Waveform 2010

[juliet]

Sadly no tipi this year (the tipi people were all at Bestival instead, apparently), but Waveform was nevertheless once again splendid. doop heroically dragged the bike trailer with the MegaTent all the way there[0], which helpfully gave us somewhere to keep the bikes as well as actual space.

We did fetch up camped next to the Nitrous Kids (nitrous for breakfast, nitrous for lunch, and a fully balanced meal... no, wait, nitrous again), which helpfully enabled one to locate our tent in the dark. Just stand still, wait a couple of seconds... ffffsWHOOSH, aha, there it is. They were a little noisy but as I saw them carefully tidying up their campsite on Monday morning I will forgive them. Actually, the whole thing was remarkably litter-free, possibly due to the fact that about 50% of the people there seemed to be some variety of staff (or were at least accustomed to being staff at other festivals). Next to no nitrous canisters left lying about the place! Also on the 'potentially iritating drugs' front, Team Ket also remained largely not in evidence, apart from one chap who after a few minutes of uncoordinated stumbling was gently escorted off the dancefloor by his friend.[1]

We danced to lots of psytrance, some splendid crusty acid techno (possibly one of the Liberators, but it was bloody good whoever it was), a bit of random crusty folk at the very-UV-tastic solar stage, and Back To The Planet, who I last saw at Phoenix in 1994 (my first ever festival, awwww). They were ace. And/or I was monumentally nostalgic, whichever. Also we ate several vegan burgers, and sat around watching the world go by extensively. I had a go on a swing bike, and both of us got our faces painted by someone who turned out to be Ian Bell. doop managed not to fanboy too much.

Small festivals are *aces*. I hope they manage to run it again next year; the whole thing often feels a lot like a random conglomerate of crews who just happen by glorious serendipity to fetch up in the same field at the same time (although I am sure it actually takes a lot more planning than that), and as such you always wonder whether they'll manage to bring it together again next year... Still, 4 years so far ain't bad going. It is pretty much the *nicest* and friendliest-feeling festival I've been to; wish they'd bring back the compost loos, though!


[0] This was a Learning Experience in terms of the bike/trailer/train thing; mostly we Learnt that you need to allow rather more time for changes than normal, and that it's always quicker to rehitch the trailer even if this does currently require the use of a spanner. Plus not all trains will let you on, if they're small trains (but the odds decrease dramatically if you're running late, hence the need to allow more time).
[1] One often seems to encounter these teams of a K-ed up person with a sober-ish mate translating for them. doop is obviously the one who has these conversations most often, and he reports that they go a little bit like this:
"Hurbleburble hurble, vrrr."
"My friend here says that he thinks your glowsticks are splendid."
"Oh. Thanks."
"Vrrbur blurl, frr. Hurble!"
"He says that he finds the interplay of the blue with the green of the lasers particularly exquisite."
"Right. Good."
"Hurble, vr."
"He says..."
"'Nice one, mate.' Yeah, I got that one."

Comments

[sfred]

Your footnotes made me laugh a lot.

Sounds like a great festival, too!

[juliet]

It was splendid. I am very fond of Waveform.

[smorgasbord]

Hurble blurl, frr--vr.

[doug]

Hffrrhfrrr ruffrrr, hr, indeed! Tell you what, it reinforces my belief that 60s Mod drug classification (uppers, downers, shake-it-all-around-ers) should be in wider casual use. No Mod worth their parka would take downers if they wanted to dance.

Ian Bell is alive and well and painting faces at obscure festivals? Cool.

[juliet]

I am *baffled* as to anyone might want to take a tranquilliser & then go clubbing. Take it & then sit quietly in a corner somewhere? Sure. Wander round on a dancefloor when you don't reliably know where your arms and legs are any more? Not so much.

(also, they get IN THE WAY. sort it out, people.)

I particularly like the shake-it-all-around-ers classification there.

Ian Bell's website talks more about the UV face/body painting. He was very sweet!

[doop]

For a while it seemed like everyone I encountered who was on ketamine had someone next to them interpreting; I semi-seriously wondered if taking the drug endowed people with the ability to possess and control the body of a bystander that they would then use to interpret for them.

Also, say what you like about the Nitrous Kiddies, but at least they put the tent up before taking the drugs...

[djm4]

Thank you. That link is my new Best Thing Ever. ;-)

[juliet]

They were, indeed, surprisingly competent both at the putting up & the taking down of the tent! And even at the tidying up! I should really stop having such low expectations of Ver Yoof; after all, I was entirely competent to deal with camping aged 16, although admittedly I was, as discussed, inclined to the straight-edge approach at the time.

[doop]

I think we were both a bit prejudiced against these particular yoof because of (a) obvious massive consumption issues, which tend not to correlate with campsite competence, and (b) nocturnal yelling of "ALAN!" and animal noises ect.

[damerell]

Ian Bell! It's such a pity the nice one didn't keep the rights to Elite.

The wheels and mouting arm come off mine, which helps with the occasional jobsworth, but frankly I've been taking the tandem (prepared to divide it if need be) on a lot of trains recently and just marched through the barriers, etc. People see what they expect, and often that means they see a bicycle.

[juliet]

You have a Carry Freedom too? We had to deconstruct it to get it into the little train from Thurston on the way home (wouldn't fit through the internal door without, which makes me wonder how they manage wheelchairs, and the guard reasonably enough didn't want it blocking the end section of the carriage). On the way there we'd probably have gotten away with doing that if a) we hadn't been running late due to current lack of lift at Ipswich (so guard just said 'no' and shut the door), and/or b) it had been a 2-carriage rather than a 1-carriage train (which, I suspect, already had a collection of rucksack/tent-carrying festival-goers on).

The National Express intercity trains have a lovely big guards van, hurrah.

I think the tandem probably stands out less than the trailer does, especially as we kind of have to uncouple it from the bike to get it onto even spacious trains.

[damerell]

I've got a CF small, a CF large, and a trailer-to-trailer hitch.

NXEA does have the worst rolling stock in the country, those awful old diesels. I'm not sure I'd care to ever take trains there if the Dynamo didn't happen to finish at Dunwich...

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Back To The Planet? Awesome! Not seen them for years. And I do wish I had their (best) album (my mate Ziggy is in the middle of the crowd photo in the gatefold).

I blame the turtles, myself.