July 2011
Location: Broughton Hall, North Yorkshire
Warm Up Friday - 29th July
Finally, Magic Loungeabout arrived once more. It had been 3 years since the last one, (which was also the first one), and after meeting Gary Numan at the last one, I couldn’t wait to go again!
With our four man pop-up tent and other camping essentials, Derek and I headed off to start our weekend of lounging about. When booking tickets we’d chosen the Quiet Corner to pitch our tents – but when we arrived, we realised this was the family area, and was actually far from quiet! Never mind, we weren’t too far away from the car which was handy for unloading our stuff...and we hardly spent any time at all around the tent anyway.
We were all pitched up and ready to commence partying by 4pm – but the main arena didn’t open till 6pm, so we opened some wine and kicked back in the sun, whilst watching other people struggle with their tents.
Then as soon as 6pm arrived, we headed off round to the main arena. Tables decked with satin bedding, gigantic deckchairs and bales of hay wrapped in satin were all dotted about the place for the festival goers pleasure and comfort, and plates of cupcakes were dished out at the entrance.
Despite the bar charging £4 a pint, we still managed to get rather drunk in the Loungeabout Bar listening to some tunes from DJ Tristan Da Cunha.
And I vaguely remember paying £6 for a burger on the way back to the tent (yes, £6!!!)...alas, I can’t even remember what it tasted like!
It was a cloudless night, and it was absolutely bloody freezing in the tent. Hardly any sleep was had at all – which was partly down to the cold, partly down to the person in the tent behind who snored like a warthog, and partly down to the airbed (two singles zipped together in the middle) which kept sucking me into the dip in the middle.
Electronic Saturday – 30th July
Hungover and feeling absolutely manky with a sore throat and stuffy nose. Took some Piriteze, hoping it was the effects of hayfever and not cold, then slapped some suncream on because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was already rather hot by 9am.
Headed round to the main arena and had bacon sarnies and a cup of tea to try and perk us up a bit.
Then found a good spot on the field and laid out our picnic blanket and sunbathed whilst waiting for the bands to begin.
The first band of the weekend was Friends Electric, which we enjoyed a lot (in fact, apart from The Human League, we preferred them to the other Saturday bands). During the interlude between bands, we watched as the adults’ entertainers nearby started dragging people over to partake in really silly games, including wrestling in fat suits, wrestling in a paddling pool of jelly, and a massive water slide...none of which we got involved in ourselves, for the most part they all looked way too messy so we were happy to just observe.
Florrie was the second band on, and again they were really good (if you like that kind of thing). By the time their set was finished, we moved our picnic blanket underneath a big tree – which blessed us with some shade, because we were absolutely frazzled in the sun.
We stayed there while we watched the subsequent line up of bands: Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer, Crazy P, Fenech Soler and New Young Pony Club – then we went back to the tent to dress more appropriately for the cold night we anticipated.
I was still feeling decidedly rubbish by this point, my throat felt like it had been rubbed down with sandpaper, and so I stayed absolutely stone cold sober all day and night. Even when The Human League came on at 9:30pm, I still didn’t have a pint in my hand – criminal!
However, The Human League were brilliant – sounded just like they do on the radio, and Phil Oakey was looking really good for his age!
Another lousy night’s sleep was had. Drunk people stumbling around the place until about 3am (I was just jealous), then a couple walking past woke us up at around 4am.
Woman: It’ll be alright when we get back to the tent.
Man: What tent?
Woman: What do you mean? Our tent.
Man: That’s the thing, Jan, we don’t have a tent. It’s not here! It’s a bloody mystery. Where the hell is it?
...I presumed they were in the wrong camping area.
Acoustic Sunday – 31st July
Popped round to the main arena for some breakfast to set us up for the day, was still feeling worse for wear, and beginning to think I had a head cold. It was boiling hot again, so I covered up – not wanting to burn any more than I already had done.
As we eat our breakfast and sipped our cups of tea, a young lass called Evie Plumb (Katie Melua style singer) set up at Buskers Bale nearby. So we stayed and listened to her whole set, which was very impressive – hers is definitely a name worth watching out for, she’ll make it big one day, without a doubt!
After that we headed round to the Food For Thought tent to see Robin Ince give a comedy rundown of the newspaper headlines – but he hadn’t been able to make it, so journalist/poet Kate Fox had taken his place. She performed some of her poetry and went through the headlines from the morning newspapers. Apart from having a numb bum from sitting on the floor for so long, we really enjoyed her set and I bought a copy of her book afterwards and got her to sign it.
By this time I was well and truly fed up of feeling lousy – so we went back to the tent and put together a picnic basket of wine. Then we lazed around on the field in front of the stage all afternoon drinking it.
The bands were very chilled out today: Henry Johnson, Misty Miller, Steve Mason and Ed Sheeran. And as we watched Steve Mason on stage, Derek pointed out a man wearing a knitted hat.
“Rach, isn’t that Badly Drawn Boy?”
“Erm, oh yeah. I think it might be.”
He could have been my celebrity photograph opportunity (like Gary Numan had been in 2008)....if only I could have been bothered to get up. But I couldn’t, so we just watched as he sauntered into the beer tent with his parents. If it had been Phil Oakey, I’m sure that would have motivated me.
Enjoyed a glass or two of champagne in the Food For Thought tent, Derek on the Guinness, whilst listening to chill out tunes from Mixmaster Morris – I was well and truly acquiring a taste for the booze again (it had a strange soothing effect on my sore throat).
Then we popped back outside to eat pizza and watch Badly Drawn Boy – the last act of the weekend.
Ended up back in the Food For Thought tent afterwards, drinking more champers whilst curled up on beanbags on the floor – until we were both falling asleep. Mixmaster Morris had done his job – we were well and truly chilled out!
So that was it, Magic Loungeabout 2011...can’t wait to see what the line up is for next year!
And just for the record – Echo Falls merlot completely cured my sore throat ha ha.
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