Waveform: one of best festivals ever

The ever-lovely uon & I spent last weekend at the Waveform Project festival, down near Exeter. And it was entirely made of awesome. Highlights, in no particular order:

• Cycling to festival! This was far less stressful than customary hanging around for bus kerfuffle. Also we got there at the same time as the bus-people from our train (much to all of their surprise :) ).
• TIPI. The tipi was amazingly great. I normally camp only under sufferance; this I found actively enjoyable. It was enormous (big enough for us + bikes at least twice over), and you could stand up in it, and there were cushions & rugs & a little table & lanterns.
• FIRE IN TIPI. Even more awesome. Plus we were able to get enough wood for 3 nights of fires just by gleaning from under a couple of trees, which was nice. Good to sit around it on Sat night with mouseboks & luciousa, as well.
• Massive hippyness. We took part in the opening ceremony on Friday night (around the wishing tree!), and the Earthdance whatsit on Saturday night, & it was as hippy as a very hippy thing, & really very lovely indeed.
• On the hippy subject: lovely chillout area, with a really sweet little garden/shrine, with plants in pots, and bits of pretty things and junk and little notes.... I now want to make one in the allotment!
• Music: fab all over. If you like psytrance, anyway. Although actually I found myself also dancing to hard dance, and gabba, and a bunch of other stuff. Even some minimal techno in the chillout area on Sunday night.
• Everyone there was nice. And cheerful, and friendly, and entirely up for a good time. And chatty - we fell into conversation with loads of people, & all of them were ace.
• Saturday night in the MonsterTent was probably the friendliest & most loved-up crowd I've been in. I happily dumped all my stuff (including phone, wallet, & camera) by the side of the tent & got on with the dancing.
• Compost toilets! I approve. Also they stayed clean - enough so that when wandering around barefoot on Sat/Sun afternoon, I didn't bother putting my shoes back on to visit them (the advantages of wooden construction).
• Stars. Beautiful clear night Friday & Saturday, & the stars were absolutely amazing. I'd forgotten there are so many.
• Civilised campsite: nobody making 'orrible racket all night or nearly setting fire to themselves & everyone around them (thank you Glastonbury Idiots) or anything.
• Lovely food - the Furnace in particular did food that actually tasted like stuff I'd eat at home. Also the Moonbeam Cafe with a storming veggie breakfast inc sosmix & potatoes. And all the staff friendly & chatty as well.
• Only 3,500 or so people - so you kept running into people again, which was nice.
• SUNSHINE. Undoubtedly this made a big difference - there was grass around, and you could sit down, and it was very cheering. Hurrah for the sun.
• V little litter. And a decent recycling/composting/etc policy.
• Dancing in the sunshine to lovely psytrance. Aw man.
• Pimms from a roving Pirate Pimms Cart!
• Police being surprisingly tolerant when surrounded by fvcked & talkative ravers on Saturday night :-)
• People doing fire poi & fire staff & so on every night by the wishing tree who were actually rather good & worth watching.
• Trees! And generally pretty site all over (we saw DEER on the way home).
• Arriving at Exeter St Davids on the way home with 50min to kill - time enough for 2 x swift halves apiece (6 guest beers!) & an unexpected chat with some v friendly elderly chaps, one of whom used to live in Bermondsey & the other work on Tooley St, in the 1960s/70s (apparently there used to be lots of prostitutes under the railway arches back then). We thought they might be anti-festival-goers but not at all :-)

I have doubtless forgotten lots of things. It was basically perfect from start to finish - I swear we spent the entire time grinning. I am totally going back next year. (As long as they keep it small, anyway - the organiser said something about the site having a 50,000 capacity. That would be rub. Up to 10,000 would prob be OK but they really really should stop there. Small festivals = Much Better.)

Edit: doop's photos, my photos.

Waveform: one of best festivals ever

The ever-lovely uon & I spent last weekend at the Waveform Project festival, down near Exeter. And it was entirely made of awesome. Highlights, in no particular order:

• Cycling to festival! This was far less stressful than customary hanging around for bus kerfuffle. Also we got there at the same time as the bus-people from our train (much to all of their surprise :) ).
• TIPI. The tipi was amazingly great. I normally camp only under sufferance; this I found actively enjoyable. It was enormous (big enough for us + bikes at least twice over), and you could stand up in it, and there were cushions & rugs & a little table & lanterns.
• FIRE IN TIPI. Even more awesome. Plus we were able to get enough wood for 3 nights of fires just by gleaning from under a couple of trees, which was nice. Good to sit around it on Sat night with mouseboks & luciousa, as well.
• Massive hippyness. We took part in the opening ceremony on Friday night (around the wishing tree!), and the Earthdance whatsit on Saturday night, & it was as hippy as a very hippy thing, & really very lovely indeed.
• On the hippy subject: lovely chillout area, with a really sweet little garden/shrine, with plants in pots, and bits of pretty things and junk and little notes.... I now want to make one in the allotment!
• Music: fab all over. If you like psytrance, anyway. Although actually I found myself also dancing to hard dance, and gabba, and a bunch of other stuff. Even some minimal techno in the chillout area on Sunday night.
• Everyone there was nice. And cheerful, and friendly, and entirely up for a good time. And chatty - we fell into conversation with loads of people, & all of them were ace.
• Saturday night in the MonsterTent was probably the friendliest & most loved-up crowd I've been in. I happily dumped all my stuff (including phone, wallet, & camera) by the side of the tent & got on with the dancing.
• Compost toilets! I approve. Also they stayed clean - enough so that when wandering around barefoot on Sat/Sun afternoon, I didn't bother putting my shoes back on to visit them (the advantages of wooden construction).
• Stars. Beautiful clear night Friday & Saturday, & the stars were absolutely amazing. I'd forgotten there are so many.
• Civilised campsite: nobody making 'orrible racket all night or nearly setting fire to themselves & everyone around them (thank you Glastonbury Idiots) or anything.
• Lovely food - the Furnace in particular did food that actually tasted like stuff I'd eat at home. Also the Moonbeam Cafe with a storming veggie breakfast inc sosmix & potatoes. And all the staff friendly & chatty as well.
• Only 3,500 or so people - so you kept running into people again, which was nice.
• SUNSHINE. Undoubtedly this made a big difference - there was grass around, and you could sit down, and it was very cheering. Hurrah for the sun.
• V little litter. And a decent recycling/composting/etc policy.
• Dancing in the sunshine to lovely psytrance. Aw man.
• Pimms from a roving Pirate Pimms Cart!
• Police being surprisingly tolerant when surrounded by fvcked & talkative ravers on Saturday night :-)
• People doing fire poi & fire staff & so on every night by the wishing tree who were actually rather good & worth watching.
• Trees! And generally pretty site all over (we saw DEER on the way home).
• Arriving at Exeter St Davids on the way home with 50min to kill - time enough for 2 x swift halves apiece (6 guest beers!) & an unexpected chat with some v friendly elderly chaps, one of whom used to live in Bermondsey & the other work on Tooley St, in the 1960s/70s (apparently there used to be lots of prostitutes under the railway arches back then). We thought they might be anti-festival-goers but not at all :-)

I have doubtless forgotten lots of things. It was basically perfect from start to finish - I swear we spent the entire time grinning. I am totally going back next year. (As long as they keep it small, anyway - the organiser said something about the site having a 50,000 capacity. That would be rub. Up to 10,000 would prob be OK but they really really should stop there. Small festivals = Much Better.)

Edit: doop's photos, my photos.