet new people, even if you are hopelessly shy like me. There was always a random camp where you could sit down for a while, or new friends of friends that you hadn't met yet. I spent a lot of time with Tin Tin, but I did manage to make some new friends too.
Concerts The concerts are not as important in Roskilde as in most other festivals - there is after all five days of warm up and only three days with concerts. And from my pov the line up this year was kind of suck, which of course didn't help much. I miss seeing bands that I really love - the kind where you know all the lyrics and are absolutely delighted if one of the band memebers as much as look in your direction. But I got to see some great shows anyway:
My top three bands with the best music
Faith No More They might be old, but they still rock. Mike Patton has the most amazing and diverse voice, and the fact that he reminded me of Tony Stark both in looks and the way he acted did help a lot haha
Gogol Bordello The ultimate party music. It's fast paced, creative and just pure old happy. I loved it!
Amon Amarth They are one of few bands that manage to sound melodious without being symphonic, and the growling and the growling fits nicely with the music and the lyrics.
My top three concert experiences
Gogol Bordello The band was happy and energetic, and the crowd was with the every step of the way. For me this was two hours of jumping and dancing and pretending to know the words, and it was great fun. At one point the guy next to me actually took my hand and we danced for a while - complete with twirling and lifts! Afterwards he bowed, I made a little curtsy and he kissed my hand. That's way high on the awesome scale :D
Skambankt A Norwegian band that I had never listened to before. The music was not exactly my cup of tea, but the audience was extremely enthusiastic, and it was most deifnietely contagious.
Slipknot One of this year's bands I have listend the most too, and to be honest I kind of dislike their music. To put it nicely. And te band themselves didn't help much either - they seemed kind of uninspired and a little tired of it all. But it was a great two hours of jumping, headbanging and trying to avoid the most violent mush pits anyway :D
And it figures that the first time I manage to catch something at a concert, it had to be a band I make a point out of not liking. But still, I got a drumstick! I celebrated for a little while, until I realized that it was a damn Slipknot thing, and what the hell do I want that for? So I acted like a perfect saint and gave it away to a real fangirl next to me. And she nearly cried.
Most positive surprise:
Kanye West His music pretty much sums up all the reasons why I don't listen to the radio anymore. BUT when played on a frightfully hugh sound system, you got some almost mesmerizing drum beats. If you had just removed all the synth crap and his voice, I'd be happy to just listen to those drums for an hour.
Most negative surprise:
NIN One word: boring. I kind of think it was just me though, because the show got pretty good reviews afterwards. Oh well..
Err this turned out a good deal longer than planned, as usual *sigh* Anyway, to sum it up: Did I have a good time? Yes, most of the time at least.
Do I want to go back next year? Maybe, if the company is good.