overview (cont)

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Saturday started off brilliantly, with beautiful weather but a less than beautiful hangover. The campsite was actually typical of a festival, right down to the fact it was spinning round me when I woke up. Most people tended to lie around and chill out for the majority of the day – it was too hot to do anything else. Bearing in mind the music didn’t really kick off until the late afternoon, we decided to take a trip into the pleasant nearby town of Stratford upon Avon which was already over run by Global-goers.

Getting back onto site was a bit of a nightmare – yesterday was a breeze – but today getting from Stratford to Global was dreadful, with heavy traffic all the way. Still, there was less of an appearance from the sniffer dogs this time around – they seemed more interested in a tennis ball – much to the relief of my dance expert, and once on site getting into the arena was a relatively quick process.

Heavy clouds had begun to loom over the site and it threatened to rain a few times, although it never did pour down. I wondered around the site looking for food and couldn’t believe how expensive it was. £5.50 for a cheeseburger!! Something you could get at T in the Park for £3. Not sure what breed of dog they cooked but it must have been a pedigree.

No showers, limited wash facilities and toilets that look like they’ve been turned inside out is a trademark at festivals but I was surprised to see several ‘pampering porta cabins’. I didn’t venture inside any of them (I’m guessing it’s more of a girl thing than a guy thing anyway) but from my understanding it worked like a festival beauty salon.

As well as the traditional fairground attractions that crop up at most of the major UK festivals, there was a silent disco and even a lap dancing club that had a small crowd of leering men gathered at the entrance.

There was also a poker face game where a member of the audience had to try and change the expression of this well dressed chap with a blank expression. The rules were simple; no jumping across the table and giving him a slap and no chucking any sharp items you had on your person at him either. A shame really, without the rules it would have become more like an extra violent game of dodge ball and although highly dangerous would have been all the more entertaining.

After being briefly amused by the sight of someone picking their nose with their feet while trying to put off the poker face man we headed off to see what else there was to do around the arena.

One point that deserves a mention has to be that the perimeter fence was particularly poor. It was certainly nothing that would deter a rather desperate amateur high jumper. I didn’t see anyone manage to break in though, and I’ve seen quite a few people break into Homelands in the past – so either it was well disguised and actually impossible to break into – or it was ridiculously easy and people were just strolling in - there were quite a few people walking about without wristbands.

Another thing I noticed was that I really wasn’t as ‘up’ for the music on Saturday as I was on Friday, and I put this down to one thing. Call me close-minded here but dance music on the whole just isn’t as good without drink and/or drugs. I had to stay sober as I was driving later on that day and I couldn’t help thinking that this music would probably be ok – if, and only if, I was completely hammered.

After Shapeshifters surprise set on Friday (where they played two songs, presumably just for radio) we decided to catch them on Saturday as well. I found them far more enjoyable than the overly repetitive Erick Morillo.

After a few fly-bys by some planes sponsored by a well known butter-making company (they’re not getting any more publicity here), it was time for Fat Boy Slim’s set. The rain had still held off and it wasn’t until the last 10 minutes where it started to pour down. You have to feel sorry for those trying to dance in wet sand with flip flops on. Supposedly there were 3D spectacles to be handed out to the crowd prior to Fat Boy Slim’s set enabling the crowd to see a range of 3D visuals and smiley faces in the air – I didn’t see any of these spectacles – and to be honest most of the crowd were seeing enough flying 3D smiley faces as it was. The atmosphere was great and I simply have no idea how many people were crammed into the space infront of the stage – but it was a lot. I had to laugh at the queue of VIP’s who were waiting to get onto their VIP viewing platform – they had no chance.

Unfortunately Paul Van Dyk had to pull out from the festival due to family issues and was subsequently replaced by Eddie Halliwell. But I got the feeling a long of people were a bit gutted about this line-up change. Also I never witnessed the alleged ‘flower fly-by’, where chartered planes were going to release a barrage of flowers over the unsuspecting Global crowds. A good thing really as I wasn’t looking forward to the mass stampede as Global’s hayfever sufferers made a desperate bee-line for the exit.

I did manage to hear some cracking remixes over the weekend of material I was a bit more familiar with. From our tent on the Friday we could hear some Radiohead in the background, and there were a couple of Arctic Monkeys remixes floating around as well.

We left the site in the early hours of Sunday morning, having packed up our tent earlier in the day. The atmosphere was still electric and it was showing no signs of dying down even when we decided to head off.

All in all Global was a great festival, with plenty to see and do – it was well organised, clean, had a brilliant vibe and was one of the few festivals that kept going late into the night.

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