WHY I LOVE FESTIVALS

Well, I love festivals for many reasons.. but as I am sat in the sunshine on this saturday morning on the Isle Of Wight, I thought I'd list some:

1) being outside. So many of us have jobs which mean we are stuck in offices or shops or factories all day and are completely deprived of fresh air and sunlight. Festivals allow you days wandering around outside getting your yearly dose of vitamin D and oxygen.

2) the people. Festivals are full of happy lunatics. People letting loose and having fun and embracing 24 hour cheer and party times.

3) sleeping in a tent. Yeah, it's cold and the floors lumpy, but I still manage to wake feeling rested because you've spent all night breathing real air in your sun heated 'home'.

4) food. Call me insane, but festival food has got awesome. Sure, you could still gorge on bacon sarnies all weekend, but these days you can also get fresh fruit, great coffee and amazing world cuisine. Yesterday I had one of the best Thai green curries of my life - off a paper plate sat on the floor.

5) fashion. What fashion?! Exactly. Anything goes at festivals. From ball gowns to Lyra jump suits, bear outfits to fairy wings (plus the essential hunter wellies and ray bans) - the festival fields are a catwalk of WTF and OMG plus OH LA LA.

6) music. This list is not in order of preference. For me, festivals are brilliant because of the music. You watch what you like, you stumble across things you never heard about and you surprise yourself by enjoying things you thought you didn't like. For me especially, the past 3 weeks have been an ear-opening experience. It's been great.

That's all for now. I'm happy.

Katie xx



- Posted by Katie P

IOW DAY ONE

So here I am blogging from my tent (so futuristic!) on the morning of day two at IOW.
Yesterday was amazing and i'm gonna try and write about it quickly before the internet dies (tends to do that).
I spent a lot of the day wandering around taking photos of mad people and making new friends. I completed this week's challenge - !!!!! - making the word Trident out of bodies (pics to follow) ad in the process met some cool people who told me they had also applied for this job! Small world!

Ended up hanging out with my pal Joe who is Dj-ing here at the festival and his girlfriend Maz.





We scored ourselves some special wristbands for a certain beverage tent which made the whole evening pretty snazzy as we had access to a VIP area (with this grass sofa) and some clean portaloos (a festival dream).
We went and watched Calvin Harris who was great and had the entire festival dancing - looked incredible.
Florence And The Machine were next and they were utterly stunning. She looked so beautiful and angelic and the lighting and set design was so brilliant. I have some video and photos of that to come when I get to a computer.
After that was Jay Z - amazing! So many great tunes and thousands of us shaking our bums and wiggling our hips. Great stuff.
Finally we ended up in a make-shift bar/club on site dancing to Fat Boy Slim and more. Good times.
My tent was kinda cold - not gonna lie - so will invest in an extra blanket today just in case.

Hope you're all well and happy

Katie x


Posted by Katie P

ARRIVED AT IOW

Bonjour from the Isle Of Wight (would be good if they had their own language here!). Am sat on the floor - no mud! - in the main arena of the IOW festival while people start arriving and the ground is still dry. There are hundreds of thousands of people due here, crazy amounts of stalls of clothes and good food and bucket loads of amazing bands playing too. I have a feeling it's going to be a good one :)




There is also a field just to watch the footie (england play tomorrow!)




Here's me, looking tired already!

Katie x


- Posted by Katie P

HEADING OFF TO IOW

Morning campers!

I'm sat on my train down to Portsmouth to then get a ferry to then get a bus to the Isle Of Wight festival! Woooo hoo!

Warerloo station is crawling with backpacked sleeping-bag-carrying festival types in their wellies and sun hats (no one really sure of the weather yet).
I've gone for trainers (silly idea?) and a load of layers.

I'll be meeting up with this weeks winner Chris and his friend/s at the festival later today.
So many good bands to see - can't wait to get there!!

Katie


- Posted by Katie P

GETTING READY FOR ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL!

WOOOO HOOO! (Yeah, I am excited). I will be heading over to Isle Of Wight Festival in the morning (via various tubes, trains, buses, coaches and ferries) and should arrive there early afternoon to begin yet another weekend of musical fun and games.

The line-up is amazing - and the fest has actually just won an award for best line-up of 2010 - get in!

I have been working out what I want to see over the weekend (umm, everything) - paying special attention to La Roux, Jay Z, The Saturdays (sure!) and plenty plenty more.

Here is the map of the festival - looks like an amusement park - so come find me and hang out!



Katie x

VIDEO BLOG FROM MALLORCA ROCKS

Check out this video blog from Mallorca Rocks including my interview with Zane Lowe, and plenty of fun footage from Magaloof!

BACK FROM MALLORCA

Hey all,
well well.. Mallorca was lots and lots of fun indeed! Hope you enjoyed reading the blog... a video of the event (interview with Zane Lowe in there too!!) will be online soon..

If you want to see the full range of photos from the trip.. CLICK HERE!

Keep reading.. and remember.. if you want to come along with me to a festival (free travel and tickets!) then make sure you enter the code on the pack of your pack of Trident Gum to the form on www.tridentgum.co.uk - and you could be next!

Thank you

Katie x

MALLORCA ROCKING HARD!

Well well. Who'd have thought Mallorca could rock so hard?! Bombay Bicycle Club followed by a banging set from Zane Lowe and right now The Kooks are bopping about on stage. Flooded by coloured lights and set up right next to a pool that's glowing blue in the dark of the evening - this is a stunning location for a gig and people are going mental!

Myself, Adam and Tom are now sat up on my hotel room balcony looking down on the proceedings with grins on our faces.

"This rates up there as one of the best moments of my life," Tom's telling me. "This is awesome and my life is amazing!!!". Awww. Very happy to hear that!

You lads are super!









Also - check out these ladies with their Trident stickers!



What a view!


- Posted by Katie P

MALLORCA DAY TWO

Hey there pals. Katie here from next to a pool at our hotel in Mallorca. Winners Adam and Tom are here too and we're lounging in the sunshine. It's lunchtime here and we're getting set for the Kooks gig tonight on a stage right here by the pool!

Last night we went out for dinner near the hotel before having a wander along the strip checking out some of the local bars. It was a lot of fun but I'll be honest with you all, i'd only had about one hours sleep so I headed back to the hotel and sleeeeeeept. Adam and Tom went out to a club with a foam machine and partied till 5am. Good lads. I'm more alive today and ready for this evening's fun.

This morning I went and changed up some money and chatted to a crazy 70-year old Spanish man called Raphael. He liked that I spoke Spanish so went and bought me a coffee at his friends cafe. I told him all about this mad and wonderful job and he was pretty amazed!

I hope you're all having a nice day :)

Katie x














Posted by Katie P