Caught in a Hurricane

Day 28- 31 (June 21^st - 24^th)

                                                                                                                                         

We arrived at the festival farm of Hurricane just outside the small town of Scheessel mid afternoon. The queues were not as bad as anticipated and we followed the signs to the campervan section of the festival quite easily.

We entered the bumpy field and we had free reign on where we camped, as there a massive lack of direction (by German standards).  We found a park by the fence line and set up camp (which takes all of 10 minutes, awning out, stuff on back seat to front seat) and then we reconnoitered on foot. 

We had been to Glastonbury festival in 2010 and this had thankfully prepared us for Hurricane.  People were already drinking and the festival had not officially started. In fact by the look of it they were well into their drinking sessions, with cans and those mini kegs littered everywhere.

Taking a walk around the festival site before the carnage begins in less than 24hrs.

Campers were set up with couches, makeshift motorhomes with full balconies erected upon them, massive sound systems that were moved around by trollies and inflatable pools - pretty much anything and everything you could think of was allowed to happen and did! 

Young entrepreneurial kids who operated these little pedal karts and trailers ferrying the punters gear from the car park to their campsite. Not sure what stopped people from not paying them though? 

Outside the entrance Thursday night before it got torn to bits. 

Anything goes at German music festivals. Including ex military trucks with full decking on top!

Enjoying a big lunch before we head into the festival and switch to the liquid and cheese pretzel diet.

The tent ground was filling with thousands of tents and younger people, which reminded us that we were very luck to be in a comfortable camper. The actual festival site was fenced off until the official opening on Friday so we headed back to camp.

Back at Maxi we had a few laughs and much needed drinks while watching our fellow neighbor’s, a group of young Germans.  There were about 7 of them and they were at the fence line sitting in a row with numbers written on cardboard. 

Our neighbours giving the passersby ratings on their aesthetics.

As the crowd of people went to and from their cars the boys would yell out to get their attention and ‘rate’ the girls walking past with numbered cardboard.  We went to bed quite late although it felt very early as the party was in full flight with a mish mash of music being played and fireworks being let off all around us. Thank god for earplugs!

Feeling a lot fresher than our fellow campers, Luke and I took a bike ride into the local town to sort out some drinks and ice.  Ice has always been very important to Luke; it can be the difference between a good day and a bad day. God forbid he has a warm beer!

Back at camp while cooking lunch we had an unwanted guest. While getting lunch prepared, a guy stumbled up to our camper and without saying anything, sat down on one of our camping chairs.

Actually, when I say sat down he actually fell backwards and laid passed out on the ground for 10 minutes or so.  He was breathing and groaning so I wasn’t too worried. 

A neighbor from another camper who spoke no English came over.  She knew us and knew that we had a stray guest so took it upon herself to help out.  She went back to her camper and returned with a permanent marker and a cheeky grin. 

As she was just about to draw all over his face, he stirred and woke up! Some words were muttered in German and the guy picked himself up and started to scale the 2 meter cyclone fencing. With a little wobble and almost falling back on his head, he managed to jump over and toddled off to annoy someone else.

Lunchtime vistor on Friday afternoon before the festival had started. As my dad says, a man must know his limitations. This guy obviously does not.

With cold drinks now on hand we made our way up to the festival entrance with chairs, cooler bag, drinks, umbrella etc set for the day. 

We noticed as we walked up to the entrance that everyone else seemed rather lacking in equipment. They just had a small bag and a tetra pack (i.e. juice carton) slung around their shoulders. 

Thinking we may have stuffed up, we asked at the gate by showing them the amount of beer and wine we wanted to take in. The security guy immediately shook his head and said ‘Oh No!’. We hung our heads and returned back to base where we then hid syphoned bottled wine in our jackets and had another go at entering. 

Success, we were in!  We toured the four stages and viewed Bombay Bicycle Club, Ed Sheeran, Labrassbanda, The XX and the to wrap up the night The Cure.

Watching the end of Mars Volta and waiting for Ed Sheeran.

Still Waiting......

The XX. Very....very....dull. Just like their album I guess.

Saturday we had another full and eventful day in the festival, this time we were armed with tetra packs. Luke had juice and rum, and I opted for 1.5L of wine!  A bargain at 1.69 euros and it tasted great!

Testing out the Tetra Packs.

We saw the amazing Florence and the Machine, although separately, as Luke couldn’t find me in the crowd after going to the toilets. 

Florence and the Machine. Pretty......pretty.......pretty.....good.

As the crowd cleared after the show, Luke was nowhere to be seen.  Feeling a little distressed I ran around the grounds looking for him then remembered our meeting spot outside the unforgettable ‘Jesus Loves You Tent’. 

And it worked, Jesus did love me!  It was like we hadn’t seen each other for years, one of those airport emotional meetings where the girl runs up and jumps on the guy and the tears flow. Yep. Embarrassing, but that was how it happened. 

We celebrated our reunion with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (very good by the way), followed by the highlight of the day in a then very dusty and hot arena - Mumford and Sons.  

Just about to watch Noel Gallaghers High Flying birds. Noel is still a dickhead, but still making awesome music and was a highlight of the festival. 

The third and final day of the festival was mostly spent in the van; sleeping, blogging and watching War Horse as the weather had decided to follow in the name of the festival and turned into a hurricane.

By mid afternoon the rain had sum what subsided and we were able to enjoy a few tunes while staying dry. We had to tip toe around the mud baths that had been created in the high traffic areas and it was at that point I really regretted throwing my gumboots out only weeks earlier on a bright sunny day in Newbury.  

The Shins put on a rather lack luster show (until the last song) then we checked out the band Bat For Lashes, while waiting for The Kooks to come on.  

Very wet watching the Kooks.

After a small stint of blue sky and sunshine (30mins), the weather turned again and we took refuge under a beer tent and enjoyed the sounds of the Kooks. 

Finally, before we headed back to the comfort of our van we watched The Temper Trap from under our umbrella on a small hill outside the fence line.  It proved to have a much better view of the stage and it kept us out of the mud pit. Also, given our vantage point we were quite close to the band and we got two waves from the bass player!