Eden Festival - Mud and Glitter

We found ourselves venturing to the garden of Eden last week for our first festival of 2017, and our first festival for some time. Eden is set in the Raehills Meadows, nr Moffat, Dumfries and Galloway (Scotland). Eden had been a festival on our radar for sometime as a good friend works one of the dub tents there, so we had heard about the delights a lot from him.

With not getting Glastonbury tickets, and the mixed feelings this brings we decided to descend on some smaller more local festivals and enjoy some new delights.

Eden's line up was a mash up of garage, disco, folk, soul, gypsy punk, dub and dance. It basically had it all and we enjoyed an array of new and old music tastes. The highlights being Gogol Bordello, So Solid Crew, Boney M and a band called Sketch who mixed traditional folk with dance.
I was so excited to see So Solid Crew, for the hillarity more then anything but wow they pulled a great set and the tent was electric with energy and everyone going wild for the garage beats. We even got to hang out with them afterwards which was so funny, a game of swingball, a little photo op and hearing whats ahead for the South London crew.

Sketch totally blew us away, we were ready for bed and decided to bumble down to the main stage, describing themselves as Celidh techno they really got the crowd going and before we knew it we were bobbing around ciders in hand.

I love a good workshop at a festival, Shambala festival is great for this however the workshops always fill quickly. At Eden they run a number of workshops each day, however there on every day so it's great as if you miss it one day you can catch it another. I managed to convince Sam to attend an intro to Indian head massage which was so fun, Sam gained a lot of the benefits, falling asleep as i messaged him. It was great to do something a bit different and the power from the energy boosted us ready for Saturday frolics.

I wished i had spent more time in The Lost Disco area, however we always seemed to be pottering elsewhere, they have a huge flashing dance floor and glitter balls and sparkles all over.
Being in the van was a total delight, we weren't camped with friends sadly as we arrived later, however the festival is only 5000 capacity so it was always easy to find folk. It was a dream having nice sleeps, being warm, coffee and sandwiches in the morning and just the greatness vanlife brings. We made the decision we wouldn't being going back to canvas, were tent lovers all the way now!
The rain poured and the mud came strong but it was so fun and no one seemed too bothered about splodging around ankle deep in mud. We will definitely be back next year for another adventure in the fields of Eden.

2013 in the Field of Dreams

2013 in the field of dreams as always I was excited as excited could be, drowning the facebook with favourite artists, bursts of, memories of times before and pictures of Glastonbury’s past, those 5 days of turmoil and ecstasy in the muddy fields of Somerset always bring a bout of joy to my being and makes me feel alive and at one with who I am, life outside the fence is forgetting and it’s just about happy faces, a lot of love and some beautiful music new and old.

This year was to be my tenth year in the fields and I hoped one of the best, I started going to Glastonbury in 2002 and since then I have defiantly had a world of different experiences at each and every Glastonbury festival, from the first years of partying all day and night, years where I have sulked off to bed straight after the bands,  2008 not buying my ticket till the week before, one year I worked in the Kidz field (which was so fun), to this year when I managed to entice my parents along to experience what we all kept talking about.

The main thing that did feel different this year was our group, a number of people had decided not to attend the festival this year due to other commitments or feeling the festival had changed and was not the same as it once had been. My debate back around this is that it has changed but have we not also? I know when I went in 2002 I am definitely not the same person or have the same values as the 19yr old girl roaming the fields back then. People change as do festivals and now I do see younger people there but is that not just because I am older? When 19 why would I have noticed the younger folk, that was me and I imagine there were 30yr olds looking at me thinking similar about young people influxing the festival scene. There has been times when I have questioned a certain act or a headline slot but its Glastonbury and for me it’s not just about the music it’s about the whole experience, friends, creative, new music, old music, bumbling, theatre, workshops, beauty, carefree beliefs, learning, charity and most of all finding something new every time I go. People laugh at my some say obsession, I say love of Glastonbury but for me it’s a place that brings me calm and peace and allows 250,000 people to be who they want to be for one weekend without rules and conduct but a vibe that truly lives of peace and love. For me Glastonbury will always be changing as will I through teenage years, twenty something years, married years, family years, we are ever changing beings so why can a festival not be? At the end of the day it’s still blooming amazing!

