We were driving down some long windey country roads in the middle of Scottish countryside and we knew we were nearly there! We drove up, had our tickets checked and continued down a windey path through woodland. We could see colourful tents and colourful people and we drove slowly in to the middle of it all. It was late afternoon and there were lots of happy souls wandering about the place, getting to know eachother and the place that would be their home for the next four days.
There is a choice at Knock of camping between the trees, on the grass and even on a little island in the middle of the river. However, no matter where you camped, there was never a long distance to the main stages and other tents.
There was about 15 of us who were planning to camp together. We found the others, who had kindly saved a couple of spots for us, set up our tents and began to relax with our beers and ciders. As it was getting later in to the evening and the sun had gone down, the place was seeming to get livlier and livlier. People were getting away from their camps like badgers do when they leave their sets at night to wander. It was a still dry evening and everybody was feeling quite merry. We wandered to the tent opposite the main stage and watched our first band of the weekend. We were at the front of the crowd with smiles across our faces, not a care in the world and we danced the night away.
The next morning I awoke from my tent feeling a little tired but excited for the day ahead. Me and my friend Dan had a gander round the stalls which were full of unusual but tempting items like felt teapot hats, melon bags and woolen psychadelic jackets. While wandering we stumbled upon a small, circular, white tent and decided to go in. We pulled off our wellies and crouched in through the small door. There were people we were with sat in a circle all with their eyes focussing on a very interesting looking man. He had long brown dreadlocks, a big bushy beard, small round glasses and denim dungarees on and he was sat on a bench about to tell a story. Next to him was his daughter which he regularly described as his little princess. She was very cute with long brown hair, a little pixie dress and sparkley rainbow eyelashes on. He told stories of a creature that lives in the woods. He set the scene and got us all involved, we were all mesmerised by the talent he had to keep us interested in his tale.
Each evening we spend around our little camp having some drinks, chatting, having 'car parties' and chillin' in the amazing atmosphere. Ater this we would head over to one of the music tents for a dance and to hear some funky music.
One afternoon we all went to the chai tent. This was a small, colourful tent. The inside was draped with tie-dye fabric in all colours and we were sat in a circle on bean bags. We took colouring pencils and paper with us and amongst the flamboyant, booming festival, we were able to calm ourselves down, sit in comfort and lose ourselves in a drawing. This was so relaxing. The contrast of excited dancing in the mud, the listening to mysterious stories and the relaxation of sitting with some chai tea in one hand and a colouring pencil in the other made my heart skip a beat. I was surrounded by like-minded people, doing what I loved in a beautiful environment. What more could I ask for?
On the last afternoon we went over to the acoustic tent. This tent was empty apart from a few benches placed unsystematically around the tent for people to sit on whilst they listened to a large, smiley man playing guitar and singing soft songs. While I was sat watching him on a bench, tears came to my eyes. His songs we're so beautiful. As I looked around at what what going on around me. My friends were there, people were enjoying every little bit of their weekend and everyone was so comfortable being themselves, it made me realise how happy I was at that very moment in time. I didn't want it to end!
Cant wait for the next one.
No comments:
Post a Comment