After staying down in Wimbledon for a night to spend some time with my mum's cousin Elspeth (Kirsty's sister) we caught the train from London Euston Station up to Manchester, which took just over two hours on the Virgin Trains. Arriving in Manchester we caught the bus down to Owens Park to stay with some of the Manchester University's finest members - Taryn's (a good friend from Canberra) friends who she lived with when she was on exchange in Manchester for six months last year. We arrived at the apartment and dropped off our things, then after a quick dinner at The Font we headed back into town to stock up on Primark clothes in preparation for Parklife, a two day festival in the Manchester weather.
After grabbing some shoes for two pounds and a jumper for three pounds we picked up some cider and had drinks with everyone back at the flat. It is never a great idea to go out before a festival, but somehow it always seems to happen. Perhaps it is because everyone is too excited to sit still. The locals took us to a place called Baa Bars where they have a thirty two shot challenge, which of course everyone got stuck into. I decided to stick to beers, however they were warm...so wasn't the best decision but I did feel ok in the morning :)
After a night out here, a stop at the chicken shop on the way home, a quick run to the ATM to beat the crowds in the morning, we headed back to the flat. I think most people stayed up and kicked on...I however, called it a night.
The next day was, to our delight, sunny! Once again we prepared ourselves and then had pre-drinks in the flat. Heading out there was great because it was held at Platt Fields Park which is literally across the road from Owens Park. The first thing I noticed about English festivals which is different to ours back home is that artist's sets which would probably be more predominantly dance music back home, were heavily based on dub step. I do like this genre of music but it's pretty intense! Beardyman was definitely our favourite on day one, I don't know who wouldn't be blown away by what he can do. He's so good you keep forgetting it's him making all the sounds. We spent a lot of time chilling out in the sun listening to the music on the main stage. Was a more relaxed day than the second, but I had a really good time.
Day Two - Rain. Mud. More Rain. A LOT more Mud. It constantly poured from the moment we woke up so we didn't head into the festival until around four thirty. The mud was absolutely ridiculous, Mat slipped over before we'd even made it inside. We all bought ponchos so the crowd was just a sea of plastic covered in brown mud. But instead of letting it bother us, we embraced it and became little dancing mud gremlins enjoying a standard rainy day in Manchester going crazy to the likes of Mark Ronson and Chase and Status - two of the highlights for me. The only thing I thought could have been better was the sound. They just weren't loud enough unless you were standing close to the speakers. Apart from this it was an amazing weekend...the mud and the rain somehow actually made it a more memorable weekend.
Our friend Mel from Manchester who we met in Miami very kindly picked us up on Monday morning and let us stay with her as she lives close to the airport and we had an early flight on Tuesday. Mat was really sick, we think tonsillitis, so he had an early one and Sam, Mel and I stayed up and watched a movie. Up at four thirty on Monday we were exhausted, and had a shock when we got to the airport and our seventeen pound flights had an extra forty pounds added on at check in for our bags....grrr RyanAir! But made it onto the flight ok and fell straight asleep and slept until we landed. Hello Ireland! Arrived in Dublin....but that's the next chapter :)
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