Wednesday 18 July 2012

Isle of Wight Festival

This is very much overdue, as the Isle of Wight festival was nearly a month ago now. Still, we had an amazing time and I wanted to post these captured moments from instagram as well as my thoughts on our first festival. We started our journey at the local train station, loaded up with double sleeping bag, bright yellow tent and various bits and pieces. After a slightly disorganised but fun journey to Portsmouth Harbour, we hopped on the ferry and made our way over to the Isle of Wight. As we were there mainly for the festival, we didn't see too much of the Isle of Wight itself- although the glimpses we got through the window panes of a packed bus were lovely- hopefully we'll make it there again someday.

On reaching the festival site, we were greeted with a lot of mud. Thankfully, we'd put our wellies on because by the time we had pitched our tent, we were already knee-deep in the stuff. After a quick rest in our (surprisingly warm) sleeping bag and cracking open the malted milk biscuits, we trekked our way to the main stage just in time to watch Noah and the Whale as the sun peeked through the clouds. Later, we watched Elbow- my personal favourite-and grabbed some cheeseburgers and a coffee before  wrapping up and settling in to watch Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and their nearly three hour set.

The next day, the weather greatly improved- and although neither of us had much sleep, we were looking forward to a day of good bands and great atmosphere. We even managed to discard our hoodies that afternoon and whilst watching Madness, even got burnt! The afternoon was brilliant, but after a long day, it started to rain heavily and we made our way back to the tent where we spent the remainder of the night talking over cups of tea and biscuits. However, the rain continued to hammer on the roof of the tent- and by the time it got to 3am, the water was starting to seep through. Tired, covered in mud and slightly defeated, we decided to return home a day early so that I could have a shower and Liam could watch England in the football. 

Despite the rain, it was an amazing weekend, and it was nice to get away as a couple and have some careless fun again. The top festival moment for me was definitely Tom Petty singing 'Handle with care' as well as being able to get a Costa caramel latte in the middle of a field! <3


(L-R- IOW, The ultimate festival kit, blue skies, main stage, caramel latte, festival faces, our tent, leopard print wellies, wristband.)