I'm writing this while the rain chucks down hard on the skylight at home and all I can think of is how amazingly dry my clothes are. But there's something enticing about hearing the rain on your tent in the mornings, trying to avoid trudging through the mud to get to the campsite breakfast stand (which always smells amazing) and knowing that by the end of the day you'll have seen your favourite bands in the flesh.
I spent last week at Leeds Festival with some friends, and friends of friends, so at first I was pretty nervous as I'd never met these people before and was about to spend 4 days with them!
I've only ever been to Download and knew that the campsites at Leeds were more notorious for tent burning and theft so I was a little nervous but it just depends on the crowd that turn up that year, not the festival.
It didn't actually rain very much at Leeds and when it did, we all set up camping chairs underneath my (new) friend Keith's porch so I managed to stay pretty dry for the whole festival. I always pack my clothes into plastic bags in my backpack so every night I had dry joggers and a warm dry hoodie to come back to which was a life saver on the night that it did rain!
All of the bands I saw were fantastic, from Die Antwoord (who were absolutely crazy, loving it) to Frank Carter, Nothing But Thieves, Biffy Clyro and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, I couldn't choose a favourite. We saw so many bands/performers and I still didn't get to see everyone I'd planned to!
Eating vegetarian at a festival wasn't as hard as I thought either. I actually ate vegan for most of the time since there were a few awesome veg stands selling burritos and African cuisine. The staff on these stands were SO friendly. I picked up a pair of cat ears to wear and one woman was making meow noises which made me laugh so much.
Even the small tents were amazing, my friend's band Creeper put on a hell of a show and Leeds certainly didn't spare lights and fog just for the big bands. Pictured below is Fall Out Boy's set, after which it was hard to not run into a kid with a balloon and a light stick hahaha.
One thing I'd say about the Arena is that the security was dismal. There were flares, firework flares and coloured ones that stank so bad and really affected my asthma to the point that I woke up coughing up what felt like water on the day after coming home from Leeds.
If someone can sneak a flare in, surely a gun wouldn't have been hard to get in either? (Yet we aren't allowed to take in our own bottles of water).
Luckily I didn't get anything stolen in the campsites but we ended up camping next to some utter douche bags who were stealing nearby camping chairs and burning airbeds/blankets on a fire. It was grimmmmmm. Security came over, stood around their huge bonfire and did nothing so I offered up a 5L bottle of water to put it out. They looked like uni students and I honestly don't think they would've done anything if I hadn't have given them something to put it out with.
Other than the odd idiot, the campsites were great and there were never any queues for the toilets, wooooo!
I must be one of the weirdo's as I actually didn't mind the mud at all (I kinda liked it?). Surprisingly I didn't even lose a welly to the mud slide!
I'm so glad that the weather held up for the Chili's on the final night and my boyfriend has already got tickets for us to see them at the end of the year! They're supported by Baby Metal who I'm excited about seeing too purely for the crazy vibe they give off.
I'd go to Leeds again, for sure, it was an amazing experience and I'm so glad my nerves didn't put me off as it was totally fine when I got there! Hopefully next time it will be better organised for health and safety.
Have you been to any festivals this summer? Are you ready for summer to end or not?
If you liked this post you might like Festival Survival Guide or my Camping in Scotland Diary
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