Okay, if I were to tell you about every single part of my weekend, you'd be reading this until next weekend, so I will try to abbreviate in a helpful way as I write this. :)
First of all, SouthSide takes place in a tiny corner of nowhere near Tuttlingen, Germany. I say near Tuttlingen not because I think that that will say anything to you, but because that was the last stop of our journey that we reached by train - after that, it was with a shuttle bus and then with our own feet. Here you can find Tuttlingen (in the rectangle) on the map:
I have to note that Tuttingen, a town of 34,000 people, is on this map whereas Mainz is not.
I put a circle around that egregious mistake.
The journey took us about five and a half hours on trains on the way down to the festival, plus about two hours just standing in lines after that. On the way back, due to trying to plan trips without the aid of the internet and relying on overfilled shuttle buses to get to the train station, the journey took us more than eight hours. But so much happened in between!
Okay, so we arrived at this place in the middle of nowhere on a packed shuttle bus filled to the brim with massive backpacks, tiny carts full of food to have while camping, sleeping bags, tents poking out of their bags, and tons of sweaty people trying not to suffocate and not to knock anybody else out with the massive backpacks on their backs. We tumbled out of the bus on to a field just as rain was starting to pour from the sky. We had no idea what we were in for.
I just have to say from the get-go: I loved being at this festival. I had a fantastic time. But it was TERRIBLY organized from a camping point of view! We arrived on Thursday night, and the music was going to start on Friday afternoon. We wanted to be there eary with some friends of C and I and we knew they were going a day early, so we thought we'd join them. We probably arrived at the festival gates and got our official wristbands and everything by about nine o'clock, but certainly didn't find the camp site or our friends until at least ten. During that time, we were wandering the unmarked "streets" between the different camping zones, trying to find the "Green Camping" place where we were to be sleeping - our friends are very eco-friendly, so we agreed to stay in the Green place. I am so glad we did, too!
Lots of soggy footsteps and unhelpful answers from officials later, we arrived at the camping place, soaked and chilled to the bone with what felt like a million pounds of luggage on our shoulders. And it was dark. And we still needed to set up our tent. It's fair to say that after seven hours of travel and an hour and a half of standing in the rain in wet shoes, when C and I finally crawled into our tent, trying not to drip rainwater from our hair on to the sleeping bag we had brought, we rather wished to be home. But the next morning, we woke up with the sunrise and saw no clouds in the sky and decided we were going to have fun anyway!
A quick last word about the weather: it was easily 27 degrees celsius (80 degrees fahrenheit) during the days when we were there and 10 degrees celsius (50 degrees fahrenheit) during the night. That means that during the day, my fair skin was turning to a crisp even if I put on sunscreen five times a day (which I did) and at night, C and I were shivering while being covered with a sleeping bag, our picnic blanket, our rain jackets, and all the towels we had brought with us. They were not relaxing nights, I must say, but I really do appreciate solid walls now that we're back!
And now: the music. The festival was set up with four stages - two massive open-air ones and two smaller ones inside large tents. In between was a vast expanse of grass covered with food and drink stands, places to buy festival merchandise, places to get tattoos, or piercings, or to go bungee jumping, to watch the Euro Cup soccer games (YES!) or to just hang out. Here's a picture of what a small part of the place looked like:
What you see in the center there is only one of the four stages. And yes,
it was always that full.
The area where the stages were was fenced off from the camping areas and from our tent, it was a good twenty minute walk to get all the way into the concert area. When we left, I was really excited for mostly one thing: seeing Florence and the Machine, a group whose music I can only describe as being the intersection of Enya and U2, and that's not even quite accurate. I was SO excited and they were playing early in the evening on Saturday. And it was SO disappointing. From the fact that the backup-singer looked like she was doing most of the singing to the strange and unauthentic performance of Florence herself, to the fact that the band looked like they'd rather be doing anything else - we left after about fifteen minutes, and even those fifteen stretched my nerves. However, for that one disappointment (which I had half been expecting after having seen one youtube video of a different concert), there were SO many unexpected gems during the weekend.
To hear an example of all of these things that blew my mind, keep an eye out for the Southside Mix that will be coming onto my radio station soon: http://www.mixcloud.com/emilysw5/
I'll post here when it's up.
I'm not sure if anyone who is reading is familiar with any of these groups, but I have to tell you just a little bit. The first really fun group was called the Mad Caddies. C and I were walking across the massive concert area and heard a fantastic horn section playing from the second of the two massive stages and we stopped to listen. And didn't want to leave! The Mad Caddies play a mix of punk, reggae, and jazz with a little bit of ska and the occasional sea shanty. Screaming trombones and trumpets, total hippy lead singer and an audience that couldn't keep from dancing. It was a blast!
Later that night after having watched the first half of the Germany vs. Greece football game (Schlaaand!), I took C's advice and went with her to the Mumford & Sons concert. I knew maybe two of their songs that C had played for me before. And I've never been more moved by songs I've never heard before. It usually takes me a while to warm up to music enough for it to really affect me. But I was brought to tears by them within the first ten minutes. There was such a feeling of love coming from the audience (which was comprised of everyone from 15 year old girls to 40 year old men, all dancing and occasionally having tears in their eyes). Mumford & Sons play folk rock and man, do they play it well. The harmonies, the driving upright bass, the passion of the singers and the camaraderie between the band members made it something that I didn't want to end.
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OH my goodness. I just looked at the clock. I've been writing for a bit over an hour now, and if I don't stop immediately, the wet laundry will just sit in the washing machine, I won't get any lunch and I'll be late for class!
Part two will come later! :) Bye!
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