The next day Emma, Adam and I decided to go for a big wander and check out the whole festival site. Had a look at the markets, different music stages, watched someone bungy jump and then cause we had the staff/crew/artist bands we were allowed into the VIP camping area so went for a swim in the pool and then sat in the sunshine enjoying the atmosphere. After this we went for another wander and on this delightful stroll through the festival Emma very kindly stopped to tell a guy that his back was burning and he should probably think about putting some sunscreen off. This is how we met the Irish. This is where the madness begins. Spent a silly afternoon in the sunshine dancing, rolling around in the grass and running around with our new ten Irish family members. This is the only night that we didn't actually pay much attention to who was performing on stage as we were just having too much fun running around like a bunch of crazies. Craig went bungy jumping and hit his head, meanwhile Karen who watched on called the ambulance...in Ireland. Didn't work unfortunately. Probably a good thing, and Craig was fine! The Irish stole some chairs and tables for their campsite which we called The Kitchen, so after the music finished on the main stage we went and had a party at our campsite.
The next day we moved all our stuff over to the Irish campsite, we didn't mean to leave Adam but he was off with some of the other staff anyway and the Irish were staying in an area which had a much better vibe and was a lot more central to where everything was happening. Had a pretty lazy day hanging out in the kitchen before. Around two we headed over to the Reggae tent which was going off! Everyone was jumping around in the dirt while the Rastafarian DJ played the most amazing mixture of beats. We met two wonderful people Maria and David from Holland who joined our little party.
Around four we headed over for La Roux which I've never been much of a fan of but we found a spot near the sound tent and stayed for her set, after this was Good Charlotte. Considering I'm not a fan of their music I thought they absolutely rocked! There were a few songs that I forgot they sang and it actually brought back a lot of memories, I know I'll probably get paid out for enjoying them by everyone I tell I enjoyed it but whatever, if they had been there I'm sure they'd of loved it too! 'Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous' went absolutely off. Mary and I jumped around like lunatics for the entire song. Was exhausted afterwards! The next band was one of my favourite bands who are absolutely unreal live, and they definitely didn't disappoint this time round. Kasabian completely took over the night and I jumped and sang and screamed through the whole set with the thousands of other rock fans around me. I love those moments at a festival or listening to one of your favourite bands at a concert where you just have that moment of pure love for the music and feel so lucky to be there and be alive. Kasabian's song 'Fire' is one of those songs that makes me feel this way, I could watch them play a million times over! The Chemical Brother's played after who are also always fanastic to see. IN between sets there was a stage bar that played really good music so we'd go there each time. These two guys had a huge Australian flag so naturally I took it and ran around waving it all over the place. I did then get caught up in it somehow so decided it was probably a good idea to give it back. After The Chemical Brothers finished we, once again, ended up back at The Kitchen, talking about God knows what until the early hours in the morning. Great night.
The following night Dizzy Rascal and The Prodigy played. Like Kasabian, I was looking forward to The Prodigy all week as I hadn't seen them before. Dizzy Rascal is always fun but I after seeing him perform in Sydney I was kind of disappointed with his set at Sziget. All his songs sounded the same, he didn't put much diversity in his performance. While we still had a good time it didn't really stand out as one of the top performances. The Prodigy, however, were absolutely insane! It made everyone go crazy! 'Invaders Must Die' was one of the most intense festival experiences I've ever had, I was so blown away by how nuts everyone went, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or be afraid, so I just got involved and went mental, jumping like a lunatic along with everyone around me. This night back at The Kitchen was probably my favourite, Laura, Craig and Fiona got dressed up in their 'goblin suits' and went off to reak havoc so I went with them. We were sitting on the road next to a long black fence just across from the Blues Tent where we first met the Irish. Behind this fence was all the alcohol stock for all the bars. There was a gap in the fence which was named Diagon Alley, and basically Craig and Laura would look to see if the security guards were watching, then ninja roll backwards into Diagon Alley and then emerge a couple seconds later with slabs of beer and run off into the darkness. Either the security just didn't care, or you can really get away with more when you're a goblin, because they took so much beer and I swear security watched them do the whole thing. After destroying the local forest, terrorising local workers and partaking in general goblin tomfoolery we went back to the campsite as the sun was coming up. Tried to get some sleep but its just so hard in a broken, overcrowded tent with nothing but rocks to sleep on! I think I got a few hours in...
The next day we decided to have an activities day as we were all feeling a bit fragile and decided this was the best way to take our minds off of the fact that we felt fairly average. We went to check out the Abilities Arena which was an area set up at the festival that had all these different games and activities where you got to see what it was like to do different things as if you had a disability. For example they had a wheelchair course that you had to navigate your way around, going uphill is very difficult! My favourite was the blind game where it was set up like a crime scene and you had to go into this pitch black room and find different items then try and get out by finding the phone and dialling the right number, all without vision. We were there for an hour or two before going to check out the free hairbrading and massage, dress ups area and the Hungarian Circus. There was so much to do!
Kate Nash played on the main stage so we went to watch her. I don't really like her music, find it too angry, but there was a guy in the crowd who had 'Marry Me Kate' on his chest and she kept talking to him and about it throughout her set until eventually everyone crowd surfed him forward and threw him over the barrier onto the stage. Security went to kick him off but Kate told them to let him stay so he laid suggestively infront of her piano and she sang to him. Was funny though cause she was trying to sing but couldn't stop laughing. We were all loving it and cheering him on. Best moment of his life! Even got a kiss on the cheek at the end :) The Kaiser Chiefs played after they were heaps of fun. The lead singer is mental, went running through the crowd and acting like a crazy on stage. Was really awesome I had so much fun dancing around with the Irish to their music.
I spent the last day of the festival with Tom and Joe from Tasmania at the Kareoke Bar. Tom actually has a really good voice so we got him up there to sing a bit of Backstreet Boys and then ACDC. By sunset I was exhausted and managed to make it to Kid Cudi but then decided I really needed to sleep! That was at about nine am, but then I was woken from slumber by Laura who came tumbling into the tent screaming: "Dani! You have to come see this! They're stealing everything! The Dutch have gone crazy!" I got out of the tent to watch hundreds of people walking down the road carrying tree branches, fences, tents, lilos, urinals, pretty much anything they could find and taking it all into this DJ tent where some Dutch DJ was performing. Apparently every time he plays anywhere the fans steal anything they can and take it to his set. We thought it was amazing so we all grabbed some trees branches from the forest and joined the crowds of people inside. It was like a big canopy of trees inside there was so much wildlife, people were getting crowd surfed in tents and on lilos, there was a human sling shot flinging people through the crowd, someone even walked past with a dog above their head. It was mental. This crazy Dutchman came running up to us yelling: "We have no trees left in Holland! This DJ, he play so much, all our trees are gone!" The music itself sounded like...circus music mixed with Pac Man. Definitely added to how strange the whole thing was, but it was awesome, and the best act to see last at Sziget Festival!
We got out of there pretty quickly on Tuesday morning, apart from feeling like I'd probably knocked a good few years of my life due to the lifestyle I had been living in the past week, I was really sad to go. It was definitely the best festival I've ever been to, Europeans are crazy. Huge travel highlight thus far, maybe one day I'll get to go back, but in the meantime I knew it was time to get back to reality!
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