So about a week before leaving for London I met a girl who was planning on going to this big music festival on an island off the southern coast of the UK. It's called BESTIVAL because clearly it is the BEST FESTIVAL! So I asked her who was playing and after hearing Passion Pit, MGMT, Lily Allen, Mika, and Little Boots would be playing I was definitely up for the adventure. The problem is getting there.
We left Thursday night flew into London, got there by 11pm. At midnight we got on a train headed towards Southampton. We had to change trains a few times, but around 3am we arrived in Southampton. On the train we met a few people headed towards Bestival. Not only were they some of the coolest people we had ever met, but one of them had been to Bestival before so he knew the ropes. We ended up walking a couple miles through Southampton when we got off the train in order to get to the ferry that would take us to The Isle of Wight.
At the train station, waiting for the next train in the wee hours of the morning.
We got excited on the walk in Southampton when we saw some red phone booths! Our new British friends were a bit embarresed.
Finalllly! We made it to the ferry in time to catch the 3am boat. So we figured out while we were on the Ferry that the busses from the Ferry Station to Bestival only start running at 8am. So there we are at 4am in a ferry terminal on the Isle of Wight. So we all took out our sleeping bags and passed out for a few hours.Here's a group shot of our traveling crew. It consisted of Tom, his boyfriend, and Imogen. They were definitely a highlight of our trip. They were so cool!
Finally after waiting at the gate for almost an hour, at 9am we are let into BESTIVAL!!!
HOORAY!!!
The crazy man in the suite jumping through are pic was completely an accident but it perfectly fits Bestival. So many crazy costumes!
We rented a tent and an air mattress and we were ready to go after a quick nap.hoorayyy!!!
The first band we saw was Passion Pit, who are actually the band I was most excited to see! They were soooo gooood. So much fun! Definitely on the list of weekend highlights! Here's a lil vid of them...
We went to a Burlesque show called Time for Tease and we met these boys in line who we sat with. They told us we had to order Cream Tea and Early Grey tea because it was the most British thing we could get. It was delicious! mmm scones and jam and cream.
The sunset that night was sooo pretty!!!
MGMT played that night and it was insane because I'm pretty sure all 17,000 people there wanted to see them. They were pretty good, there were just too many people watching! We were so far back. We passed out early on Friday night.The next day we were looking forward to seeing Little Boots, Mika, and Lily Allen. So my friend Amanda is obsessed with Mika so she camped out like 6 hours before his set to be right in the front.
Saturday is also known as Fancy Dress Day. The theme of Bestival this year was "SPECTAUCLAR" all about space and stuff like that. So we didnt' really bring costumes with the short notice, but we made do with what we had. Some people looked AMAZING!
Emily and i wrote STARGATE USA on our arms... we are convinced we were the only Americans at this festival. We talked to sooo many people and they all said to us we were the first Americans they've seen so far. So we're gonna take pride in reppin the states.
good fancy dress all around....
then we ran into our travel buddies Tom and Imogen!!! AHHH they are so fabulous.
Emily and I came and found Amanda when it came closer to set time but we reaped the benefits of the awesome spot she got front and center!
Frist Little Boots was soooo good! Her songs were so much fun and it was great.
After Little Boots, Mika came on. He was great and sooo cute. He came out wearing a space suite with a helmet and everything. Then he took it off and his face was covered in colorful gems! Beautiful!!!
Then Lily Allen came on! She was soooo goooooooood! And she looked soo hot!!! By this time I had worked my way up to the barrier of the stage!!!
Then she did a cover of Brit Brit's Womanizer...SOOOO GOOOOD!!!!
On Sunday we took a bus to the coast. It was soo beautiful! and WE WENT SWIMMING IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL!!! sooo cold!!!
conquering the English Channel! and by conquering I mean diving in and running out to prevent hypothermia.
We were in the town of Sandown, Isle of Wight, UK. soo far from home. but the sand reminded me so much of cali! ahh I miss it!!!Then we took a bus to the ferry bus to the train and then we were at the airport by 9pm. The only problem is that our flight was not until 6:30am the following morning. This wasn't a mistake, we did it on purpose so allow for plenty of time to get from the Festival back to London. So we went through security 8 hours before our flight and ventured around in search of a good bench to lay out our sleeping bags on.
4 days without shower. searching for places to sleep in the airport. The next morning we found showers. too late.My bed in the airport.. I actually slept for a good 4 hours or so. I woke up around 4am with people eating breakfast at the cafe next to me staring at me as if I were a zoo creature. My bed was nothing compared to Amanda's... she actually went into a closed cafe and passed our on one of their comfy leather couches! Probably a good call...
Once we woke up we grabbed an egg McMuffin (McDonalds is like way better in Europe) I still won't eat a burger from there but their chicken mcnuggest are bomb. And this was my first egg mcmuffin ever so i have nothing to compare it to. We got on the plane, landed in Prague by 9am and after 2 shots of espresso I was in class at 10:30. What an adventure.
Bestival was amazing. I will go back. Maybe 2 years from now. I love the Brits they were all so nice to us and so amused with our accents. It felt so odd to be the minority in that situation for once!
What an adventure.
Our overnight trip to Cesky Crumlov is this Friday! pretty excited for NYU to foot the bill for the trip!
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