Saturday 3 July 2010
Friday 2 July 2010
Wakestock day one
Good Morning! I'm lying here in my tent in Wales listening to the sounds of people waking up around me.
I'm at Wakestock and it's week 6 of my Perpetual Festival!
Yesterday I made the journey from London over to Bangor were I met up with other festival goers for a transfer bus over to the site. It was an amazing drive through Wales along the coast in the sunshine and we arrived to blistering heat and blue skies to put up our tents and get started.
As Europe's biggest Wakeboarding event, the fest is a cheery mix of wakeboarding at the local beach in the morning and music in the afternoon/evening in the grassy arena.
Yesterday I went to check out the tunes from the moment the gates opened and headed over to the Plugged In tent where there's going to be signings over the weekend. On a more important note, they're also allowing you to blend your own free smoothies using a bike and peddle power. Wooooo! I may have had a few. Fresh fruit at a fest is to be savoured. :)
I then met the superstar that is Mr Hudson! We started chatting and he basically interviewed me about my job before I could even ask him a thing! I then got a few minutes of time to chat to him about his year and the amazing summer he has had already. What a lovely guy.
N-Dubz then popped over, and while they didn't have time for an interview - i did say hello and get a photo. Rock and roll!
After that the partying started and me and my pal Martin (who I randomly bumped into as he is selling programs!) went and danced to N-Dubz and Toddla T and had a look around the fest for food and crazy happy fans.
Its very windy here - so I did get very very cold - but put on all my clothes and slept all warm and cosy...
This weeks winner arrives later today and I can't wait to hang out!
Take care xx
- Posted by Katie P
I'm at Wakestock and it's week 6 of my Perpetual Festival!
Yesterday I made the journey from London over to Bangor were I met up with other festival goers for a transfer bus over to the site. It was an amazing drive through Wales along the coast in the sunshine and we arrived to blistering heat and blue skies to put up our tents and get started.
As Europe's biggest Wakeboarding event, the fest is a cheery mix of wakeboarding at the local beach in the morning and music in the afternoon/evening in the grassy arena.
Yesterday I went to check out the tunes from the moment the gates opened and headed over to the Plugged In tent where there's going to be signings over the weekend. On a more important note, they're also allowing you to blend your own free smoothies using a bike and peddle power. Wooooo! I may have had a few. Fresh fruit at a fest is to be savoured. :)
I then met the superstar that is Mr Hudson! We started chatting and he basically interviewed me about my job before I could even ask him a thing! I then got a few minutes of time to chat to him about his year and the amazing summer he has had already. What a lovely guy.
N-Dubz then popped over, and while they didn't have time for an interview - i did say hello and get a photo. Rock and roll!
After that the partying started and me and my pal Martin (who I randomly bumped into as he is selling programs!) went and danced to N-Dubz and Toddla T and had a look around the fest for food and crazy happy fans.
Its very windy here - so I did get very very cold - but put on all my clothes and slept all warm and cosy...
This weeks winner arrives later today and I can't wait to hang out!
Take care xx
- Posted by Katie P
Location:Tent!
Thursday 1 July 2010
Tuesday 29 June 2010
Monday 28 June 2010
Turkey day three
Hello all! It's my final day here in Turkey and I'm off to the airport in a bit so I figured it was time to have a look back on day three of this magical trip.
Sunday truly encompassed all the most wonderful things about the past dew days. Istanbul is such an amazingly elaborate and varies and beautiful city with winding cobbled streets and colourful markets, soundtracked by the echoing call to prayer every few hours resounding around the buildings from the top of the carved towers around the area. Imagine that - and then slam it up against one of the loudest most breathtaking noisy heavy metal shows ever, and you've got yourselves a pretty spectacular weekend. What a contrast!
