In the near impossible case that you haven’t realized yet, I’m not always the most easy going person in the world.
I don’t mean that I’m difficult to get along with or anything, but to use the example my BFF Mags and I always use, I’m not the girl at the house party who’s going to strip down and jump into the pool in her underwear. Sometimes I admire that girl. Sometimes I roll my eyes at her. Regardless, she’s not me.
I’ve never seen myself as much of an outdoor music festival girl for the following reasons:
– A lot of sun (I’m super white, it gives me a rash)
– Potential of rain and mud
– Bugs
– Outhouses (Oh dear god, outhouses)
Over the last four days, however, and yesterday in particular, I can tell you I braved all of the above. (The bugs were minimal, thank goodness.)
By the time yesterday rolled around, I felt fully prepared to battle the sun. We had spent parts of Thursday and Saturday at the festival in weather so hot and humid that you pray for a giant gust of wind to make you feel somewhat human again and you resign yourself to the giant sweat spot on your back. I slathered myself in SPF 45 and started thinking cool and refreshing thoughts.
SIDENOTE: Cool and refreshing thoughts are bullshit. They don’t work.
We also thought we were prepared for the rain. We packed an umbrella and raincoats. No problem.
So when it rained, we were fine.
But then it RAINED.
It rained so hard you could barely open your eyes. It rained so hard that I had to wring out my dress every couple minutes because it was weighing me down. It rained so hard that a couple girls in front of me were filling their empty beer bottles with the rain dripping off people’s umbrellas…and they were filling up in just a few minutes.
While we tried to fight the rain when it first started, we eventually gave in entirely. There was no staying dry, so there was no point in trying.
It wasn’t long until the ground looked like this:
And my shoes looked like this:
(RIP, shoes.)
And that was only about halfway through our day at the festival. Soon the grass disappeared into pools of water and mud. We all discussed our plans for showers and throwing away our shoes when we got home. We all had the lovely experience of using outhouses and having to peel our wet clothes off and back on again to use them.
Basically, it was everything I feared it might be.
And you know what?
I learned yesterday that Belle and Sebastian were entirely worth all of it.
I still can’t believe I saw one of my favourite bands of all time. And not only did they sound impeccable, they were friendly, chatty, and hugely interactive with the audience, too.
It was perfect.
As soon as they started playing, I forgot I was soaked and muddy and I DANCED. And I never wanted it to end.
Thanks, Belle and Sebastian.
xA
P.S. Shout outs to all of the other amazing bands who played at TURF as well! She & Him, Camera Obscura, Kurt Vile, Whitehorse, Neko Case, The Cat Empire – everyone was dreamy-wonderful!
P.P.S. Shout outs also to showers and laundry. Oog.
P.P.P.S. Wow, only (ONLY) 100 posts to go! Is this the homestretch?!
