Festival goers of a different kind
Well, we are well into June. The sun has got his hat on and the temperature (albeit sporadically) is slowly rising to the point where all our thoughts turn to beach holidays, beer gardens and, possibly my favourite summer event…the festival.
Most, if not all of the tickets have been sold for V, T in the Park, Glasto; we have already seen the passing of the Isle of Wight and Download and it seems that this year (providing the rain holds off) that it will be the music hitting the headlines rather than pictures of thousands of music enthusiasts looking like the Swamp Thing.
My initial intention for this week’s blog was going to give a quick round up of what’s was hot and what’s was not on this year’s festival season calendar. That idea flew right out of the window when I came across the staggering number of weird and wonderful festivals that both boggle the mind but at the same time, provoke an overwhelming sense of wanting to jump in.
Item one on the agenda, the Cheese Rolling festival in Gloucestershire. Now we’ve all heard of the lunacy of this spectacle. Grown ups, who should probably know better, throw them selves down a hill chasing a wheel of cheese. Yes, there have been injuries; yes it has been officially banned, but there is something inside me that thinks… that looks like a laugh.
Exhibit two, La Tomatina. Now I can say from experience, this IS a laugh! As a kid, spending my summers at my Nan’s in Valencia I ALWAYS used to see this on the TV and have a real urge to start flinging tomatos left right and centre. My time came when I was 18. I took a couple of friends over to my Nan’s for a cheap break after we had finished our A-Levels, dropped it into conversation having had a couple of glasses of Sangria and within what seemed like seconds, we were setting off to the small town of Bruñol! The world’s largest food fight ensued and it is one of my best days ever!
And last but not least: Tunarama. This is by far THE most bizarre festival I have ever come across. In a nut shell, it’s a hammer throw, but you use a tuna. Sounds simple enough, however as we see from our hero in the video, it’s not that easy to master. Apparently it’s all the rage in South Australia yet I have never heard any of my friends from Adelaide mention this… guilty pleasure I think!
So, in my usual Jerry’s Final Thought style of ending my blog, how can I round this up? Well, my advice would be, if you can get your hands on a ticket for any music event this summer… GO! I’ll be heading off to Creamfields this year, then Matthew Street Festival (we are lucky to have these on our door step). But I’d also say, if you can go away, do something a little bit odd, a little bit out of the ordinary and make a memory, then dive in with two feet and fIll your boots; whether that be a cheesy, fishy tomato soup or not, have something to look back and laugh ABOUT.
15/06
Return to article list