On Sunday morning Steven, Anne and myself went for our daily trek and explore around the streets. We're near enough experts now in the layout of the area and can duck and dive through alleyways and over cobbles with no trouble. We decided to take a stroll down to the water front following the tram lines of the city. Istanbul is amazing in that it actually spans two continents and while we have been staying on the Europe side, we figured it would be fun to take a spontaneous boat ride over to Asia - taking all of just 15 minutes. The Asian side is far less touristy and we walked around the streets checking out where the locals shop and hearing gangsta rap (surprisingly popular here) blasted in supermarkets.
We crossed back over to Europe for lunch near the blue mosque and then I headed off to the venue for the epic Big Four performance.
Never before in history have American metal/thrash titan Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax toured together, so these European Sonisphere shows are really something special.
Anthrax were awesomely loud and rowdy and shone with a messy punk energy that sets them apart from the other three. Scott Ian got fans to raise 4 fingers in the air to celebrate the might of the days bill, a hand gesture he claimed he made up all by himself. Haha.
After that I went and made friends with some local fans in the crowd, chatting to them about metal and their favourite bands. Two girls were really helpful and volunteered to act as my translators as I went through the crowd filming fans, asking them to introduce themselves and scream at the camera. As ya do.
Megadeth then came on and were totally brilliant. Dave Mustaine is obviously worshipped here like some kind of riff god, and any time he crossed the stage to be nearer the crowd, people lost their minds with excitement.
After that I was lucky enough to get some interview time with Shaun from Megadeth and we had a good chat about the band's European shows and international reception. After the interview, I remembered that one girl I met said that Shaun was her favourite member of the band, so I grabbed my Sharpie and asked him to write a note to her. It was then a bit of a mad struggle getting back into the crowd to find her (thanks Tom and David from the Sonisphere website for lending me a laminate for the day to ease the security pain) but I found her - gave her the signed note - and she almost cried! She was so happy and although we only had about 5 words in common (metal, megadeth, Shaun, slayer, hello) it was enough to please us both and a cool moment.
Slayer were up next. Holy moly they were loud. And great. When Angel of Death started, the whole place exploded. Singer Tom Araya had the biggest grin on his face. I've always had a kinda soft spot for him, as even though he's some gnarly old metaller fronting one of the heaviest bands ever, he always looks so happy - like a kinda rock and roll Father Christmas. Haha.
I was pretty hungry after that thrash fest so I headed out onto the street to find some food (cheaper than venue) and ended up eating a super-tasty sausage (I think!) sandwich while sat on the pavement with some locals. Many thanks to the people of Istanbul for being so patient with my horrendous lack of skill in the turkish language. You've all been great :)
9pm rolled around and it was time for Metallica. Yeyyyy! Steven and Anne are not rock fans themselves, but it only took gentle persuasion on my part to get them to come check out one of the greatest metal bands on the planet and they really enjoyed it.
I was beaming like some manic idiot from the moment Metallica kicked into their set, and had a genuine moment of "god damn I am so happy right now" as they played One, Master Of Puppets and many more. The lights were great and they had giant screens following each member on stage so you could see it all. Video to follow. So good!
After they were done, we left the stadium and Steven and Anne very kindly got me a Metallica In Turkey black headband (so metal!) from a stall outside (and one for themselves) as a perfect reminder of the weekend of fun.
Have a gone on too long? I'm sorry. Am just very happy and had such a lovely time. The winners were totally beyond lovely and I genuinely enjoyed their company so much.
A brilliant weekend and some amazing music.
I'll stop writing now. My hand is sore and the iPhone looks like it might break from the pounding of my thumbs on the screen.
See you all soon
All pics and vids to follow
Xx
Kp
- Posted by Katie P
Sunday truly encompassed all the most wonderful things about the past dew days. Istanbul is such an amazingly elaborate and varies and beautiful city with winding cobbled streets and colourful markets, soundtracked by the echoing call to prayer every few hours resounding around the buildings from the top of the carved towers around the area. Imagine that - and then slam it up against one of the loudest most breathtaking noisy heavy metal shows ever, and you've got yourselves a pretty spectacular weekend. What a contrast!
