(If you haven't read PART 1 please CLICK HERE)
Waking up at 5pm never felt so good! I’m pretty sure we completely missed ‘the big day’ but we were more than ready to dance our married little tootsies away all night long. Wearing a silky bride-to-be costume, full-on vail, lacy stockings and hold-up’s; I was looking more call-out girl than virgin bride. However, I feel the black biker-style wellies gave my outfit a sophisticated twist.
We went and saw a fantastic little band called Nhasitarfarah, who played in the Chai Wallah tent in the land of Eden. With a jazzy twist on a mixture of reggae, dubstep and African sounding tunes, it had the crowd going from chilled and clapping one minute, to hyped and jumping the next. The vibe in here was great. There were tables scattered around with shisha bongs on and people sat in groups on the floor encouraging the band. When Nhasitarfarah played they’re last tune, the crowd roared with approval!
If you have been to SGP before, you’ll know that the festival is based around a stunning lake and that every year they construct a structure and place it in the middle of the water. Last year they spent £20,000 of they’re budget on a massive pirate ship, with boats taking ravers back and forth to the pirate party in the middle of the lake!
Then, as the SGP tradition goes, the centre piece is torched and left to burn on the Saturday night which illuminates the lake until the early ours of the morning. This year, there stood the tower of Babel in all its glory.
So, on the Saturday night, hundreds of people gathered around the lake to watch the torching of the temple and marvel at the coinciding firework display. Fire-dancers performed tricks, while people set free lantern ‘thoughts’ into the dark night sky (large plastic bags on fire to you and I). It was pretty spectacular. At this point, it was impossible not to notice just how many crazy people come to this festival. A man dressed as 6 foot playing card, a couple of lads still caked entirely in dried on mud from the earlier mud-wrestling competition, dozens of people in huge wedding gowns (some even wore stiletto high heels, which disappeared into the ground at every step), and although what we saw was a lot more fancy mess than fancy dress, everyone was equal in their ear-ear smile, which, (cheesy as it sounds) was infectious!
On Sunday, hung-over and drained, we dragged our bodies around the festival in search for recovery munch and liquids. Of course, the Chai Wallah tent delivered the goods, serving a full English breakfast for a fiver. Here, there was a fantastic selection of morning entertainment available. A 6 yr old boy was beat-boxing Justin Timberlake’s ‘Cry Me a River’ and a young girl was rapping a hip-hop tune, what more can you ask for? I had a feeling these little critters hadn’t partied quite as hard as we did last night, they were on top form!
Walking around the festival, it was obvious that Saturday night had been “the big one” because only one or two stalls were open and every food joint was at least a few men down. Some hardcore festival goers were still dressed up from Saturday night and others appeared to be sporting a whole new lot of crazy clobber.
By the late afternoon, we had mustered together some sense of normality once again and were ready to tackle Sunday night. We got talking to a Rastafarian man who called himself Jimbo. He was wheeling a trolley around, selling some form of alcoholic shot that looked utterly lethal. He was a funny guy, but we gave his bubbling liquid a miss.
We came across one half of electro-DJ-duo Hexstatic, Robin Brunson, playing a crazy mix of drum and bass and hip hop, pumping out fantastic Daft Punk and Audiobully’s remixes and ending his set with The Prodigy's Smack My Bitch Up. Obviously, the crowd went mental!
We hurried off to hear world-famous Zero7 play, but we soon realised that the annoying bunch of people we were trying to push past were just the beginning of the hundred-body-thick crowd all trying to squeeze into the tiny “Where the Wild Things Are” tent to hear them play. The pushing and shoving resembled a heavy-metal-mosh-pit and was so the opposite of the environment I was expecting for Zero7’s soothing melodies!
Disappointed, we mooched off in search of some music we could actually hear, but stumbled across a group of people surrounding a giant game of twister, with concrete manual spinner and a mass of bodies in uncompromising (not to mention suggestive) positions.
Through the nearby trees we spotted a queue of people building up and we went to investigate. Joining the queue, we were amazed to find a large wall with real-size fireplace, just big enough for a human to crouch through. So we did, and like something straight out of Alice and Wonderland, we emerged in a secluded little seating area, surrounded by walls with old-school newspaper clippings and sixties- style wallpaper. Matching the tree-house in its charm, this private little living area was bustling with loads of really friendly (not to mention intoxicated) people.
As Sunday night came to a close, I relaxed back in my grandma recliner, squashed between two of my friends and gazed up at the stars. What better way to end such a fabulous four days? Now, has anyone got any battery on their phone? I need to call work and pull a sickie.
Posted In Festivals, Aug 17 2009.
Words - Lara