We arrived at our usual time of 6am to join the enjoyable bus queue of weird and wonderful people; there were 12 of us on our bus rather than the 40 that were on the coach last year. The journey was as amusing as ever with a driver that had no clue of what Glastonbury was and was very interested in what we would eat and how we would clean over the next 5 days. However amusing the journey he managed to get us to the coach park ready for the queue ahead of us. The time went quickly with smiles and laughter and a girl in love with Sam’s curls, we were luckily not too far from the front and our 6am arrival worked well. I always find it amazing when arriving into the festival and the emptiness of the fields in front, we went to Glastonbury in May 2012 for my birthday, I had always wanted to attend the festival when it was not on and it was a beautiful experience, arriving into Glastonbury was so different to how it had been when just walking around the farm, the signs were up and the stages in place, the campsite crew were directing people to fields upon fields showing people the way to set up home for 5 days. We did the marathon walk to the Park Homeground and put our camp in place, the fun day ahead of saving space and drinking cider was ahead of us, we did it, a few disputes and passive aggressive behavior but we managed to get all our camp together and pitched in a mish mash circle ready for a weekend of great times.

Mum and Ronnie were staying at B&B and came into the festival daily, it was amazing to show them the festival and even with all the worries I feel they both relaxed and were thoroughly taken back with the festival and all it has about it.

We watched a number of great acts and I feel I saw more this year then I have in many years, there was a great line up of great acts and there was always someone we all wanted to see. Some of my highlights were Daughter, Tom Tom Club, Seasick Steve, Arctic Monkeys, Mumford and Son’s and of course Rolling Stones. We came across a band called The Staves and First Aid Kit which I was sad not to see the whole sets as since coming home I have listened to both albums and thoroughly enjoyed – I guess that’s all part of the experience and hopefully they will play again in the future so I can catch them then.

I spent more time in the craft field this year than ever before, I was so happy to see Mum and Ronnie amazed by the old ways of crafting that were still about and the enjoyment in their faces as they watched the greencrafts field in full flow. We decided to make a hula hoop on the last day but sadly we got there too late and hula hoop making was closed, guess that’s one for 2015!

One of my highlights was in the theatre and circus field, Sam wanted to watch a tennis match that was occurring obviously a spoof of a tennis match, I wasn’t so sure but sitting in the sun in hysterics at the game was brilliant, even better Mum was asked to be ‘Andy Murray’s’ Mum and ran up on stage wrapping her legs round ‘Andy’ and saying how proud she was when he won the game! Brilliant! It was great to see her getting involved in the Glastonbury goodness of being you and enjoying yourself to the most.

Sam and I managed two sunrises which was incredible, I feel I have totally lacked with my sunrises the last two years but we did it this year and wow what a fun time was had. Friday we had the biggest adventure with a day of brilliant music, Arctic Monkeys to finish, Smerins Anti-Social club, block 9 dancing to Greg Wilson then stone circle for sunrise, possible the funnest night of the festival and a huge amount of dancing was had with a good group of smiling faces. Sunday was our 2nd sunrise ending with Slamboree dancing in the bimble inn, chill out tent in the Greenpeace field then stone circle sunrise.

We spent Sunday night with two surprise friends who told us they weren't coming only to surprise us on Saturday day with their ‘watch Rodriguez’ mission – a simple text arrived stating ‘woo something strange just happened, we just fell out the rabbit hole’ our brains went wondering and then a red top hot arrived and standing in front of us Ewan and Jenny – such a brilliant surprise at such a perfect time. It was amazing to see sunrise in with them both and two other lovelies also – another fantastic night to add to the Glastonbury experience – I definitely saw the highlight of early morning Sunday’s again!

I could write so much about the joy the fields had brought but it would take forever and be so many of my own thoughts being noted down which to me are amazing and to everyone else may get a bit dull. Overall thought I can honestly say 2013 runs alongside with 2008 as one of the best Glastonbury’s ever, the relaxed feeling in the air, the blissful camp crew of good friends and seeing my parents enjoy the best festival in the world.