On Sunday morning Steven, Anne and myself went for our daily trek and explore around the streets. We're near enough experts now in the layout of the area and can duck and dive through alleyways and over cobbles with no trouble. We decided to take a stroll down to the water front following the tram lines of the city. Istanbul is amazing in that it actually spans two continents and while we have been staying on the Europe side, we figured it would be fun to take a spontaneous boat ride over to Asia - taking all of just 15 minutes. The Asian side is far less touristy and we walked around the streets checking out where the locals shop and hearing gangsta rap (surprisingly popular here) blasted in supermarkets.
We crossed back over to Europe for lunch near the blue mosque and then I headed off to the venue for the epic Big Four performance.
Never before in history have American metal/thrash titan Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax toured together, so these European Sonisphere shows are really something special.
Anthrax were awesomely loud and rowdy and shone with a messy punk energy that sets them apart from the other three. Scott Ian got fans to raise 4 fingers in the air to celebrate the might of the days bill, a hand gesture he claimed he made up all by himself. Haha.
After that I went and made friends with some local fans in the crowd, chatting to them about metal and their favourite bands. Two girls were really helpful and volunteered to act as my translators as I went through the crowd filming fans, asking them to introduce themselves and scream at the camera. As ya do.
Megadeth then came on and were totally brilliant. Dave Mustaine is obviously worshipped here like some kind of riff god, and any time he crossed the stage to be nearer the crowd, people lost their minds with excitement.
After that I was lucky enough to get some interview time with Shaun from Megadeth and we had a good chat about the band's European shows and international reception. After the interview, I remembered that one girl I met said that Shaun was her favourite member of the band, so I grabbed my Sharpie and asked him to write a note to her. It was then a bit of a mad struggle getting back into the crowd to find her (thanks Tom and David from the Sonisphere website for lending me a laminate for the day to ease the security pain) but I found her - gave her the signed note - and she almost cried! She was so happy and although we only had about 5 words in common (metal, megadeth, Shaun, slayer, hello) it was enough to please us both and a cool moment.
Slayer were up next. Holy moly they were loud. And great. When Angel of Death started, the whole place exploded. Singer Tom Araya had the biggest grin on his face. I've always had a kinda soft spot for him, as even though he's some gnarly old metaller fronting one of the heaviest bands ever, he always looks so happy - like a kinda rock and roll Father Christmas. Haha.
I was pretty hungry after that thrash fest so I headed out onto the street to find some food (cheaper than venue) and ended up eating a super-tasty sausage (I think!) sandwich while sat on the pavement with some locals. Many thanks to the people of Istanbul for being so patient with my horrendous lack of skill in the turkish language. You've all been great :)
9pm rolled around and it was time for Metallica. Yeyyyy! Steven and Anne are not rock fans themselves, but it only took gentle persuasion on my part to get them to come check out one of the greatest metal bands on the planet and they really enjoyed it.
I was beaming like some manic idiot from the moment Metallica kicked into their set, and had a genuine moment of "god damn I am so happy right now" as they played One, Master Of Puppets and many more. The lights were great and they had giant screens following each member on stage so you could see it all. Video to follow. So good!
After they were done, we left the stadium and Steven and Anne very kindly got me a Metallica In Turkey black headband (so metal!) from a stall outside (and one for themselves) as a perfect reminder of the weekend of fun.
Have a gone on too long? I'm sorry. Am just very happy and had such a lovely time. The winners were totally beyond lovely and I genuinely enjoyed their company so much.
A brilliant weekend and some amazing music.
I'll stop writing now. My hand is sore and the iPhone looks like it might break from the pounding of my thumbs on the screen.
See you all soon
All pics and vids to follow
Xx
Kp
- Posted by Katie P
Location:Bench by a mosque
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